Learn how to create a bot that monitors HackerNews and sends notifications to Slack. This guide shows you how to use scheduled deployments and external APIs.

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What you’ll learn

Web Scraping

Fetch data from HackerNews

Slack Integration

Send notifications to Slack channels

Scheduling

Configure automated deployments

API Usage

Work with external services

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Create your bot

1

Fork the template

Sign in to Replit and fork the HackerNews webscraper template. Select + Use Template and follow the prompts to create your Replit App.
2

Create a Slack app

  1. Go to Slack Apps and select Create an App
  2. Choose From an app manifest
  3. Select your workspace
  1. Replace the manifest with this JSON
(/* vale on */}
  1. Review and select Create
  2. Select Install the App
You may need administrator approval based on your organization’s policies.
3

Configure tokens

Add these secrets to your Replit App’s Secrets tab:
  1. SLACK_BOT_TOKEN
    • Go to Settings > Install App
    • Copy the Bot User OAuth Token
  2. SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET
    • Go to Settings > Basic Information
    • Copy the Signing Secret from App Credentials
  3. SLACK_APP_TOKEN
    • Go to Settings > Basic Information
    • Under App-Level Tokens, select Generate Token and Scopes
    • Add permissions and generate token
4

Customize your bot

Update app.py with your preferences:
KEYWORDS = ["h"]  # Terms to search for
ALERT_UIDS = ["U06C34217C5"]  # Your Slack member ID
NUM_TOP_STORIES = 25  # Number of stories to check
Get your Slack member ID from your profile settings under the ellipsis menu.

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Deploy with scheduling

1

Start deployment

Select Deploy in the workspace header.
2

Configure schedule

  1. Choose Scheduled Deployments
  2. Set your preferred schedule
  3. Select Deploy
3

Monitor

Your bot will now run automatically according to your schedule.

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Customization options

Enhance filtering

  • Add more keywords
  • Refine matching criteria
  • Customize scoring

Improve notifications

  • Format messages
  • Add rich previews
  • Include metadata

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Next steps

AI Integration

Add AI summaries to notifications

Deployments

Learn more about scheduling

Databases

Store historical data

Create a Slack summarizer

Build a bot that summarizes Slack channels

Build with AI

Create apps using Agent and Assistant
Want to learn more about deployments? Check out our deployment documentation.