Mrox

Mrox is a Slack bot that watches [Prox2 / Owl] confession activity and DMs the submitter when their confession's status changes (approved, approved for meta, denied, or unapproved).

Currently implemented in test.ts (the actively-developed version).

What it does

• /mrox {id} — start tracking a confession by its numeric ID (or /mrox untrack {id}). Only the configured user can call it while the test guard is on.
• App Home box — paste/type a confession ID and press Enter, no command needed. Tracked confessions are listed with Untrack buttons.
• Watches the confession logs channel for status updates like Confession #40289 was approved.
• DMs the submitter with the result:
  • Approved → link to the post in #confessions
  • Approved for meta → link in #meta
  • Denied → includes the reason pulled from the log thread
  • Unapproved → thread-nuked notice
• Auto-follow thread (optional, App Home toggle, default OFF): on approval, silently subscribes the submitter to the post's thread by pinging then instantly deleting the ping.
• Marks confessions resolved and purges them 2 days later.
• Easter egg for impossible states (a status update on an already-resolved confession).

Setup

1. Create the Slack app from app_manifest.yaml (api.slack.com → Create New App → From manifest).

2. Add tokens to .env (see .env.example):

   • SLACK_BOT_TOKEN (xoxb-*) — Bot User OAuth Token
   • SLACK_APP_TOKEN (xapp-*) — App-Level Token with connections:write

3. Invite the bot to #confessions, #meta, and the confession logs channel.

4. Install the app, then run:

   npm start

Configuration

All channel IDs and toggles have sensible defaults in test.ts and can be overridden with env vars (see .env.example):

Variable	Default	Purpose
CHANNEL_CONFESSIONS	CNMU9L92Q	#confessions
CHANNEL_CONFESSION_LOGS	C08R8LE6DDG	logs / status channel
CHANNEL_META	C0188CY57PZ	#meta
OWL_BOT_ID	B0C6JPG4W0G	Prox2/Owl bot id
WORKSPACE_DOMAIN	hackclub.enterprise.slack.com	permalink building
RESTRICT_TO_USER	true	only ALLOWED_USER_ID may use /mrox
ALLOWED_USER_ID	U09KKMHLS15	the allowed user
VERIFY_ID_IN_STATUS	false	require status to reference the id
DEBUG	false	verbose logging

To test without touching the real flow, override the CHANNEL_* variables to point at throwaway channels.

Data

• confessions.json — tracked confessions (id, userId, resolved, date, postTs, status). Writes are atomic.
• settings.json — per-user preferences (App Home toggle).

Notes

• Mrox cannot read other users' DMs with Prox2; Slack does not allow bots to read DMs they aren't part of. Track via /mrox {id} or the App Home box.
• The bot only acts on status messages from the Owl bot (OWL_BOT_ID) in the logs channel.
• The bot needs channels:history and to be a member of the channels it scans.