Slack Channel Summarizer

slack-channel-summarizer

Use this skill to resolve a Slack channel and produce a summary that is bounded to retrieved history and linked to source messages.

When to use

• Summarize recent activity in a channel.
• Review conversation history for a time range.
• Check what was discussed in a channel before answering a question.

Instructions

• Use the provided Python helpers. Do not use direct curl requests or create another Slack client.
• SLACK_BOT_TOKEN contains a placeholder that OpenShell resolves on egress.
• Do not print the access token or include it in a command argument.
• Summarize only messages returned by fetch_slack_history.py.

Procedure

1. Resolve the channel ID

If the user gives a direct Slack mention like <#C0ALN454EH4>, use that ID directly.

If the request comes from a tagged Slack channel and the runtime context already gives you the current channel ID, treat that as the resolved channel ID for phrases like "this channel".

Otherwise, use your Slack channel finder skill.

2. Read bounded channel history

For a recent-message request, run:

/usr/bin/python3 /sandbox/.hermes-data/skills/slack-channel-summarizer/scripts/fetch_slack_history.py \
  --channel-id CHANNEL_ID --message-limit 10 --page-cap 10

For a time range, pass inclusive --oldest and --latest boundaries as Slack timestamps or ISO 8601 timestamps. For example:

oldest="$(date -u -d '7 days ago' +%s)"
latest="$(date -u +%s)"
/usr/bin/python3 /sandbox/.hermes-data/skills/slack-channel-summarizer/scripts/fetch_slack_history.py \
  --channel-id CHANNEL_ID \
  --oldest "$oldest" --latest "$latest" \
  --message-limit 100 --page-cap 10 \
  --replies --thread-cap 10 --reply-limit 20 --thread-page-cap 3

The helper filters bot and system messages while it paginates. The limits and page caps bound the amount of channel and thread history that it returns. The hard maxima are 200 human channel messages, 25 history pages, 10 thread roots, 20 human replies per thread, and 5 pages per thread.

3. Check the evidence contract

Read these fields before you summarize:

• ok: required history and source links were retrieved.
• empty: the completed query returned no matching human messages.
• coverage.requested_range: boundaries sent to Slack.
• coverage.retrieved_range: oldest and latest messages inspected.
• coverage.inspected_messages, coverage.human_messages, and coverage.pages: the amount of history processed.
• coverage.complete and coverage.truncation_reasons: whether the history query reached its boundary without hitting a cap.
• threads.complete and threads.truncation_reasons: whether requested thread expansion reached its bounds.
• messages[].timestamp, messages[].permalink, and messages[].citation: source metadata for each message.
• messages[].text_truncated: whether the helper capped that message's text.
• messages[].thread_replies[]: bounded replies. Each reply includes thread_root_ts so that its relationship to the root is explicit.

Do not summarize when ok is false. Report the returned stage, error, and actionable fields instead. Common errors include:

• invalid_auth: check the configured bot access token.
• not_in_channel: invite the bot to the channel.
• missing_scope: add the scope named in needed, then reinstall the app.
• rate_limited: wait for the returned retry_after interval.
• channel_not_found: check the channel ID and the bot's access.

An ok: true result with empty: true and coverage.complete: true means that the requested range contains no matching human messages. If coverage.complete is false, disclose the truncation reasons. Do not describe an incomplete empty result as no channel activity.

4. Write the grounded summary

Start with a short coverage statement that gives the requested range, retrieved range, number of messages inspected, number of human messages used, and any history or thread truncation.

Use only retrieved message text for these sections:

• Main topics
• Active participants
• Decisions and action items
• Unresolved questions

Copy the citation value at the end of every factual bullet about a theme, decision, action item, or unresolved question. Cite more than one representative message when a conclusion combines several messages. A citation is a Slack permalink and preserves the workspace's existing access controls.

If there is not enough retrieved evidence for a requested conclusion, say that the retrieved messages do not establish it. Do not add general patterns, background assumptions, or conclusions from channel metadata alone.