Slack bot with channel memory

Build a Slack Bolt app that remembers channel messages and answers mentions with Tex recall.

Give each Slack channel its own Tex session_id. Save normal messages with remember. When someone mentions the bot, use recall to answer from that channel’s memory.

This uses the same isolation pattern as Scopes and multi-tenancy.

1. Install Bolt + Tex

   pip install tex-sdk slack-bolt python-dotenv
   
2. Export tokens

   Load the bot and app tokens. This example uses socket mode:

   SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-...
   SLACK_APP_TOKEN=xapp-...
   TEX_API_KEY=tex_live_...
   TEX_BASE_URL=https://api.getmetacognition.com
   
3. Wire Slack events

   Ignore bot messages, remember human text, and answer mentions with recall:

   bot.py

   import os
   from datetime import datetime, timezone
   from slack_bolt import App
   from slack_bolt.adapter.socket_mode import SocketModeHandler
   from tex import Tex
   
   tex = Tex(api_key=os.environ["TEX_API_KEY"], base_url=os.environ["TEX_BASE_URL"])
   app = App(token=os.environ["SLACK_BOT_TOKEN"])
   
   def now_iso() -> str:
       return datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat().replace("+00:00", "Z")
   
   def session_for(channel: str) -> str:
       return f"slack-{channel}"
   
   @app.event("message")
   def remember_message(event, say):
       if event.get("subtype") or event.get("bot_id"):
           return
       tex.conversations.remember(
           session_id=session_for(event["channel"]),
           turns=[{
               "role": "user",
               "text": f"<@{event['user']}>: {event['text']}",
               "timestamp": now_iso(),
           }],
       )
   
   @app.event("app_mention")
   def answer(event, say):
       query = event["text"].split(">", 1)[-1].strip()
       if not query:
           say("Ask me something and I'll search this channel's memory.")
           return
   
       hits = tex.recall(q=query, session_id=session_for(event["channel"]), top_k=5)
   
       if not hits.hits.turns or hits.confidence < 0.2:
           say(f"<@{event['user']}> I don't have anything relevant in memory yet.")
           return
   
       body = "\n".join(f"• {h.text}" for h in hits.hits.turns[:3])
       say(f"<@{event['user']}> here's what I remember:\n{body}")
   
   if __name__ == "__main__":
       SocketModeHandler(app, os.environ["SLACK_APP_TOKEN"]).start()
   
4. Run the bot

   python bot.py
   

   Type in a channel, then ask @YourBot what did we decide? to verify recall.

Slack tweaks

Topic	What you do
Channel vs DM	You keep slack-{channel} for shared rooms; you append -{user} if you need private scratch space.
Noise	You filter joins, uploads, reactions before remember so you do not pay tokens for junk.
Latency	React with :thinking_face: right away. recall can take 1-3s. Post the final answer after recall finishes.