Introduction

Managing team communication and tracking tasks across multiple Slack channels can be overwhelming. To solve this, I built a custom Slack bot that:

• Tracks task-related messages from Slack channels
• Summarizes and sends daily updates
• Notifies team members when tasks are pending
• Detects unacknowledged messages and reminds users

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how I built a Slack bot for task management using Node.js and Slack API.

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1. Setting Up a Slack Bot

First, we need to create a Slack App and get API credentials:

Steps to Create a Slack App:

1. Go to Slack API Console
2. Click “Create New App” → From Scratch
3. Select a workspace and name your bot
4. Navigate to OAuth & Permissions and add the following Bot Token Scopes:
   • channels:history (Read messages)
   • chat:write (Send messages)
   • reactions:read (Check reactions)
5. Install the app in your workspace and copy the Bot User OAuth Token

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2. Setting Up the Node.js Slack Bot

Install the required dependencies:

mkdir slack-bot && cd slack-bot
npm init -y
npm install @slack/web-api dotenv express

Create a .env file to store Slack API credentials:

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-your-bot-token
SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET=your-signing-secret

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3. Listening to Slack Messages

Create bot.js and initialize the Slack Web API:

require('dotenv').config();
const { WebClient } = require('@slack/web-api');
const express = require('express');

const slackClient = new WebClient(process.env.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN);
const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

// Listen for messages in Slack
app.post('/slack/events', async (req, res) => {
	const event = req.body.event;

	if (event && event.type === 'message' && !event.bot_id) {
		console.log(`Message received: ${event.text}`);

		// Reply to the message
		await slackClient.chat.postMessage({
			channel: event.channel,
			text: `Got it! I'll track this task: "${event.text}"`
		});
	}

	res.status(200).send();
});

// Start the server
app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Slack bot is running on port 3000'));

How It Works:

• Listens for new messages in Slack
• Checks if the message is task-related
• Sends a confirmation message in the channel

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4. Summarizing Tasks and Sending Daily Reports

To send daily task summaries, we use cron jobs:

Installing Node Cron

npm install node-cron

Scheduling Daily Task Reports

Modify bot.js to send a summary every day at 9 AM:

const cron = require('node-cron');

cron.schedule('0 9 * * *', async () => {
    await slackClient.chat.postMessage({
        channel: 'your-channel-id',
        text: "📌 *Daily Task Summary*:
- Task 1
- Task 2
- Task 3"
    });
    console.log('Sent daily summary to Slack');
});

This automatically sends task summaries to Slack every morning.

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5. Reminding Users About Unanswered Messages

If a message doesn’t get a response within 3 hours, the bot sends a reminder.

Checking Message Replies

async function checkUnansweredMessages() {
	const result = await slackClient.conversations.history({
		channel: 'your-channel-id',
		limit: 10
	});

	const now = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
	for (const message of result.messages) {
		if (!message.replies && now - message.ts > 10800) {
			// 3 hours
			await slackClient.chat.postMessage({
				channel: 'your-channel-id',
				text: `⏳ Reminder: This message needs attention! "${message.text}"`
			});
		}
	}
}

cron.schedule('0 * * * *', checkUnansweredMessages);

How It Works:

• Scans recent messages every hour
• If a message has no replies after 3 hours, it sends a reminder

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6. Deploying the Slack Bot

Once everything is tested locally, deploy the bot on a cloud server using PM2:

Installing and Running PM2

npm install -g pm2
pm2 start bot.js --name slack-bot
pm2 save
pm2 startup

Now the bot runs continuously in the background, even after server reboots.

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Final Thoughts

By building this Slack bot, I automated task tracking, notifications, and reminders, making Slack a more efficient workspace.

• Messages are tracked automatically
• Daily task summaries keep teams aligned
• Unanswered messages get flagged for follow-ups

If your team struggles with managing Slack tasks, consider building a custom bot to automate it.

Let me know in the comments if you want more features added to this bot! 🚀