Slack Warm Welcome App

Semi-automated, welcome messages for new Slack community members. When someone joins, you get a DM with buttons to send one of your predefined welcome messages — so it looks personal, but takes one click and you can do it only when you are online.

Why

When joining a community, there is nothing I find less welcoming than receiving a generic message from a bot (except for sharing the code of conduct & some guidelines) or even a lovely message from the community manager while they are clearly not online. Since communities are all about human connections, I firmly believe that it's really important to properly welcome people. To help me do this easily, I created this Slack application. I can now send some love to the new members, when I'm online and have time to discuss with them if they reply without being afraid of forgetting anyone.

How It Works

1. A new member joins your Slack workspace.
2. You receive a DM mentioning their name and a button for each welcome message you configured.
3. You click a button when you're online and ready — the message is sent as a DM from you, not a bot.

Setup

1. Create the Slack App

1. Go to Your Apps and click Create an app > From an app manifest.
2. Pick your workspace and click Next.
3. Update manifest.yml: replace YOUR-APP-DOMAIN-GOES.HERE with your app's domain in redirect_urls, event_subscriptions > request_url, and interactivity > request_url. Optionally change the app name, description, and display_name.
4. On step 2, click YAML, paste the content of manifest.yml, click Next, then Create.
5. Click Install to Workspace.

If you later change the URL in the manifest, verify the event URL by running ./node_modules/.bin/slack-verify --secret SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET with your actual signing secret.

2. Configure the .env File

Copy .env.example to .env and fill the following:

Variable	Where to find it
SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET	Settings > Basic Information > App Credentials > Signing Secret
SLACK_BOT_TOKEN	Features > OAuth & Permissions > Bot User OAuth Token
YOUR_USER_TOKEN	Features > OAuth & Permissions > User OAuth Token
YOUR_USER_ID	Click on your profile in Slack > three dots > Copy member ID

Welcome Messages

Configure up to 3 messages using the format Label|||message text. Use {{name}} as a placeholder for the new member's first name:

MESSAGE="Welcome|||Welcome {{name}}! Happy to have you here."
MESSAGE_2="Employee|||Hey {{name}}! Be sure to read the internal guidelines."
MESSAGE_3="Casual|||What's up {{name}}!"

Each message gets its own button in the DM you receive.

3. Run the App

npm install
node index.js

Or with pm2 for persistence: pm2 start index.js

Docker

docker build -t warm-welcome .
docker run -p 80:8080 warm-welcome

Testing

Join your Slack community as a new user. You should receive a DM with buttons for each configured message. Click one of the message button and the new member gets your welcome message. Check your server logs if something isn't working.