This is an AI-powered Slack chatbot built on the Bolt JS framework. The bot includes canned responses and falls back to a language model for messages that don't match a predefined pattern. Chat is powered by Ollama (default, self-hosted) or Gemini; image generation uses Gemini. You can customize the bot's personality and responses to suit your needs.
Node.js 22+ (LTS).
A Redis installation to persist the bot's conversation memory. On Ubuntu:
sudo apt -y install redis-server
A chat backend:
- Ollama (default) — a running Ollama instance with a model pulled (e.g.
ollama pull llama3.1). Point the bot at it withOLLAMA_HOST. - or Gemini — set
CHAT_BACKEND=geminiand supply aGEMINI_API_KEY.
- Ollama (default) — a running Ollama instance with a model pulled (e.g.
A
GEMINI_API_KEYis required for the/imageslash command regardless of which chat backend you use.
- Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
- Click Create App
- Choose a workspace
- Copy the manifest.yaml contents into the input box
- Update the name and display name settings
- Click Create
Once the app is created click Install to Workspace Then scroll down in Basic Info and click Generate Token and Scopes with all three scopes enabled.
The easiest way is to copy .env.example to .env and fill it in; the bot loads it via dotenv. Or export them in your shell:
# Replace with your bot and tokensexport SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=<your-bot-token># from the OAuth sectionexport SLACK_APP_TOKEN=<your-app-level-token># from the Basic Info App Token Sectionexport SLACK_BOT_USER_NAME=<your-bot-username># must match the short name of your bot userexport GEMINI_API_KEY=<your-gemini-api-key># for /image, and for chat if CHAT_BACKEND=geminiexport BOT_PERSONALITY="Your custom bot personality prompt here"# Optional: Set a custom personality for your bot# Optional: choose and configure the chat backend (defaults to local Ollama)# export CHAT_BACKEND=ollama# export OLLAMA_HOST=http://localhost:11434# export OLLAMA_MODEL=llama3.1# Replace with your bot and tokens$env:SLACK_BOT_TOKEN="xoxb-your-bot-token"$env:SLACK_APP_TOKEN="xapp-your-app-token"$env:SLACK_BOT_USER_NAME="Data"# Change to match your bot's name$env:GEMINI_API_KEY="your-gemini-api-key"$env:BOT_PERSONALITY="Your custom bot personality prompt here"# Optional: Set a custom personality for your bot# Optional: Set Redis URL if you're using a custom Redis instance# $env:REDIS_URL = "redis://localhost:6379"# Start the bot
npm start# Clone this project onto your machine
git clone https://github.com/scarolan/data.gitThe bot's personality is now configurable via the BOT_PERSONALITY environment variable. You can set this in your script or directly in your environment:
# Example of customizing the bot's personalityexport BOT_PERSONALITY="You are a helpful assistant with a cheerful disposition. You love to tell jokes and answer questions clearly and concisely."If you don't set the BOT_PERSONALITY variable, the bot will use a default Star Trek "Data" personality.
# Change into the projectcd data
# Install the dependencies
npm installnpm run startGo to the installed workspace and DM your new bot, or @-mention it in a channel.
Direct mention example (in a channel or DM):
@Data help
Slash command example (image generation):
/image An image of Lt. Commander Data and his cat
You'll need a Linux server, container, or application platform that supports nodejs to keep the bot running. Slack has a tutorial for getting an app running on the Glitch platform: https://api.slack.com/tutorials/hello-world-bolt
The bot generates images with Gemini (Nano Banana) through the /image slash command.
When using the /image slash command:
- The bot acknowledges your request and shows an ephemeral "generating" message
- Image generation happens asynchronously in the background
- When complete, the image is posted directly to the channel
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SLACK_BOT_TOKEN | Yes | Your Slack bot token from the OAuth section |
| SLACK_APP_TOKEN | Yes | Your Slack app-level token (Socket Mode) |
| SLACK_BOT_USER_NAME | Yes | Must match the short name of your bot user |
| GEMINI_API_KEY | Yes | Used for /image; also for chat when CHAT_BACKEND=gemini |
| CHAT_BACKEND | No | ollama (default) or gemini |
| OLLAMA_HOST | No | Ollama endpoint (default: http://localhost:11434) |
| OLLAMA_MODEL | No | Ollama chat model (default: gemma4:26b-a4b-it-qat) |
| GEMINI_CHAT_MODEL | No | Gemini chat model (default: gemini-3-flash-latest) |
| GEMINI_IMAGE_MODEL | No | Override the default image model |
| BOT_PERSONALITY | No | Custom personality prompt for your bot |
| REDIS_URL | No | Custom Redis URL (default: redis://localhost:6379) |
| MEMORY_TTL_HOURS | No | Conversation memory lifetime in hours (default: 24) |
See .env.example for a copy-pasteable template.