Slack Work Log

Track all your Slack messages to see what you worked on! This Actor scans all channels, DMs, and groups you're in, collects your messages from a configurable time period, and optionally generates an AI-powered work summary.

🎯 Use Case

Perfect for tracking your work contributions and creating weekly/monthly status reports. Instead of trying to remember what you worked on, let this Actor automatically collect all your Slack messages and generate a concise summary.

Perfect for:

• 📝 Weekly status reports and updates
• 📊 Tracking your work contributions
• 🗂️ Creating work logs and activity summaries
• 🎯 Reviewing what you accomplished
• 💼 Preparing for 1-on-1s with your manager
• 🤖 AI-generated work summaries (optional)

✨ Features

• ✅ Collects all your messages from all channels, DMs, and groups
• ✅ Configurable time range (last N days)
• ✅ Includes reactions received on your messages
• ✅ Includes thread replies (both top-level messages and threaded responses)
• ✅ Cleans Slack formatting for readability
• ✅ Smart channel activity detection (skips inactive channels for faster runs)
• ✅ Optional "channels only" mode (skip DMs for 10x faster execution)
• ✅ AI-powered work summary (optional) - Get a TLDR + detailed breakdown of your work
• ✅ Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, etc.
• ✅ Schedule to run automatically (weekly or monthly)

🚀 Quick Start

1. Get Your Slack User Token

You need a personal Slack user token (starts with xoxp-). Here's how:

Create a Slack App

1. Go to Slack API Apps
2. Click "Create New App" → "From scratch"
3. Give it a name (e.g., "Work Log") and select your workspace
4. Go to "OAuth & Permissions" in the left sidebar
5. Scroll to "Scopes" → "User Token Scopes"
6. Add these scopes:
   • users:read - Read user names
   • channels:read - Read public channel names
   • channels:history - Read public channel message history
   • groups:read - Read private channel names
   • groups:history - Read private channel message history
   • im:read - Read direct messages
   • im:history - Read DM history
   • mpim:read - Read group messages
   • mpim:history - Read group message history
7. Scroll up to "OAuth Tokens for Your Workspace"
8. Click "Install to Workspace" and authorize the app
9. Copy your "User OAuth Token" (starts with xoxp-)

⚠️ Important Notes:

• Use a User Token (xoxp-), NOT a Bot Token (xoxb-)
• If your workspace requires admin approval, you'll need to request it
• Keep your token secure - treat it like a password!

2. Configure the Actor

Required:

• User Token: Your Slack user token (xoxp-...)

Optional:

• How many days back: Number of days to look back (default: 7)
  • Use 7 for weekly reports
  • Use 30 for monthly reports
  • Adjust as needed
• Channels only: Skip DMs and group messages (default: disabled)
  • ✅ Enable this to make the Actor run much faster (recommended for most use cases)
  • Only scans public and private channels
  • Skips direct messages and group messages which can be very time-consuming
• Generate AI summary: Create an AI-powered work summary (default: disabled)
  • ✅ Uses Claude via Apify OpenRouter to analyze your messages
  • Generates both a quick TLDR and detailed breakdown
  • Covers main projects, accomplishments, and collaborators
  • Names are normalized (diacritics removed) for better display
  • ⚠️ Uses Apify OpenRouter - small cost applies (typically $0.01-0.05 per summary)

3. Run the Actor

Click "Start" and wait for it to complete. The Actor will:

1. Fetch all conversations you're a member of
2. For each conversation, fetch message history within the date range
3. Filter to only messages you posted
4. Fetch thread replies and reaction data
5. Clean up Slack formatting for readability
6. Export as a clean table

📊 Output Format

Dataset: Your Slack Messages

Each row in the dataset contains:

• Channel - Channel name (or "Direct Message" / "Group Message")
• Message - Cleaned, human-readable text
• Link - Direct link to the message in Slack
• Date - When the message was posted
• Reactions - Reactions others added to your message
• Thread Reply - Whether this is a threaded reply or top-level message

You can export the dataset as:

• CSV (for Excel/Google Sheets)
• JSON
• Excel
• RSS
• HTML table

Key-Value Store: AI Work Summary (if enabled)

If you enable "Generate AI summary", you'll get a summary.md file with:

• TLDR - Quick 3-5 bullet point summary at the top
• Detailed Breakdown - Comprehensive analysis with:
  • Main Projects & Themes
  • Key Contributions
  • Collaboration highlights
  • Notable items and follow-ups

The summary is accessible in the "Output" tab → "AI Work Summary" section.

🔄 Scheduling & Automation

Weekly Work Log Schedule

1. Go to the "Schedule" tab in the Actor
2. Set up a weekly schedule:
   • Cron: 0 9 * * 1 (9am every Monday)
   • Input: Set "How many days back" to 7
3. Save the schedule

The Actor will automatically run every Monday and collect the last week's messages!

Monthly Work Log Schedule

1. Go to the "Schedule" tab in the Actor
2. Set up a monthly schedule:
   • Cron: 0 9 1 * * (9am on the 1st of each month)
   • Input: Set "How many days back" to 30
3. Save the schedule

Slack Integration

Get notified when the Actor completes:

1. Go to "Integrations" tab
2. Click "+ Add integration"
3. Select "Slack"
4. Choose trigger: "Run succeeded"
5. Connect your Slack workspace and select a channel
6. Customize the notification message

The notification can include:

• Number of messages found
• Link to the full dataset
• Any custom text you want

💡 Pro Tips

Best Practices

1. Use "Channels only" mode - Enable this to skip DMs and group messages for much faster runs (recommended)
2. Run regularly - Schedule it weekly or monthly to track your work consistently
3. Review before 1-on-1s - Run it before manager meetings to remember your contributions
4. Export to spreadsheet - Use CSV export to organize and categorize your work
5. Group by channel - Sort by channel in Excel/Sheets to see contributions by project/team

Time Range Recommendations

• 7 days - Weekly status reports and updates
• 14 days - Bi-weekly sprint reviews
• 30 days - Monthly reviews and summaries
• 90 days - Quarterly reviews

🔧 Advanced Usage

API Parameters

When calling the Actor via API, you can use:

{
  "userToken": "xoxp-your-token-here",
  "lastNDays": 7,
  "channelsOnly": true
}

🐛 Troubleshooting

"No messages found"

• Verify your token has all required scopes
• Check the date range - you might be looking too far back
• Make sure you actually posted messages in that time period

"Could not fetch messages from [channel]"

• This is normal for some channels if you don't have access
• Private channels may not be accessible if your token doesn't have groups:read and groups:history

"Rate limit hit"

• The Actor automatically handles rate limits with exponential backoff
• If you're in many channels (100+), it may take several minutes to complete

Actor taking too long to run

• Enable "Channels only" to skip DMs and group messages
• DMs and group messages can add significant time to the run
• Most work discussions happen in channels anyway

📝 Example Workflow

1. Throughout the week: Do your normal work, post in Slack as usual
2. Monday morning: Actor runs automatically (or you trigger it manually)
3. Review: Open the dataset in Apify Console
4. Export: Download as CSV or Excel
5. Create report: Use the exported data to write your weekly status update

🔒 Privacy & Security

• Your Slack token is stored securely in Apify
• The Actor only accesses messages you posted
• All data stays in your Apify account
• You can delete datasets after exporting

📜 License

UNLICENSED - For personal use

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Need help? Open an issue or contact support at Apify.

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