Slack

Deskhand connects to Slack over Socket Mode, so it needs no public URL. It works behind a firewall or on a laptop.

1. Create the app

Go to api.slack.com/apps and choose Create New App, then From a manifest.
Pick your workspace and paste the contents of deploy/slack-manifest.yml from your project.

The manifest turns on Socket Mode and interactivity, subscribes to the app_mention and message.im events, and requests these bot scopes:

app_mentions:read  chat:write  channels:history  groups:history  im:history

Basic Information → App-Level Tokens → Generate Token and Scopes. Add the connections:write scope. This is your xapp- token.
Install App → Install to Workspace. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token. This is your xoxb- token.

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-...
SLACK_APP_TOKEN=xapp-...

chat:
  slack: { enabled: true }

docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.yml up -d --build

Invite the app to a channel before mentioning it there:

/invite @Deskhand

It always answers in a thread under the message.
In channels it answers messages that mention it. When mentioned inside a thread, it first reads the replies it hasn’t seen yet.
In a DM no mention is needed. Each top-level DM starts a conversation, and every reply in its thread continues it.
It first posts “Looking into it…”, then edits that message into the answer.
Approvals show as Approve and Deny buttons in the thread. If someone else clicks, they get a note only they can see.
Messages sent while Deskhand is stopped are not answered. Ask again once it is back.