Get Slack messages for New GitHub Stars

Video authored by the channel shown, not by IANIA; all rights belong to the creator. Transcript and summary generated automatically; the original-language content is preserved.

Original language: English

Original video: Get Slack messages for New GitHub Stars · Channel: n8n · 03:07 · Watch on YouTube

Topics: Task and workflow automation, AI developer tools

Summary

The video demonstrates how to use the n8n Assistant to create a workflow that sends a Slack notification when a GitHub repository gets a new star. The presenter configures a GitHub connection and a Slack bot token, then tests the workflow by triggering a notification. After confirming the message arrives, they publish the workflow and explain that it can notify them about future stars.

Key points

The workflow is built in the n8n Assistant by describing the desired automation in natural language.
The example monitors the GitHub repository liammcgarigal/indieartifacts.
The requested Slack message is a simple notification naming the new star’s username and including a star emoji.
The generated workflow has three nodes and requires GitHub and Slack connections.
On n8n Cloud, the GitHub connection can be set up with a one-click connection.
The presenter uses a manually configured Slack bot access token so messages come from a bot rather than their personal account.
The workflow is tested by allowing it to run and checking that a Slack DM arrives.
After the successful test, the workflow is published to notify the presenter about future stars.

Chapters

Start	Chapter	Summary
00:00	Building the workflow with the n8n Assistant	The presenter introduces the goal and asks the n8n Assistant to create a Slack notification for new stars on a GitHub repository.
01:01	Connecting GitHub and Slack	The presenter reviews the generated workflow, connects GitHub, and explains how to configure Slack with a bot token.
02:05	Testing the notification	The presenter saves the Slack credentials, runs a test, and confirms that the new-star message appears in Slack.
02:37	Publishing the workflow	The presenter publishes the workflow and describes how it can provide an immediate notification when the repository gets another star.

Quotes

So I decided to set up a Slack notification for when a star comes in. — 00:00

I want the message to be a simple like new star from username with a star emoji. — 00:31

i want it to come from a bot account — 01:34

Nice. Now let’s check our Slack and we got a new star. — 02:37

Concepts and entities

n8n Assistant, n8n, GitHub, Slack, liammcgarigal/indieartifacts, n8n Cloud

Full transcript (original language)

00:00 I just released this GitHub project the other day, and I am honestly tired of staring at it, just waiting to get stars. So I decided to set up a Slack notification for when a star comes in. So that’s what we’re doing in this video. I’m making this in the n8n Assistant, which is n8n’s built-in, you know, agent builder. So you can get to it from this button here. I’m going to build it in my super cool project. Um, project? Because I think it qualifies. And in here, you just say what you want. So you can just put in like, I want a Slack notification when someone stars my

00:31 GitHub repo, and I’ll paste in my Slack ID. And the repo is liammcgarigal slash indieartifacts. I want the message to be a simple like new star from username with a star emoji. And we can send this off and it should just start building. This is a fresh project, so there’s no connection set up. So it will probably make a very simple workflow since this is a pretty simple use case. and ask me to enter in a GitHub connection and a Slack connection. We can see here all the things that it’s working on.

01:01 We can expand this too and see like the skills and all the stuff that it’s doing under the hood. But you know, we can make it ourselves if we want to do all that thinking. We’ll just close this. It took 36 seconds and we already have our simple workflow here. It’s only three nodes when it’s a new star. It is asking us to set up our GitHub. Since I’m on N8nCloud, which is our hosted solution, It’s just a one click connection to do this. If you’re on the free self-hosted edition, you’ll have access to all of this. Like you just have to bring your own API key for the AI and you’ll have to set it up manually, which means you have to go to GitHub, get an API key,

01:34 but I can just click and it’ll connect just like that. And now we have Slack, which we could do the same click to connect, but that would be to give it access to our own user account. So it will send messages as liam mcgarigal me which isn’t great because then i’ll get a dm for myself and i won’t get a notification for it i want it to come from a bot account so we’re going to set it up manually and we’ll come to access token and i already copied my access token before so that i wouldn’t have to show it on video to everybody but i’ll paste it in there and this is just a bot i set up on Slack

02:05 before it’s not that hard uh you just have to go through and follow the instructions You can check out the docs right here if you’re having trouble there. But I’ll save this and say apply. And then it should go through and add it in there. And it looks like it still has the little things here. I’ve noticed before if you just open it and close it, then it kind of refreshes it. Still an unpublished draft. So now I’m going to say let’s try it for real and see if I actually get a DM. Okay, it asks. So I’ll say always allow.

02:37 Nice. Now let’s check our Slack and we got a new star. So we’ll do a little bit of, you know, something like that. And now it works. So we can obviously just press publish right here, but I don’t know how to do anything myself anymore. So I’ll say publish it, please. I don’t even know how to say please. At least I’m trying to say please. So now we’ll allow it to publish and we can see there nice and green. So it’s published, which means if I go in and, you know, it’s going to say stuff, but I’m not going to read it. if I star my own repo, we should have a new star for

03:07 me just as fast as that. So now maybe when I get my third star, I’ll know about it immediately. I hope this helps and shows how you can set something up that’s super simple in N8M just really easily. All the resources are in the description in some links. So you just go down there, click away and you’ll find what you need. If something’s not working for you, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer you. See you in the next one.