## My First Slack Bot is Live! 🚀
Today I built and deployed my first Slack bot using Node.js and the Slack Bolt framework.
The bot currently supports three slash commands:
* `/smart-bot-for-everyone-ping` – checks the bot's latency.
* `/smart-bot-for-everyone-help` – lists all available commands.
* `/smart-bot-for-everyone-catfact` – fetches a random cat fact from an external API.
Along the way I learned how to:
* Set up a Node.js project with npm.
* Store secrets securely using a `.env` file.
* Use Git and GitHub for version control.
* Connect to a Linux server over SSH.
* Deploy my project to Hack Club Nest.
* Run my bot 24/7 using a `systemd` service.
The biggest challenge was troubleshooting setup issues like installing Node.js, configuring Git, creating SSH keys, and deploying the bot. Working through those problems helped me understand how a real development workflow comes together.
I'm excited to keep improving this bot by adding more commands and features in future updates!
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