docs: use Slack notifications

coder · mtojek · Sep 27, 2024 · Sep 26, 2024 · Sep 26, 2024 · Sep 26, 2024
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+# Slack Notifications
+
+[Slack](https://slack.com/) is a popular messaging platform designed for teams
+and businesses, enabling real-time collaboration through channels, direct
+messages, and integrations with external tools. With Coder's integration, you
+can enable automated notifications directly within a self-hosted
+[Slack app](https://api.slack.com/apps), keeping your team updated on key events
+in your Coder environment.
+
+Administrators can configure Coder to send notifications via an incoming webhook
+endpoint. These notifications appear as conversation with a custom Slack app.
+
+## Requirements
+
+Before setting up Slack notifications, ensure that you have the following:
+
+- Administrator access to the Slack platform to create apps
+- Coder platform with notifications enabled
+
+## Create Slack Application
+
+To integrate Slack with Coder, follow these steps to create a Slack application:
+
+1. Go to the [Slack Apps](https://api.slack.com/apps) dashboard and create a new
+   Slack App.
+
+2. Under "Basic Information," you'll find a "Signing Secret." Keep it safe for
+   verification if needed.
+
+3. Under "OAuth & Permissions", add the following OAuth scopes:
+
+- `chat:write`: To send messages as the app.
+- `users:read`: To find the user details.
+- `users:read.email`: To find user emails.
+
+4. Install the app to your workspace and note down the **Bot User OAuth Token**
+   from the "OAuth & Permissions" section.
+
+## Build a Webserver to Receive Webhooks
+
+The Slack bot for Coder runs as a _Bolt application_, which is a framework
+designed for building Slack apps using the Slack API.
+[Bolt for JavaScript](https://github.com/slackapi/bolt-js) provides an
+easy-to-use API for responding to events, commands, and interactions from Slack.
+
+To build the server to receive webhooks and interact with Slack:
+
+1. Initialize your project by running:
+
+```bash
+npm init -y
+```
+
+2. Install the Bolt library:
+
+```bash
+npm install @slack/bolt
+```
+
+3. Create and edit the `app.js` file. Below is an example of the basic
+   structure:
+
+```js
+const { App, LogLevel, ExpressReceiver } = require("@slack/bolt");
+const bodyParser = require("body-parser");
+
+const port = process.env.PORT || 6000;
+
+// Create a Bolt Receiver
+const receiver = new ExpressReceiver({
+	signingSecret: process.env.SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET,
+});
+receiver.router.use(bodyParser.json());
+
+// Create the Bolt App, using the receiver
+const app = new App({
+	token: process.env.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN,
+	logLevel: LogLevel.DEBUG,
+	receiver,
+});
+
+receiver.router.post("/webhook", async (req, res) => {
+	try {
+		if (!req.body) {
+			return res.status(400).send("Error: request body is missing");
+		}
+
+		const { title, body } = req.body;
+		if (!title || !body) {
+			return res.status(400).send('Error: missing fields: "title", or "body"');
+		}
+
+		const payload = req.body.payload;
+		if (!payload) {
+			return res.status(400).send('Error: missing "payload" field');
+		}
+
+		const { user_email, actions } = payload;
+		if (!user_email || !actions) {
+			return res
+				.status(400)
+				.send('Error: missing fields: "user_email", "actions"');
+		}
+
+		// Get the user ID using Slack API
+		const userByEmail = await app.client.users.lookupByEmail({
+			email: user_email,
+		});
+
+		const slackMessage = {
+			channel: userByEmail.user.id,
+			text: body,
+			blocks: [
+				{
+					type: "header",
+					text: { type: "plain_text", text: title },
+				},
+				{
+					type: "section",
+					text: { type: "mrkdwn", text: body },
+				},
+			],
+		};
+
+		// Add action buttons if they exist
+		if (actions && actions.length > 0) {
+			slackMessage.blocks.push({
+				type: "actions",
+				elements: actions.map((action) => ({
+					type: "button",
+					text: { type: "plain_text", text: action.label },
+					url: action.url,
+				})),
+			});
+		}
+
+		// Post message to the user on Slack
+		await app.client.chat.postMessage(slackMessage);
+
+		res.status(204).send();
+	} catch (error) {
+		console.error("Error sending message:", error);
+		res.status(500).send();
+	}
+});
+
+// Acknowledge clicks on link_button, otherwise Slack UI
+// complains about missing events.
+app.action("button_click", async ({ body, ack, say }) => {
+	await ack(); // no specific action needed
+});
+
+// Start the Bolt app
+(async () => {
+	await app.start(port);
+	console.log("⚡️ Coder Slack bot is running!");
+})();
+```
+
+3. Set environment variables to identify the Slack app:
+
+```bash
+export SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-...
+export SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET=0da4b...
+```
+
+4. Start the web application by running:
+
+```bash
+node app.js
+```
+
+## Enable Interactivity in Slack
+
+Slack requires the bot to acknowledge when a user clicks on a URL action button.
+This is handled by setting up interactivity.
+
+1. Under "Interactivity & Shortcuts" in your Slack app settings, set the Request
+   URL to match the public URL of your web server's endpoint.
+
+> Notice: You can use any public endpoint that accepts and responds to POST
+> requests with HTTP 200. For temporary testing, you can set it to
+> `https://httpbin.org/status/200`.
+
+Once this is set, Slack will send interaction payloads to your server, which
+must respond appropriately.
+
+## Enable Webhook Integration in Coder
+
+To enable webhook integration in Coder, ensure the "notifications" experiment is
+activated by running the following command:
+
+```bash
+export CODER_EXPERIMENTS=notifications
+```
+
+Then, define the POST webhook endpoint matching the deployed Slack bot:
+
+```bash
+export CODER_NOTIFICATIONS_WEBHOOK_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:6000/webhook`
+```
+
+Finally, go to the **Notification Settings** in Coder and switch the notifier to
+**Webhook**.