@slack/socket-mode

What is @slack/socket-mode?

@slack/socket-mode is an npm package that allows developers to interact with Slack's Socket Mode API. This package enables real-time communication with Slack by establishing a WebSocket connection, which can be used to receive events and send messages without the need for a public HTTP endpoint.

What are @slack/socket-mode's main functionalities?

Establishing a WebSocket connection

This code sample demonstrates how to establish a WebSocket connection using the @slack/socket-mode package. The `App` class is instantiated with the necessary tokens, and the `start` method is called to initiate the connection.

const { App } = require('@slack/socket-mode');
const app = new App({
  appToken: 'xapp-1-A1234567890-123456789012-abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef',
  token: 'xoxb-123456789012-1234567890123-abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890'
});

(async () => {
  await app.start();
  console.log('⚡️ Bolt app is running!');
})();

Listening for events

This code sample shows how to listen for 'message' events using the @slack/socket-mode package. When a message event is received, the event details are logged, and a response is sent back to the user who sent the message.

app.event('message', async ({ event, say }) => {
  console.log(event);
  await say(`Hello, <@${event.user}>!`);
});

Sending messages

This code sample demonstrates how to send messages using the @slack/web-api package in conjunction with @slack/socket-mode. The `WebClient` class is used to send a message to a specific channel.

const { WebClient } = require('@slack/web-api');
const web = new WebClient('xoxb-123456789012-1234567890123-abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890');

(async () => {
  await web.chat.postMessage({
    channel: '#general',
    text: 'Hello, world!'
  });
})();

Other packages similar to @slack/socket-mode

@slack/bolt

@slack/bolt is a framework for building Slack apps using JavaScript. It provides a higher-level abstraction compared to @slack/socket-mode, making it easier to build and manage Slack apps. While @slack/socket-mode focuses on WebSocket connections, @slack/bolt offers a more comprehensive set of tools for handling events, commands, and interactions.

slack-client

slack-client is a package that provides a client for interacting with Slack's Real Time Messaging (RTM) API. It allows for real-time communication with Slack, similar to @slack/socket-mode, but it is more focused on the RTM API rather than the newer Socket Mode API.

README

Slack Socket Mode

This package is designed to support Socket Mode, which allows your app to receive events from Slack over a WebSocket connection.

Requirements

This package supports Node v18 and higher. It's highly recommended to use the latest LTS version of node, and the documentation is written using syntax and features from that version.

Installation

$ npm install @slack/socket-mode

Usage

Initialize the client

The package exports a SocketModeClient class. Your app will create an instance of the class for each workspace it communicates with. Creating an instance requires an app-level token from Slack. Apps connect to the Socket Mode API using an app-level token, which starts with xapp.

Note: Socket Mode requires the connections:write scope. Navigate to your app configuration and go to the bottom of the Basic Information section to create an App token with the connections:write scope.

const { SocketModeClient } = require('@slack/socket-mode');

// Read a token from the environment variables
const appToken = process.env.SLACK_APP_TOKEN;

// Initialize
const client = new SocketModeClient({appToken});

Connect to Slack

Connecting is as easy as calling the .start() method.

const { SocketModeClient } = require('@slack/socket-mode');
const appToken = process.env.SLACK_APP_TOKEN;

const socketModeClient = new SocketModeClient({appToken});

(async () => {
  // Connect to Slack
  await socketModeClient.start();
})();

Listen for an event

If you've used Node's EventEmitter pattern before, then you're already familiar with how this works, since the client is an EventEmitter.

The event argument passed to the listener is an object. Its contents correspond to the type of event it's registered for.

const { SocketModeClient } = require('@slack/socket-mode');
const appToken = process.env.SLACK_APP_TOKEN;

const socketModeClient = new SocketModeClient({appToken});

// Attach listeners to events by type. See: https://api.slack.com/events/message
socketModeClient.on('message', (event) => {
  console.log(event);
});

(async () => {
  await socketModeClient.start();
})();

Send a message

To respond to events and send messages back into Slack, we recommend using the @slack/web-api package with a bot token.

const { SocketModeClient } = require('@slack/socket-mode');
const { WebClient } = require('@slack/web-api');

const socketModeClient = new SocketModeClient(process.env.SLACK_APP_TOKEN);
const webClient = new WebClient(process.env.BOT_TOKEN);

// Attach listeners to events by type. See: https://api.slack.com/events/message
socketModeClient.on('member_joined_channel', async ({event, body, ack}) => {
    try {
      // send acknowledgement back to slack over the socketMode websocket connection
      // this is so slack knows you have received the event and are processing it
      await ack();
      await webClient.chat.postMessage({
          blocks: [
          {
            type: 'section',
            text: {
              type: 'mrkdwn',
              text: `Welcome to the channel, <@${event.user}>. We're here to help. Let us know if you have an issue.`,
            },
            accessory: {
              type: 'button',
              text: {
                type: 'plain_text',
                text: 'Get Help',
              },
              value: 'get_help',
            },
          },
        ],
        channel: event.channel,
      });
    } catch (error) {
      console.log('An error occurred', error);
    }
  });
  
(async () => {
  await socketModeClient.start();
})();

Lifecycle events

The client's connection to Slack has a lifecycle. This means the client can be seen as a state machine which transitions through a few states as it connects, disconnects and possibly reconnects with Slack. The client emits an event for each state it transitions to throughout its lifecycle. If your app simply needs to know whether the client is connected or not, the .connected boolean property can be checked.

In the table below, the client's states are listed, which are also the names of the events you can use to observe the transition to that state. The table also includes descriptions for the states and arguments that a listener would receive.

Event Name	Arguments	Description
connecting		The client is in the process of connecting to the platform.
connected		The client is connected to the platform and incoming events will start being emitted.
disconnecting		The client is no longer connected to the platform and cleaning up its resources. It will soon transition to disconnected.
reconnecting		The client is no longer connected to the platform and cleaning up its resources. It will soon transition to connecting.
disconnected	(error)	The client is not connected to the platform. This is a steady state - no attempt to connect is occurring. The error argument will be undefined when the client initiated the disconnect (normal).

The client also emits events that are part of its lifecycle, but aren't states. Instead, they represent specific moments that might be helpful to your app. The following table lists these events, their description, and includes the arguments that a listener would receive.

Event Name	Arguments	Description
error	(error)	An error has occurred.
slack_event	(eventType, event)	An incoming Slack event has been received.

Logging

The SocketModeClient will log information to the console by default. You can use the logLevel to decide how much or what kind of information should be output. There are a few possible log levels, which you can find in the LogLevel export. By default, the value is set to LogLevel.INFO. While you're in development, it's sometimes helpful to set this to the most verbose: LogLevel.DEBUG.

// Import LogLevel from the package
const { SocketModeClient, LogLevel } = require('@slack/socket-mode');
const appToken = process.env.SLACK_APP_TOKEN;

// Log level is one of the options you can set in the constructor
const socketModeClient = new SocketModeClient({
  appToken,
  logLevel: LogLevel.DEBUG,
});

(async () => {
  await socketModeClient.start();
})();

All the log levels, in order of most to least information are: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, and ERROR.

Sending log output somewhere besides the console

You can also choose to have logs sent to a custom logger using the logger option. A custom logger needs to implement specific methods (known as the Logger interface, see the @slack/logger package for details). A minimal interface should implement the following methods:

Method	Parameters	Return type
getLevel()	n/a	LogLevel
setLevel()	level: LogLevel	void
setName()	name: string	void
debug()	...msgs: any[]	void
info()	...msgs: any[]	void
warn()	...msgs: any[]	void
error()	...msgs: any[]	void

A very simple custom logger might ignore the name and level, and write all messages to a file.

const { createWriteStream } = require('fs');
const logWritable = createWriteStream('/var/my_log_file'); // Not shown: close this stream

const socketModeClient = new SocketModeClient({
  appToken,
  // Creating a logger as a literal object. It's more likely that you'd create a class.
  logger: {
    debug(...msgs): { logWritable.write('debug: ' + JSON.stringify(msgs)); },
    info(...msgs): { logWritable.write('info: ' + JSON.stringify(msgs)); },
    warn(...msgs): { logWritable.write('warn: ' + JSON.stringify(msgs)); },
    error(...msgs): { logWritable.write('error: ' + JSON.stringify(msgs)); },
    getLevel(): { return 'info'; },
    setLevel(): { },
    setName(): { },
  },
});

(async () => {
  await socketModeClient.start();
})();

Getting Help

If you get stuck, we're here to help. The following are the best ways to get assistance working through your issue:

• Issue Tracker for questions, feature requests, bug reports and general discussion related to these packages. Try searching before you create a new issue.