Show HN: An open source alternative to some of Slack AI's premium features (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

76 pointsmeetbryce1y ago21 comments

The official Slack AI product looks great, but with limited access and add-on pricing, I decided to open-source the version I built. Especially for all the communities on Slack that would have to convert to paid and buy the upgrade to access the official SlackAI product/add-on which is not going to be financially viable in most cases.

There's no plan to sell anything, just something I built as a way to learn some new tools that I thought others might get use out of.

The repo is a ready-to-run slack app that provides thread summaries and channel overviews on demand using OpenAI (heavy lifting done by gpt-3.5-turbo and a touch of gpt-4) and some standard NLP analysis. Anyone technical could easily swap in Claude or Ollama (and i'd welcome the pull request, it's been on my to do list!).

There's a link in the readme to a blog post I wrote sharing more about the how/why if you're interested.

I'm a product manager by day, so it's been fun to do some real coding again.

21 comments

gliptic1y ago

> I decided to open-source the version I built in September 2024.

I think this is the most impressive part!

meetbryceOP1y ago

oh no... my time travel secrets!

i better fix that

nadermx1y ago

Why did you not show up to Hawking's time traveller party?

1 more reply

tithe1y ago

As far as "Show HN" goes, this is called "burying the lede".

pants21y ago

This is great, congrats on open-sourcing. The (now $20/user/mo we've been told) Slack AI is really not all that good in my experience, so it shouldn't be hard for you to do better by just spending a little extra $ in API credits.

That said, the Slack API limits third party apps from accessing chat history of private messages, so any implementations like this are artificially limited. In addition, if you're hosting something for your company to use, it would realistically need to take into account user permissions to make sure the AI isn't sending them data they shouldn't have access to. That could be tricky to implement correctly.

meetbryceOP1y ago

thanks @pants2!

oh wow. i should have guessed taking it off the pricing page meant the price went up, not down.

this works in private channels, but not in DMs. i think that's okay given the likelihood of things getting to much for manual parsing in a 1:1 context.

if you've got the time/inclination, I'm interested to hear more about what you're getting at with the permissions & access piece

toomuchtodo1y ago

Is Mattermost more flexible in this regard vs Slack?

jedi4aiimpact1y ago

Sounds like a solid value add. We have been thinking of integrating our system at ixcoach.com with slack. Will take a look.

godelski1y ago

Kinda off topic, but I know a lot of people here use keybase for verification, but don't they have a slack alternative that's both free and private? (Assuming zoom didn't kill either of those aspects) Anyone use it as an actual slack replacement?

freeqaz1y ago

Is anybody using Zoom as a Slack alternative? Or Keybase as an alternative? Or are you asking if there is something else?

Perhaps I'm lacking context but I couldn't figure out your question and I'd like to help you find an answer!

godelski1y ago

A sibling comment responded to me saying that it was pretty much dead, but that I was thinking of this[0]. You'll notice it looks a lot like Slack and that there's full teams support with full E2EE. And unlike slack you keep your history and other stuff. But I guess it is Open Source so maybe someone could revive it?

[0] https://book.keybase.io/chat

dewey1y ago

Key base had a chat product (wouldn’t call it a Slack competitor though)

mdaniel1y ago

I believe you're thinking of https://book.keybase.io/chat and its https://github.com/keybase/managed-bots#keybase-managed-bots friend but at least based on my experience on Android I can assure you that Keybase is dead. They DGAF, find another platform

godelski1y ago

Yeah that's kinda the impression I got but was hoping it wasn't or there was an alternative. Thanks.

Is this one Open Source too? I wasn't sure which project it was under. But if it is then maybe someone else can revive it because I'd love to have a Slack alternative that is E2EE.

1 more reply

meetbryceOP1y ago

definitely off topic haha. i've got no idea though

tyre1y ago

Today we tried installing Claude with Slack and were told that it’s restricted to enterprise versions.

meetbryceOP1y ago

hopefully this being self hosted gets around that kind of restriction (at least for a while...)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

Show HN: An open source alternative to some of Slack AI's premium features (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

76 pointsmeetbryce1y ago21 comments

There's no plan to sell anything, just something I built as a way to learn some new tools that I thought others might get use out of.

There's a link in the readme to a blog post I wrote sharing more about the how/why if you're interested.

I'm a product manager by day, so it's been fun to do some real coding again.

21 comments

gliptic1y ago

> I decided to open-source the version I built in September 2024.

I think this is the most impressive part!

meetbryceOP1y ago

oh no... my time travel secrets!

i better fix that

nadermx1y ago

Why did you not show up to Hawking's time traveller party?

1 more reply

tithe1y ago

As far as "Show HN" goes, this is called "burying the lede".

pants21y ago

meetbryceOP1y ago

thanks @pants2!

oh wow. i should have guessed taking it off the pricing page meant the price went up, not down.

this works in private channels, but not in DMs. i think that's okay given the likelihood of things getting to much for manual parsing in a 1:1 context.

if you've got the time/inclination, I'm interested to hear more about what you're getting at with the permissions & access piece

toomuchtodo1y ago

Is Mattermost more flexible in this regard vs Slack?

jedi4aiimpact1y ago

Sounds like a solid value add. We have been thinking of integrating our system at ixcoach.com with slack. Will take a look.

godelski1y ago

freeqaz1y ago

Is anybody using Zoom as a Slack alternative? Or Keybase as an alternative? Or are you asking if there is something else?

Perhaps I'm lacking context but I couldn't figure out your question and I'd like to help you find an answer!

godelski1y ago

[0] https://book.keybase.io/chat

dewey1y ago

Key base had a chat product (wouldn’t call it a Slack competitor though)

mdaniel1y ago

godelski1y ago

Yeah that's kinda the impression I got but was hoping it wasn't or there was an alternative. Thanks.

Is this one Open Source too? I wasn't sure which project it was under. But if it is then maybe someone else can revive it because I'd love to have a Slack alternative that is E2EE.

1 more reply

meetbryceOP1y ago

definitely off topic haha. i've got no idea though

tyre1y ago

Today we tried installing Claude with Slack and were told that it’s restricted to enterprise versions.

meetbryceOP1y ago

hopefully this being self hosted gets around that kind of restriction (at least for a while...)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse