Slack Ask + Thread Reply

Use scripts/slack.py to post a question and wait for the first reply, or to post a reply into an existing thread.

Run

uv run scripts/slack.py "Did you finish the task?" --interval 2 --follow-up-message "This counts as another ignore. Please reply in the thread."

uv run scripts/slack.py --mode reply --thread-ts 1700000000.000000 "Reply text"

Inputs

• question is the message text (question in ask mode, reply in reply mode).
• --mode chooses behavior (ask default, reply posts into a thread).
• --no-reply-hint skips appending "Reply in thread."
• --follow-up-message sets the message to post when a reply is not received within the ignore window.
  • Required in ask mode.
• ask mode:
  • --interval sets polling interval in seconds (default: 2).
  • --thread-ts and --channel are not required.
• reply mode:
  • --thread-ts is required.
  • --channel overrides SLACK_CHANNEL (accepts name or ID).
  • --interval is not used.

Outputs

Ask mode prints a single line:

{assistant_question: ..., user_answer: ..., is_answer: true|false, thread_ts: ..., message_ts: ...}

If no reply arrives before timeout, user_answer is null and is_answer is false.

Reply mode prints a single line:

{assistant_question: ..., user_answer: null, is_answer: false, thread_ts: ..., message_ts: ...}

Notes

• Requires SLACK_BOT_USER_OAUTH_TOKEN.
• Optional SLACK_USER_OAUTH_TOKEN is used for reading replies; if unset, the bot token is reused.
• Missing history scopes will cause missing_scope errors; add channels:history, groups:history, im:history, and mpim:history as needed.
• The CLI unescapes \n, \r, and \t sequences in question before sending.
• Ask mode timeout is derived from env: IGNORE_SPAN * REPLY_COUNT_LIMIT.
• ask mode requires --follow-up-message.