6 ms·

Show HN: Interbot – Get work done right from your chat app

72 points by vinodhdavid 12y ago

lexaude 12y ago
awesome. nicely done. noticed your launch on product hunt and waiting to see how this evolves.
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  Thanks! :)
shirman 12y ago
Without skin it looks like it's broken
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  I am sorry, what skin are you referring to?
akerl_ 12y ago
Would be nice if the page showed me what this gives me that any of the 1000 other bots don't give me (like Hubot). Would be also amazing if it had source or some way for users to contribute their own integrations; is that in the pipeline?
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  Nice suggestion. Yes we would want to open this framework for custom integrations. We are trying to create a bot which is easy to setup and use with neat interactions. We will be doing this as a service integrating interesting commands and services. We would want to provide an easy way to add data to other team members eg: You can create an event and add your team members calendar too easily.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
JangoSteve 12y ago
Looks nice, though it's unclear what the intentions are. Is this to become open source? Or are you going to start charging for it? Also, any chance of adding support for the Kandan chat app? http://kandanapp.com/ http://kandanapp.com/
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  We don't have any plans of open sourcing it at the moment. We want it to be a service and it is free. Yup we are starting with slack and we have plans to integrate Chat apps which has the API option open :)
  - jalada 12y ago
    How about integrating with a protocol instead of adding value to someone else's product? Have we not learned our lessons from how Twitter treated developers? Enjoy getting shut off when Slack decide they don't want customers to be adding functionality without paying their per integration rate, or want to stop getting the support tickets from people using your service and confusing it with Slack itself.
    - vinodhdavid 12y ago
      Thanks for your feedback. Actually the communication market is picking up. We are not dependant on slack we are an API which can be plugged to any chat service like Hipchat kato etc.
      - akerl_ 12y ago
        Your company may not be directly dependent on Slack, but if I pay you to use your bot with my Slack system and then Slack pulls the plug, I'm dependent on Slack and your bot working together. If Slack pulls the plug on your integration and enough of your income is from users who are integrating with Slack, your business could indeed be impacted.
      - vinodhdavid 12y ago
StavrosK 12y ago
I made the exact same thing: http://www.getinstabot.com http://www.getinstabot.com I couldn't get anyone to use it, so I think you're fighting an uphill battle. Good luck, though,
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  Sure, thanks for your feedback!
syva 12y ago
Awesome! Please add Pivotal Tracker integration :)
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  Sure. We will can you add your feedbacks here? https://interbot.uservoice.com/admin/forums/271962-general https://interbot.uservoice.com/admin/forums/271962-general
  - vinodhdavid 12y ago
    http://interbot.uservoice.com/forums/271962-general http://interbot.uservoice.com/forums/271962-general - The right link for feedback.
ben_straub 12y ago
Is this supposed to be "Hubot, but usable without hiring a developer?" There are lots of non-software companies that could benefit from chat-ops-like automation.
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  Yeah with good interface when you make mistakes and very simple to add data.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
ar7hur 12y ago
I love this kind of service, but extensibility is probably the most important feature and unless I'm wrong, your platform is not open (yet). We developers all use different services. Hubot is extremely simple (based on regular expressions to match commands) and quite successful because it's so easy to write and use your own module [1]. Hubot being free and open source, what is your differentiation plan? I'm sure there is room for different players. [1] http://hubot-script-catalog.herokuapp.com/ http://hubot-script-catalog.herokuapp.com/
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  We want to run this as a service, for eg with hubot you need to add the API keys in a config file which isn't that easy unless you have a dev to write something on top of it. We are planning to make the UX really simple on provide /pulling the data from your services.
  - akerl_ 12y ago
    Adding API keys to a config hardly requires a dev. And giving my API keys to you is much more dangerous.
    - vinodhdavid 12y ago
      We use OAuth so we don't store any API keystroke passwords. Well more than the ease we are trying to make this collaborative so you can add data to your team mate services easily.
      - akerl_ 12y ago
        Not sure what you mean by "API keystroke passwords". Almost all major APIs these days that you'd be working with for your bot use either OAUTH, generated API token strings, or bot. So you're either storing an OAUTH token or a token that isn't OAUTH but that the user treats a lot like a simple OAUTH token (it is use-case-specific, can be revoked, is identified by its purpose, etc)
    - 12y ago
Khao 12y ago
I don't really see the appeal of this because it looks like it's only good for one-liners. I'd rather have a complete interface that allows me to write a huge description, provide screenshots, link to other bug #s or githud commits, etc. It's a solution looking for a problem in my opinion because I would be pissed if all of a sudden all my issues, tasks and bug were one-line description. Please correct me if I'm wrong but that's what I get from the first impression of looking at your app.
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  We are just getting started but we have plans to build an interactive input methods where you can add more details to your apps. We do have plans getting there. We are initially mobile focussed.
nno 12y ago
I would like to see some kind of bot like this integrated do Telegram, is there anything?
thekylemontag 12y ago
Hubot as a service, but its pointed towards developers? Seems a bit odd. You should try to target services that aren’t mainly for developers instead. (ie Salesforce, Zendesk, etc)
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  Yeah we are getting there we started with Trello and Google calender for that exact reason :) Thanks for hte pointer!
nchudleigh 12y ago
This seems really slick! Nice work!
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  Thanks :)
mring33621 12y ago
I think this seems like a great idea. But I have never worked one place that used any of the seemingly trendy integrations. How about Lync -> Jira, Confluence, Perforce?
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  Definitely in our plan :)
eramasz 12y ago
Hi HNs Interbot now supports Github and Evernote more apps soon to be added.

72 points by vinodhdavid 12y ago

lexaude 12y ago

awesome. nicely done. noticed your launch on product hunt and waiting to see how this evolves.

vinodhdavid 12y ago
Thanks! :)

shirman 12y ago

Without skin it looks like it's broken

vinodhdavid 12y ago
I am sorry, what skin are you referring to?

akerl_ 12y ago

Would be nice if the page showed me what this gives me that any of the 1000 other bots don't give me (like Hubot). Would be also amazing if it had source or some way for users to contribute their own integrations; is that in the pipeline?

vinodhdavid 12y ago
Nice suggestion. Yes we would want to open this framework for custom integrations. We are trying to create a bot which is easy to setup and use with neat interactions. We will be doing this as a service integrating interesting commands and services. We would want to provide an easy way to add data to other team members eg: You can create an event and add your team members calendar too easily.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

JangoSteve 12y ago

Looks nice, though it's unclear what the intentions are. Is this to become open source? Or are you going to start charging for it? Also, any chance of adding support for the Kandan chat app? http://kandanapp.com/ http://kandanapp.com/

vinodhdavid 12y ago
We don't have any plans of open sourcing it at the moment. We want it to be a service and it is free. Yup we are starting with slack and we have plans to integrate Chat apps which has the API option open :)
- jalada 12y ago
  How about integrating with a protocol instead of adding value to someone else's product? Have we not learned our lessons from how Twitter treated developers? Enjoy getting shut off when Slack decide they don't want customers to be adding functionality without paying their per integration rate, or want to stop getting the support tickets from people using your service and confusing it with Slack itself.
  - vinodhdavid 12y ago
    Thanks for your feedback. Actually the communication market is picking up. We are not dependant on slack we are an API which can be plugged to any chat service like Hipchat kato etc.
    - akerl_ 12y ago
      Your company may not be directly dependent on Slack, but if I pay you to use your bot with my Slack system and then Slack pulls the plug, I'm dependent on Slack and your bot working together. If Slack pulls the plug on your integration and enough of your income is from users who are integrating with Slack, your business could indeed be impacted.
    - vinodhdavid 12y ago

StavrosK 12y ago

I made the exact same thing: http://www.getinstabot.com http://www.getinstabot.com I couldn't get anyone to use it, so I think you're fighting an uphill battle. Good luck, though,

vinodhdavid 12y ago
Sure, thanks for your feedback!

syva 12y ago

Awesome! Please add Pivotal Tracker integration :)

vinodhdavid 12y ago
Sure. We will can you add your feedbacks here? https://interbot.uservoice.com/admin/forums/271962-general https://interbot.uservoice.com/admin/forums/271962-general
- vinodhdavid 12y ago
  http://interbot.uservoice.com/forums/271962-general http://interbot.uservoice.com/forums/271962-general - The right link for feedback.

ben_straub 12y ago

Is this supposed to be "Hubot, but usable without hiring a developer?" There are lots of non-software companies that could benefit from chat-ops-like automation.

vinodhdavid 12y ago
Yeah with good interface when you make mistakes and very simple to add data.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

ar7hur 12y ago

I love this kind of service, but extensibility is probably the most important feature and unless I'm wrong, your platform is not open (yet). We developers all use different services. Hubot is extremely simple (based on regular expressions to match commands) and quite successful because it's so easy to write and use your own module [1]. Hubot being free and open source, what is your differentiation plan? I'm sure there is room for different players. [1] http://hubot-script-catalog.herokuapp.com/ http://hubot-script-catalog.herokuapp.com/

vinodhdavid 12y ago
We want to run this as a service, for eg with hubot you need to add the API keys in a config file which isn't that easy unless you have a dev to write something on top of it. We are planning to make the UX really simple on provide /pulling the data from your services.
- akerl_ 12y ago
  Adding API keys to a config hardly requires a dev. And giving my API keys to you is much more dangerous.
  - vinodhdavid 12y ago
    We use OAuth so we don't store any API keystroke passwords. Well more than the ease we are trying to make this collaborative so you can add data to your team mate services easily.
    - akerl_ 12y ago
      Not sure what you mean by "API keystroke passwords". Almost all major APIs these days that you'd be working with for your bot use either OAUTH, generated API token strings, or bot. So you're either storing an OAUTH token or a token that isn't OAUTH but that the user treats a lot like a simple OAUTH token (it is use-case-specific, can be revoked, is identified by its purpose, etc)
  - 12y ago

Khao 12y ago

I don't really see the appeal of this because it looks like it's only good for one-liners. I'd rather have a complete interface that allows me to write a huge description, provide screenshots, link to other bug #s or githud commits, etc. It's a solution looking for a problem in my opinion because I would be pissed if all of a sudden all my issues, tasks and bug were one-line description. Please correct me if I'm wrong but that's what I get from the first impression of looking at your app.

vinodhdavid 12y ago
We are just getting started but we have plans to build an interactive input methods where you can add more details to your apps. We do have plans getting there. We are initially mobile focussed.

nno 12y ago

I would like to see some kind of bot like this integrated do Telegram, is there anything?

thekylemontag 12y ago

Hubot as a service, but its pointed towards developers? Seems a bit odd. You should try to target services that aren’t mainly for developers instead. (ie Salesforce, Zendesk, etc)

vinodhdavid 12y ago
Yeah we are getting there we started with Trello and Google calender for that exact reason :) Thanks for hte pointer!

nchudleigh 12y ago

This seems really slick! Nice work!

vinodhdavid 12y ago
Thanks :)

mring33621 12y ago

I think this seems like a great idea. But I have never worked one place that used any of the seemingly trendy integrations. How about Lync -> Jira, Confluence, Perforce?

vinodhdavid 12y ago
Definitely in our plan :)

eramasz 12y ago

Hi HNs Interbot now supports Github and Evernote more apps soon to be added.