pokemanager

README

Pokemanager

A Slack bot that routes incoming mentions following an escalation policy.

Usage

As a Slack bot, pokemanager assumes a user identity. When mentioned in a channel, it checks its configuration and sends a private message to the first point of escalation, asking for acknowledgement. If ignored, it will escalate to the following level until the policy ends. Then it will drop the request.

Pokemanager only accepts commands over Slack channels. That is, you cannot start a private conversation and expect your request to be escalated. The operator can configure a default message to reply to private messages and explain this behaviour.

Caveats

• Pokemanager won't join a channel and must be invited.

Arguments

--config-file - The configuration file to load. See below for an example.

--version - Print the version and exists.

Required Environment Variables

SLACK_TOKEN - The token used to connect to the Slack API.

Configuration

channels (optional) is a list of channels where to listen for mentions. By default, pokemanager listens on any channel.

escalation_policy (required) is a list in which each item represents an escalation action. Items are processed sequentially. After the last action pokemanager won't restart from the first one and will drop the request. Read below about how to specity rules for each escalation level.

private_message_deny (optional) is the message to use when replying to an incoming private message.

Escalation levels

handlers (required) lists the users to forward the message to.

escalate_after_seconds (optional) specifies how long to wait before escalating to the next level. Defaults to 60. It can be omitted for the last escalation level as pokemanager will drop the request after notifying its handlers.

Example

---
escalation_policy:
  -
    handlers:
    - dilbert
    escalate_after_seconds: 300
  -
    handlers:
    - asok
    - alice
  -
    handlers:
    - wally
    escalate_after_seconds: 120
  -
    handlers:
    - pointy_haired_boss

FAQ

Why aren't you using the Slack events API?

For simplicity sake. Although the code implementation would result more elegant, setting up a Slack events API endpoint can be bothersome from the infrastructure perspective: expose a public endpoint, TLS certificates, manually set up the webhook url... All of this to receive only the mention events. We built the same by parsing messages over RTM: less elegant but requires zero infrastructure setup.