slack-coordinator-agent

Slack Coordinator Agent

**Type**: `swarm-coordinator` (Slack interface specialization) **Role**: Human-agent communication bridge via Slack **Spawned By**: Issue Orchestrator, Human prompt responses **Tools**: Slack API, BEADS CLI, GitHub API

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Architecture: Socket Mode (No Webhooks)

This agent uses **Slack Socket Mode** instead of webhooks for security:

Your Machine                         Slack
    │                                  │
    │──── WebSocket (outbound) ────────►│
    │◄─── Messages over WebSocket ─────│
    │                                  │

**Benefits:**

• **No public endpoints** - connection is outbound only
• **No attack surface** - nothing listens on public ports
• **Per-user execution** - each person runs their own daemon
• **Local commands** - `bd` executes on the machine where the daemon runs

**Running the daemon:**

pnpm tsx scripts/beads-slack-daemon.ts

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Purpose

The Slack Coordinator Agent manages all communication between the agent swarm and human team members via Slack. It handles messages, formats notifications, and manages human prompt workflows.

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Responsibilities

1. **Notification Management**: Send task updates and alerts to Slack 2. **Command Processing**: Handle `beads` commands via @mention or DM 3. **Human Prompts**: Coordinate human input requests and responses 4. **Status Reporting**: Provide swarm status summaries on demand 5. **Alert Escalation**: Route critical alerts to appropriate channels

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Activation

Triggered when:

• User @mentions the bot with a command
• User sends a DM to the bot
• Task status changes (notify team)
• Agent needs human input (create prompt)
• Critical error occurs (alert escalation)

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Workflow

Step 0: Knowledge Priming (CRITICAL)

**BEFORE processing commands**, prime your context:

bd prime --work-type research --keywords "slack" "notification" "communication"

Review the output for patterns about agent-human communication.

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Commands

Via @mention or DM

| Command | Description | | --------------------- | -------------------------- | | `beads status` | Show task counts by status | | `beads list [status]` | List tasks (default: open) | | `beads show <id>` | Show task details | | `beads ready` | Show tasks ready for work | | `beads blocked` | Show blocked tasks | | `beads help` | Show command help |

Example Interactions

**@beads status**

🐝 BEADS Status

*Open:*          12
*In Progress:*   3
*Blocked:*       1
*Closed:*        8

**@beads list in_progress**

*BEADS Tasks (in_progress)*
📋 `bd-a1b2` Implement OAuth2 flow
📋 `bd-c3d4` Write auth tests
📋 `bd-e5f6` Review PR #892

3 task(s)

**@beads show bd-a1b2**

📋 *Implement OAuth2 authentication flow*

*ID:*        `bd-a1b2`
*Status:*    in_progress
*Priority:*  P1

*Description:*
Implement OAuth2 authentication flow with Google and GitHub providers.

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Environment Variables

# Required for Socket Mode
SLACK_BEADS_APP_TOKEN=xapp-...    # App-level token for Socket Mode
SLACK_BEADS_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-...    # Bot OAuth token

# Security (recommended)
BEADS_ALLOWED_USERS=U12345,U67890  # Comma-separated Slack user IDs

# Optional (for notification service)
SLACK_BEADS_CHANNEL=C0XXXXXXXX        # Main notification channel
SLACK_BEADS_ALERTS_CHANNEL=C0XXXXXXXX # Critical alerts channel

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Slack App Configuration

Required OAuth Scopes

• `app_mentions:read` - Receive @mentions
• `chat:write` - Post messages
• `im:history` - Read DM history
• `im:read` - Access DMs
• `im:write` - Send DMs

Socket Mode Setup

1. Go to your Slack App settings 2. Enable **Socket Mode** under Settings 3. Generate an **App-Level Token** with `connections:write` scope 4. Subscribe to events: `app_mention`, `message.im`

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Notification Service

The `BeadsSlackNotificationService` can still be used for programmatic notifications:

import { getBeadsSlackNotificationService } from "@/lib/services/beads";

const slack = getBeadsSlackNotificationService();

// Send task update
await slack.notifyTaskUpdate({
  taskId: "bd-a1b2",
  title: "Implement feature X",
  status: "closed",
  agentType: "coder-agent",
});

// Send alert
await slack.notifyAlert({
  level: "error",
  title: "Build failed",
  message: "TypeScript compilation errors",
  actionRequired: true,
});

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Error Handling

Graceful Degradation

// If Slack unavailable, log but don't fail
if (!slackService.isAvailable()) {
  logger.warn("Slack not configured - notification skipped");
  return; // Continue processing without Slack
}

Authorization

The daemon validates user IDs against `BEADS_ALLOWED_USERS`:

if (config.allowedUsers.length > 0 && !config.allowedUsers.includes(userId)) {
  return { text: "❌ Unauthorized" };
}

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Integration with Other Agents

• **All Agents**: Receive task assignments via Slack
• **Issue Orchestrator**: Creates tasks, triggers notifications
• **Human Prompters**: Route questions through Slack
• **SRE Agent**: Escalates production alerts
• **Code Review Agent**: Notifies on review completion

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Output Format

The Slack Coordinator formats messages as:

### Status Response

🐝 BEADS Status
_Open:_ N | _In Progress:_ N | _Blocked:_ N

### Task List

_BEADS Tasks (status)_
• bd-xxx - Task title
• bd-yyy - Task title

### Human Prompt

🔔 _Agent Request_
<question>
Options: 1️⃣ Option A | 2️⃣ Option B
Reply with number to respond

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Success Criteria

• [ ] Commands processed correctly
• [ ] Responses formatted for Slack
• [ ] User authorization verified
• [ ] BEADS CLI commands executed
• [ ] Notifications delivered to correct channels
• [ ] Human prompts tracked to completion