Spotify bot

A very small script to control Spotify (on a Mac) from Slack, using a bot.

Setup

Create your bot

Log into Slack website, then: Apps -> Build your own -> Custom Integration -> Bots.

Name your bot "Spotify" or whatever you like. Copy the key Slack gives you.

Configure your bot

Create a file named bot_setup.js and populate it with:

module.exports = {
  token: 'your slack bot token here',
  channel: 'channel name (no #)' // optional, for posting track updates
};

Install the required dependencies

npm install

Boot up your new bot

node spotifybot.js

In Slack, invite the bot to a channel (/invite @bot_name) and now you can talk to it.

Type @bot_name help to get a list of commands

Keep your bot running as a background service

On OS X, background services are either LaunchAgents or LaunchDaemons. SpotifySlackBot can only run while a user is logged in, since it depends on the Spotify GUI app being open, so the appropriate type of service here is a LaunchAgent.

First, edit spotifybot.launchagent.plist and change BOT_HOME to the full path of your bot's directory, e.g. /Users/jm3/code/spotifyslackbot or the like.

Install the launchAgent by copying it to the required location:

cp spotifybot.launchagent.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

If you care about logging (and who doesn't), create two empty logfiles, owned by you:

sudo touch /var/log/spotify.slackbot.out.log /var/log/spotify.slackbot.err.log
sudo chown `whoami` /var/log/spotify.slackbot.out.log /var/log/spotify.slackbot.err.log

Finally, launch your background service for the first time (it will now auto-start upon login)

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/spotifybot.launchagent.plist

Upgrading

If you are lagging behind on an old version of SpotifySlackBot, use the following steps to upgrade:

If you are running the bot as a background service, stop it with

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/spotifybot.launchagent.plist

Otherwise, just stop the script as you would normally.

Pull the latest version from github

git pull origin

Update the npm dependencies

npm install

You're all set! Restart from the command line, or using this command to start again as a background service

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/spotifybot.launchagent.plist