If you’re like me, your Slack is a firehose. Every day, hundreds of messages across dozens of channels, and you’re expected to keep up. I used to spend an hour each morning scrolling, trying to find the important stuff. Then I built a digest bot that does it for me. Here’s how you can do it too — no development experience required.
First, let’s be clear: I’m not a developer. I’m a founder who knows enough to be dangerous. I use Python scripts, but I don’t write them from scratch. I adapt them from open-source projects or buy them from places like Kintly. The key is to understand what the script does, not how to write it.
The script I use does three things: it pulls the last 24 hours of messages from all channels I’m in, filters out the noise (like bot messages and threads), and then posts a summary to a dedicated digest channel. It runs every weekday at 8 AM via a cron job on my server.
To set it up, I needed three things: a server (I use a $5 DigitalOcean droplet), a Slack app with the right permissions, and the script itself. The script is about 200 lines of Python, but I didn’t write it from memory. I forked a GitHub project and tweaked the config file.
The hardest part was getting the Slack API permissions right. You need to create a Slack app, add scopes like `channels:history` and `chat:write`, and install it to your workspace. The script’s README walked me through it step by step. Once I did that, the script just worked.
Now, every morning I get a message that looks like this: “Good morning! Here’s what you missed: 3 urgent threads, 5 announcements, 12 questions in #support, and a link to the top 3 messages.” It’s like having a personal assistant who read everything so I don’t have to.
The time savings are huge. I estimate I save about 45 minutes a day. Over a month, that’s 15 hours. That’s almost two full workdays. For a solo founder, that’s massive.
But the best part? It’s not just for Slack. The same pattern works for email digests, Twitter mentions, or even RSS feeds. I’ve since built a similar script for my email inbox that summarizes unread newsletters.
If you’re not comfortable tweaking a script, start with a ready-made one. Many are available for a few dollars. The point is to automate the repetitive part of your day. You don’t need to be a developer to do it — you just need to be willing to try.
So go ahead. Build your own digest bot. Your future self will thank you.