lab-slack

name	lab-slack
description	Operate the AICell Lab Slack from the command line — post to channels, DM lab members, and announce new blog posts (e.g. the daily newsletter digest) to #general. Use when asked to notify the lab on Slack, share a post, DM someone, or wire Slack into an automation. Backed by scripts/lab-slack.py (dependency-free).

Lab Slack

scripts/lab-slack.py is a dependency-free CLI (Python standard library only) for the AICell Lab Slack workspace (aicell-lab.slack.com). It posts as the bot happyagent, or as Wei with --as-user.

Setup (already configured on this machine)

Tokens are loaded from ~/.svamp/lab-slack.env (outside the repo, never committed):

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-…    # bot user; default for posting
SLACK_USER_TOKEN=xoxp-…   # Wei's user; for reads + posting AS Wei (--as-user)

The script auto-loads that file (and ~/.svamp/aicell-newsletter.env) — no manual source needed. The original tokens live in ~/workspace/weis-happy-agent/.env (see its docs/setup-slack.md / docs/SLACK_USER_TOKEN.md to rotate/recreate).

Scope note: the bot token lacks channels:read/users:read, so reads (channels, users, DM target lookup) automatically use the user token. Posting uses the bot token. To post to a channel as the bot, the bot must be a member — invite @happyagent to the channel, or post with --as-user (as Wei).

Commands

scripts/lab-slack.py whoami                       # show identity (sanity check)
scripts/lab-slack.py channels [--query general]   # list/search channels (id + name)
scripts/lab-slack.py users [--query ouyang]       # list/search members (for DMs)

# Post a message to a channel (bot must be in it; else add --as-user)
scripts/lab-slack.py post --channel '#general' --text "…"
scripts/lab-slack.py post --channel '#general' --blocks-file blocks.json --text "fallback"

# Direct-message a person (by email, @handle, display name, or U-id)
scripts/lab-slack.py dm --to [e-mail] --text "…"

# Announce a blog post (formats a Block Kit card linking to aicell.io)
scripts/lab-slack.py announce --post content/post/<slug>/index.md   # → #general
scripts/lab-slack.py announce --post content/post/<slug>/index.md --dry-run   # preview JSON

Receiving — discover & respond to DMs and @mentions

The bot can receive too. poll reads new direct messages to the bot and new @happyagent mentions in channels it belongs to, since the last check (cursor stored in ~/.svamp/lab-slack-poll.json), and can act on them:

scripts/lab-slack.py poll                       # print new inbound messages (advances cursor)
scripts/lab-slack.py poll --no-mark --json      # peek without advancing the cursor
scripts/lab-slack.py poll --respond             # spawn a fresh Happy Agent to reply to each
scripts/lab-slack.py poll --notify-session <id> # forward new messages to a live session instead

Background loop (respond in time). A svamp workflow named slack-watch runs poll --notify-session high-frog-dzjybt every 2 minutes, forwarding any new DM or @happyagent mention into the main Happy Agent session (high-frog-dzjybt), which reads it and replies — everything is handled in that one session (no spawning extra sessions). Manage it with svamp workflow show slack-watch / svamp workflow run slack-watch. (poll --respond, which spawns a fresh responder per message, exists as an alternative but is not used here — keep handling in the single main session.)

How it works: there's no public webhook — this is pull-based polling via the Slack Web API (conversations.history over the bot's DMs + member channels), deduped by a per-channel timestamp cursor. The bot has the needed scopes (im:history, channels:history, app_mentions:read). Latency ≈ the poll interval.

A spawned responder replies with: scripts/lab-slack.py post --channel <channel> [--thread <thread_ts>] --text "…".

Primary use — announce new blog posts

Whenever a new post is published (especially the daily newsletter digest), announce it to #general:

scripts/lab-slack.py announce --post content/post/newsletter-<YYYY-MM-DD>/index.md

announce reads the post's front matter (title, summary) and the folder slug, builds the https://aicell.io/post/<slug>/ link, and posts a clean card. This is what the lab-newsletter skill calls in its Slack step.

DMing people

DM sparingly and only when it's genuinely useful (e.g. a result someone asked for):

scripts/lab-slack.py dm --to <email> --text "<short, actionable note>"

Find a person's handle/email with scripts/lab-slack.py users --query <name>.

Guardrails

• #general reaches the whole lab. Announce real, on-topic posts; never test or spam there — use --dry-run, a DM to Wei, or a quiet channel to verify first.
• Keep messages concise and linked; let the blog post carry the detail.
• Never commit tokens. They live only in ~/.svamp/lab-slack.env (chmod 600).
• If a post to a channel fails with not_in_channel, invite @happyagent to that channel or re-run with --as-user.