Internbot Developer Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 20
• A Slack workspace where you can create apps

Steps

1. Create a Slack App

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From scratch
2. Name it (e.g., "internbot"), select your workspace
3. Enable Socket Mode under Settings → Socket Mode → toggle on
   • Generate an app-level token with connections:write scope → save as SLACK_APP_TOKEN
4. Under OAuth & Permissions, add these Bot Token Scopes:
   • app_mentions:read
   • channels:history
   • channels:read
   • chat:write
   • groups:history
   • groups:read
   • im:history
   • im:read
   • im:write
   • mpim:history
   • mpim:read
   • users:read
   • reactions:write
5. Under Event Subscriptions → toggle on → Subscribe to bot events:
   • message.channels
   • message.groups
   • message.im
   • message.mpim
   • app_mention
6. Install the app to your workspace → copy the Bot User OAuth Token as SLACK_BOT_TOKEN

2. Configure Environment

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your tokens:
#   SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-...
#   SLACK_APP_TOKEN=xapp-...

3. Set Up Reports Repository

The bot publishes LaTeX reports to a separate GitHub repo. Set it up as a subdirectory:

mkdir reports-repo && cd reports-repo
git init
mkdir reports
echo '[]' > papers-log.json
git add . && git commit -m "init reports repo"

Create a GitHub repo for reports, then configure the remote with a dedicated account (optional):

git remote add origin https://<github-user>@github.com/<github-user>/<repo-name>.git
git config user.name "<bot-name>"
git config user.email "<github-user>@users.noreply.github.com"
git push -u origin main

If using a dedicated GitHub account, store its PAT locally:

echo "https://<github-user>:<PAT>@github.com" > .git/credentials
git config credential.helper 'store --file=.git/credentials'

4. Install & Run

npm install
npm run dev    # Development with hot reload
npm run build  # Compile TypeScript
npm start      # Run compiled version

5. Test

• DM the bot "hi" → should get a simple reply
• In a channel, @mention the bot with a question → should get a threaded response
• Ask it to search for papers → should use arxiv tools