Jacob's Clone — Slack auto-responder

A personal Slack app. Open its Home tab, create an auto-responder (channel, reply text, wait time, expiry up to 3 days), and when someone messages that channel, the app waits, then replies as you.

• No admin/org install needed. The app installs for a single workspace member with user-level scopes.
• Only the installer can use it. Every action is gated on the owning user ID.
• Replies as you. Posts use the installer's user token (xoxp-), so the reply appears under their name/avatar, fully editable/deletable by them.
• Full Slack formatting in replies: *bold*, _italic_, `code`, :emoji:, <https://link|label>.
• Socket Mode — no public URL or webhooks needed.

⚠️ Platform limitation: Slack apps cannot be added to 1:1 DMs between two people, so the app can only watch conversations it's a member of: public/private channels and group DMs (3+ people).

Replicating a "1:1 DM auto-responder"

Want it to auto-reply to a specific person as you? Create a group DM with that person (you + them + a third), then add the bot to it (group DM header → More → Add apps, or @mention the bot and approve the invite). The bot reads every message there and replies as you. It's not hidden — the person will see the bot joined — but functionally it's an auto-responder in your "DM" with them.

---

1. Create the Slack app (30 seconds)

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From an app manifest.
2. Pick your workspace, then paste the contents of manifest.json and create.
3. In the app config sidebar, go to OAuth & Permissions and click Install to Workspace, then Allow.
4. After install, on the same page copy three values:
   • User OAuth Token (xoxp-...)
   • Bot User OAuth Token (xoxb-...)
5. Go to Basic Information → App-Level Tokens → Generate Token with scope connections:write. Copy the token that starts with xapp-1-.
6. Find your user ID — the app will tell you when it boots, or run auth.test with the user token. It looks like U0XXXXX.

2. Configure

cp .env.example .env

Fill in the four values: SLACK_BOT_TOKEN, SLACK_APP_TOKEN, SLACK_USER_TOKEN, SLACK_USER_ID.

3. Run

npm install
npm start

Open the app's Home tab in Slack. You'll see "Create auto-responder".

---

How it works

Setting	Meaning
Conversation to watch	Any public/private channel or group DM (3+ people) the bot is a member of. Add it via Details/More → Add apps, or @mention it in a group DM.
When to trigger	Any message or thread replies only. Replies always land in the same thread when the trigger was a thread reply.
Wait	Delay before replying (Immediately → 1 hour). Survives restarts.
Reply text	Full Slack markdown (bold, italics, code, emoji, links).
Expiry	30 min → 3 days. Auto-responder deactivates after this.

From the Home tab you can pause/resume, edit, and delete each auto-responder. Expired ones are shown until you delete them.

Never replies to: your own messages, bots, or message edits/joins/leaves.

Deploying with systemd

sudo cp deploy/jacobs-clone.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now jacobs-clone
journalctl -u jacobs-clone -f

Data (responders + pending replies) lives in DATA_DIR (default ./data).

Gotchas

• If you remove the bot from a channel, no events arrive — remove that responder too.
• The user token can only post where you can post (it's your identity). The bot must be a channel member to receive the message events.
• If the workspace enforces admin app-approval, an admin must approve the install once.