Slash Commands & Interactions

Loop provides slash commands for task management, bot control, and permission management. Commands are available on all platforms but are invoked differently depending on the platform.

Command Invocation by Platform

Discord

Discord commands are registered as a single top-level /loop application command with subcommands and subcommand groups. The Commands() function in internal/discord/commands.go defines the full command tree.

Discord slash commands must be acknowledged within 3 seconds. The bot immediately responds with DeferredChannelMessageWithSource, stores the interaction object in pendingInteractions[channelID], then dispatches the parsed interaction to the orchestrator. When the orchestrator replies via SendMessage, the pending interaction is resolved with InteractionResponseEdit instead of sending a regular message.

Subcommand groups (like template) produce hyphenated command names internally: template add becomes template-add, template list becomes template-list.

Slack

Slack uses Socket Mode to receive /loop slash commands. The raw text after /loop is parsed by parseSlashCommand into an Interaction struct. If parsing fails, help text or an error message is posted back to the channel.

The Slack parser handles platform-specific differences:

• Role-based permission commands (allow role, deny role) are explicitly unsupported on Slack with a descriptive error message.
• User IDs must be in Slack mention format: <@U123456> or <@U123456|username>. The extractUserID function strips the angle brackets and optional display name.
• The schedule command uses the type keyword (cron, interval, once) as a positional delimiter, since cron expressions contain spaces.
• The edit command uses --flag value syntax for optional parameters, with --prompt consuming all remaining text.

Local (API)

The Electron app sends commands via POST /api/commands with a JSON body:

{
  "channel_id": "abc123",
  "author_id": "local-user",
  "command": "schedule type=cron schedule=\"0 9 * * *\" prompt=\"Check updates\""
}

The parseCommand function tokenizes the command string (respecting quoted strings), then maps the subcommand name to its argument format:

• No-arg commands – tasks, status, readme, template-list, iamtheowner
• Single positional – task <task_id>, cancel <task_id>, toggle <task_id>, template-add <name>
• Optional positional – stop [channel_id]
• Key=value pairs – schedule type=cron schedule="0 9 * * *" prompt="Do something"
• Positional + key=value – edit <task_id> schedule="new" prompt="updated"
• Multiple positionals – allow_user <target_id> [role], deny_user <target_id>

The author_id defaults to "local-user" if not provided.

Command Reference

schedule

Create a scheduled task that runs an agent at specified intervals.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters:

Examples:

Discord: /loop schedule schedule:0 9 * * * type:cron prompt:Check for updates
Slack:   /loop schedule "0 9 * * *" cron Check for updates
API:     schedule type=cron schedule="0 9 * * *" prompt="Check for updates"

Slack:   /loop schedule 1h interval Run health check
Slack:   /loop schedule 2026-02-15T10:00:00Z once Deploy release

Response: Task scheduled (ID: <N>).

tasks

List all scheduled tasks for the current channel.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters: None

Example:

Discord: /loop tasks
Slack:   /loop tasks
API:     tasks

Response: A formatted list showing each task’s ID, type, status (enabled/disabled), schedule expression, truncated prompt (80 chars), next run time, and auto-delete setting if configured.

task

Show full details of a specific scheduled task.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop task task_id:42
Slack:   /loop task 42
API:     task 42

Response: Detailed task information including type, schedule, status, next run, template name (if applicable), auto-delete setting, and the full prompt text.

cancel

Delete a scheduled task permanently.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop cancel task_id:42
Slack:   /loop cancel 42
API:     cancel 42

Response: Task <N> cancelled.

toggle

Enable or disable a scheduled task without deleting it.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop toggle task_id:42
Slack:   /loop toggle 42
API:     toggle 42

Response: Task <N> enabled. or Task <N> disabled.

edit

Modify one or more properties of an existing scheduled task.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters:

At least one of schedule, type, or prompt must be provided.

Examples:

Discord: /loop edit task_id:42 schedule:0 */2 * * * prompt:Updated check
Slack:   /loop edit 42 --schedule "0 */2 * * *" --prompt Updated check
API:     edit 42 schedule="0 */2 * * *" prompt="Updated check"

On Slack, --prompt consumes all remaining text after it. On the API, the value is a single quoted token.

Response: Task <N> updated.

status

Check if the bot is running.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters: None

Example:

Discord: /loop status
Slack:   /loop status
API:     status

Response: Loop bot is running.

stop

Cancel the currently running agent in the channel. The stop button in the chat UI also triggers this command.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop stop
Slack:   /loop stop
API:     stop

Response: No explicit reply – the active run is cancelled and sends “Run stopped.” itself. If no run is active: No active run to stop.

readme

Display the embedded README documentation.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters: None

Example:

Discord: /loop readme
Slack:   /loop readme
API:     readme

Response: The full README content from internal/readme/embed.go.

template-add

Load a preconfigured task template into the current channel. Templates are defined in the config file under task_templates.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop template add name:daily-standup
Slack:   /loop template add daily-standup
API:     template-add daily-standup

Behavior:

1. Look up the template by name in cfg.TaskTemplates.
2. Check if a task with this template name already exists in the channel (prevents duplicates).
3. Resolve the prompt text – either from prompt field directly or by reading {loopDir}/templates/{prompt_path}.
4. Create a scheduled task with the template’s schedule, type, prompt, and auto-delete settings.

Response: Template '<name>' loaded (task ID: <N>). or error if unknown, already loaded, or prompt resolution fails.

template-list

List all available task templates from the config.

Permission: Member or Owner

Parameters: None

Example:

Discord: /loop template list
Slack:   /loop template list
API:     template-list

Response: A formatted list showing each template’s name, type, schedule, and description.

allow_user

Grant a user a role (owner or member) in the current channel’s database permissions.

Permission: Owner only

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop allow_user target_id:@SomeUser role:owner
Slack:   /loop allow user <@U123456> owner
API:     allow_user U123456 owner

Behavior: The target is first removed from all permission lists (owners and members), then added to the specified role’s list. This ensures a user has exactly one role.

Response: <mention> granted <role> role.

allow_role

Grant a Discord role access to the current channel. Discord-only.

Permission: Owner only

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop allow_role target_id:@Developers role:member

Response: Role <@&ROLE_ID> granted <role> role.

Slack returns: allow role is Discord-only (role-based permissions are not supported on Slack)

deny_user

Remove a user’s database-granted role from the current channel.

Permission: Owner only

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop deny_user target_id:@SomeUser
Slack:   /loop deny user <@U123456>
API:     deny_user U123456

Behavior: The target is removed from both the owners and members lists in the database permissions. Config-file permissions are not affected.

Response: <mention> removed from channel permissions.

deny_role

Remove a Discord role’s database-granted access from the current channel. Discord-only.

Permission: Owner only

Parameters:

Example:

Discord: /loop deny_role target_id:@Developers

Response: Role <@&ROLE_ID> removed from channel permissions.

iamtheowner

Claim ownership of the current channel. This command only works during initial setup when no permissions are configured anywhere (config file or database).

Permission: Bypasses normal permission checks; validates bootstrap mode internally.

Parameters: None

Example:

Discord: /loop iamtheowner
Slack:   /loop iamtheowner
API:     iamtheowner

Behavior:

1. Check that both config permissions and database permissions are empty (bootstrap mode).
2. If an owner is already configured, reject with: An owner is already configured. Use /loop allow_user to manage permissions.
3. If the channel is not registered, reject with: Channel not registered.
4. Add the invoking user to the channel’s database permissions as an owner.

Response: <@AUTHOR_ID> is now the owner of this channel.

Permission Requirements Summary

Users with no role assigned are rejected with: You don't have permission to use this command.

Interaction Flow

The unified interaction handling flow in the orchestrator:

1. Load channel – Get the channel from the database (may be nil for unregistered channels).
2. Resolve permissions – Load config permissions for the channel’s DirPath, get DB permissions from the channel record.
3. Resolve role – Merge config and DB permissions via resolveRole. If the platform is Local and the role is empty, auto-grant Owner.
4. Permission gate – Permission commands (allow_user, allow_role, deny_user, deny_role) require Owner. iamtheowner bypasses checks (validated internally). All other commands require any role (Member or Owner). No role = rejected.
5. Dispatch – Route to the command-specific handler based on inter.CommandName.
6. Reply – The handler sends a response via sendReply, which calls bot.SendMessage and stores the message in the database + broadcasts via EventsHub.

Related Documentation

• Platform Support – How each platform invokes and acks commands
• Orchestrator & Message Processing – How HandleInteraction fits in the overall flow
• Permission & RBAC System – Full role resolution logic