ebrassell/slashbot

A python library for creating Slack slash commands using AWS Lambda Functions

slashbot

Slashbot makes it easy to create Slack slash commands using AWS Lambda functions. These can be handy for creating a secure way to execute automated tasks, even from a mobile device. Perfect for developing "chatops" type applications.

Features:

• Uses Slack Apps API (rather than the legacy slash command API)
• Authenticates requests following Slack recommended best practice (https://api.slack.com/authentication/verifying-requests-from-slack)
• Supports multiple slash commands with a single bot
• Enables limiting certain commands to specific users via a simple ACL model.

Installation

pip install slashbot [--target=source_directory] (the --target option is used to include your packages in your source folder so they willl be included in your AWS Lambda artifact)

Usage

import os
import time
import slashbot

# https://api.slack.com/authentication/verifying-requests-from-slack
slashbot.SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET = os.environ.get("SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET")

# Define a default response
@slashbot.route("*")
def default(cmd: slashbot.SlashCommand):
    if not cmd.provided_verb: #Nothing beyond the slash command
        return help(cmd)
    return (
        f"This is a default response. `{cmd.provided_verb}` is not a recognized command. \n"
        + help(cmd)
    )


@slashbot.route("help")
#Handlers take a SlashCommand as input and return text
def help(cmd: slashbot.SlashCommand):
    return f"Here is some helpful text"


@slashbot.route("hello")
def functionnamesdontmatter(cmd: slashbot.SlashCommand):
    return f"Hello {cmd.user_name}"


# Support for multi word verbs
@slashbot.route("good bye")
def good_bye(cmd: slashbot.SlashCommand):
    return f"Good bye {cmd.user_name}"


# An ack is automatically sent to Slack within the required 3 seconds.
# So your function can take up to the duration of a lambda function (15 mins) 
@slashbot.route("echo")
def echowithdelay(cmd):
    time.sleep(300)
    return f"Echo {' '.join(cmd.command_args)}"


# acl can be optionally provided (acl can be single user name or array of user names)
@slashbot.route("secure stuff", acl="anybodybutme")
def secure_stuff(_):
    ...
    # do some scary stuff limited to specific users
    return ""


def handler(event, context):
    return slashbot.main(event, context)

Todo

• Add CD (push to PyPI)
• Validation on routes to detect conflicting/duplicate entries
• Slack APP Manifest
• Terraform Example