SmartBot

I built SmartBot, a lightweight Slack bot running on Node.js using the Bolt framework and Socket Mode. It's hosted on my Linux server (Nest) and handles several interactive Slash commands.

What was challenging?
Getting the Slack API integration just right! I ran into issues with the 3-second timeout limit on Slack commands when pulling data from external APIs (like the Dog/Cat/Duck APIs). Debugging Git conflicts and managing the systemd service restarts on my Linux server via SSH also took some troubleshooting to get everything synced up and running smoothly in the background.

What are you proud of?
I’m really proud of making the bot fully asynchronous and robust. Even if one of the external APIs fails, the bot handles the error gracefully and doesn't crash the entire background service. Plus, seeing the duck pictures and random jokes instantly pop up in Slack after a successful deployment feels amazing!

What should people know so they can test your project?
You can use the following commands in our Slack workspace:

/smartbot-ping – Check the latency

/smartbot-help – Get a list of all commands

/smartbot-catfact & /smartbot-dogfact – Get random animal facts

/smartbot-catpicture & /smartbot-duckpicture – Get random cute animal images

/smartbot-joke – For some random humor