Fridica

Fridica is a local persona that connects your Slack identity to Claude Code or Codex. It listens in channels you choose, decides when to participate, works in configured project directories, and replies in Slack threads as you. Replies use your first-person voice, without a Fridica introduction or visible signature. Machine-readable metadata remains for loop protection; legacy signed messages are still recognized. Your own messages never trigger your agent.

This first release runs one owner per daemon and one Slack app per owner. Anyone in an allowed channel can trigger workspace actions. It includes both CLI backends, SQLite context and task storage, clarification conversations, and loop limits. It does not include a shared relay, browser OAuth onboarding, MCP server, or automation of the Claude/Codex desktop UI.

Install

Use macOS or Linux with Python 3.11 or newer. Install and authenticate either Claude Code or Codex CLI before you install fridica.

Sandbox dependencies on Linux

Both backends run agent commands inside a bubblewrap sandbox on Linux; macOS uses the built-in sandbox-exec and needs nothing extra.

1. Install the packages.

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install bubblewrap socat

# Fedora
sudo dnf install bubblewrap socat

2. Allow bubblewrap to create user namespaces (Ubuntu 24.04 and later). Ubuntu's default AppArmor policy blocks unprivileged user namespaces, so every sandboxed command fails with bwrap: loopback: Failed RTM_NEWADDR: Operation not permitted even though the packages are installed. Check the setting:

sysctl kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns

If it prints 1, install an AppArmor profile that grants bwrap the capability (the profile applies to bwrap only, not to the commands it runs inside the sandbox), then reload AppArmor:

sudo tee /etc/apparmor.d/bwrap > /dev/null <<'EOF'
abi <abi/4.0>,
include <tunables/global>

profile bwrap /usr/bin/bwrap flags=(unconfined) {
  userns,
  include if exists <local/bwrap>
}
EOF
sudo systemctl reload apparmor

If it prints 0 or No such file or directory, skip this step. This follows Claude Code's sandboxing guide; Codex uses the same system bwrap, so the profile fixes both backends.

3. Verify.

fridica doctor   # expect: PASS AI sandbox

doctor checks that the packages are present and then runs /bin/true inside a bubblewrap user namespace, so it fails with the exact bwrap: error when either step above is incomplete. start runs the same check and refuses to launch on failure. Without it, a running daemon would return the generic "I couldn't complete this request" reply within seconds for any request that needs a command. The local log records the agent's exit status and a bounded tail of its stderr; that diagnostic text is never sent to Slack.

init creates ~/.config/fridica/config.toml, without overwriting existing configuration, and copies two editable files beside it: manifest.yaml for the Slack app and contract.md, the rulebook every agent run reads (see Agent contract). For a different location, use fridica init --config /path/config.toml.

Install via pypi

pip install fridica
fridica init

Install locally to an existing python virtual environment

git clone https://github.com/chengcli/fridica
pip install -e .
fridica init

Configure Slack

Use one Slack app per person, with a user token for that person's account. Do not share tokens. Other channel members need no installation to interact with your running Fridica; anyone in an allowed channel can request workspace actions. Separate owners must not share an app: multiple Socket Mode connections divide events rather than broadcasting them to every connection. See Slack's Socket Mode documentation.

1. Create the app and set permissions

Open Slack app management, choose Create New App → From an app manifest, select your workspace, and paste slack/manifest.yaml. The manifest sets up public channels. Verify these settings before installation:

users:read is included for user-profile access, but current mention rendering does not require a profile lookup. Bot Token Scopes and bot event subscriptions are not used. You do not need a public Request URL with Socket Mode.

For private channels, also add these before installation:

Keep the public-channel settings if monitoring both types. DMs and group DMs are not supported. The authorized person must belong to every configured channel. Event subscriptions and their corresponding scopes are both necessary; see Slack's Events API and private-channel events.

Do not add unrelated scopes:

• links:read and links:write are for shared-link events and custom unfurls; ordinary replies containing URLs need only chat:write. Fridica disables unfurls.
• File upload/download, reactions, channel administration, email, and bot mention scopes are not needed for current functionality. Local workspace file access is controlled by the agent, not Slack scopes.
• metadata.message:read was listed in older manifests, but Slack documents it as a bot/legacy-bot scope, not a user-token scope. Do not add a bot token just for this scope. Fridica still attempts to attach metadata to outgoing replies; metadata availability and acceptance are separate from ordinary message access. See Slack's metadata scope reference and link permissions.

2. Install and export tokens

Under OAuth & Permissions, select Install to Workspace and authorize as the person Fridica will represent. An administrator may need to approve the app and requested scopes. Copy the User OAuth Token starting with xoxp-, not a bot token (xoxb-). Both tokens must belong to the same app and intended workspace.

For SLACK_APP_TOKEN, open Basic Information → App-Level Tokens and copy the xapp- token already generated in step 1 with connections:write. Token generation should be complete by this point; reuse that token rather than creating another. For SLACK_USER_TOKEN, use the xoxp- User OAuth Token from OAuth & Permissions after installation.

Export them in the terminal where Fridica will run:

export SLACK_APP_TOKEN='xapp-your-token'
export SLACK_USER_TOKEN='xoxp-your-token'

After changing scopes, reinstall the app, update the exported user token if Slack replaces it, and restart Fridica. Save event-subscription changes as well. Never commit tokens to Git or put them in an agent-accessible workspace.

3. Configure your local identity and channels

After fridica init and exporting your user token, detect your identity and choose channels from a numbered list:

fridica configure --detect

This gets owner_id and workspace_id from Slack's auth.test and discovers joined, non-archived channels using conversations.list. Select channel numbers separated by commas; Fridica saves their IDs automatically. It never enables all discovered channels without your selection. Blank input cancels without changing the file. Private-channel discovery requires groups:read; if a channel-type read scope is missing, a warning explains which scope to add. Receiving private messages still requires groups:history and message.groups. Detection does not require AI setup or the app-level token and posts no messages.

For noninteractive setup, select by channel name, not ID:

fridica configure --detect --channel-name general --channel-name my-project

Names must uniquely match discovered channels. Repeat --channel-name to select multiple channels. Unknown names or failed discovery leave the file unchanged.

Manual ID options remain available:

fridica configure --owner-id U123ABC --workspace-id T123ABC --channel-id C123ABC
fridica configure --channel-id C123ABC --channel-id G456DEF

Each option is optional, but supply at least one. Repeated --channel-id options replace the full channel list; omitted settings and TOML comments are preserved. Use --config /path/config.toml for a nondefault file. The command validates ID formats locally; it does not discover IDs, contact Slack, or change Slack permissions. Restart Fridica afterward. Owner/workspace IDs must match the user token, and a different identity needs a separate state_path rather than reusing old state.

Edit ~/.config/fridica/config.toml. Set owner_id to the member ID of the person who authorized the user token, workspace_id to the Slack workspace ID, and channels to the exact channel IDs to monitor. Use an existing local project directory. Choose a backend and authenticate its CLI separately from Slack.

Example configuration (replace the IDs and directory):

owner_id = "U123ABC"
workspace_id = "T123ABC"
channels = ["C123ABC"]
workspace = "~/projects/my-project"
additional_workspaces = []
backend = "codex"
profile = "I maintain the simulation package and help diagnose test failures."
general_messages = true
context_limit = 50
timeout = 600
cooldown = 60
max_turns = 6
resume_sessions = true
session_timeout = 1209600

Agent contract

~/.config/fridica/contract.md holds the rules that every agent run must read and obey. init copies the packaged default there; edit it freely. The daemon reloads the file for each run, so changes apply to the next reply without a restart. Two headings are required:

Prose before the first heading is for people and is never sent to the model. Fridica appends only the conversation data (owner, profile, task, bounded thread history, and the new message) plus a one-line note when a thread's session is being resumed. Rules that the code enforces regardless of the contract: replies are limited to 3500 characters, the status must be complete, waiting, or blocked, the sandbox and workspace roots come from config.toml, and Slack tokens never reach the agent. A contract that is missing either heading, has an empty section, or exceeds 64 KiB fails fridica doctor, and until it is fixed replies are refused with the generic "I couldn't complete this request" notice while the reason is logged locally.

To keep the contract elsewhere, set contract = "path/to/rules.md" in config.toml; relative paths resolve from the config file's directory. Without that setting Fridica uses contract.md beside config.toml when it exists, otherwise the packaged default. The default's text is the previous built-in rule set, so upgrading without editing changes nothing.

4. Verify reception, then replies

1. Run fridica doctor. It checks token format and local AI setup, not granted Slack scopes. start checks Slack identity and channel membership.
2. Run fridica start --observe-only, then send a new test message in a configured channel. Expect INFO Observed event ... in ...; no agent or delivery.
3. Stop with Ctrl-C and run fridica start. Have another person @mention you in a new thread. Your own messages never trigger your agent.

Observe-only never invokes AI or sends replies. Messages sent before startup are not fetched. Scopes, subscriptions, membership, and workspace policy all affect delivery; a successful connection alone does not verify reception.

Run

fridica doctor
fridica start --observe-only
fridica start

doctor prints a PASS or FAIL for each local check: operating system, configuration, the agent contract, each Slack token's format, AI executable availability, required CLI flags, sandbox dependencies, and AI sign-in. It runs claude auth status or codex login status for the configured backend without invoking a model or printing account details. The sandbox check confirms that the sandbox dependencies are on PATH and that bubblewrap can create a user namespace; start performs the same check and refuses to run when it fails. Independent checks continue after failures; checks blocked by invalid configuration or a missing executable show SKIP. The command exits nonzero if any check fails or is skipped. Sign-in status does not guarantee that a later model request will succeed or that credits are available. start verifies the Slack user and workspace identity and channel membership. --observe-only records messages without invoking either model or posting replies. Stop with Ctrl-C or SIGTERM. All subcommands accept --config PATH; python -m fridica is also supported.

Fridica responds to mentions of the owner and follow-ups while a task is waiting for clarification. Other messages pass through a separate classification call with tools disabled, governed by the ## Participation section of the agent contract. Classification failure means silence. Set general_messages = false to disable unsolicited participation. The owner’s own messages supply context but never directly trigger their agent.

An explicit human @mention always requests a threaded reply, even with general participation disabled or a cooldown active. If the thread has exhausted its action budget or an earlier task needs inspection, Fridica replies with a brief explanation without running more actions or retrying old work. This does not override observe-only mode, channel restrictions, duplicate suppression, or automated-message loop protection. Slack rejection or uncertain delivery can still prevent a reply; inspect the local logs rather than automatically resending.

Only the structured final answer is delivered to Slack. The default contract's ## Replies rules exclude internal commentary, unsolicited summaries, and tool transcripts from that answer; CLI progress and stderr are never used as reply text. Sanitized failure categories stay in local logs, while Slack receives a short actionable notice. This output boundary does not guarantee that a model will never put unwanted prose in its final answer. Known participant IDs in reply prose become Slack mentions, displayed as people's names (and potentially notifying them); code and URLs are preserved. No additional scopes are required for mention rendering. Closing answers (complete or blocked) are instructed not to @mention anyone; they should omit direct address or use plain names. Mentions are reserved for waiting replies that need someone's response. Built-in blocker notices do not mention anyone.

Replies stay in their original thread. Each thread has a persistent six-turn default budget; use a new thread for a new task after that budget is exhausted. Generated messages initiate responses only when explicitly addressed or following an active task. A per-channel cooldown limits unsolicited replies. Other agents' metadata is a loop-control hint, not an authorization credential.

Continuity between turns

With resume_sessions = true (the default), each Slack thread maps to one backend session. The first reply in a thread starts a session (claude --session-id or a persisted codex exec thread) and Fridica stores its identifier with the thread's task. Later turns resume it with claude --resume or codex exec resume, so the agent keeps its own reasoning, tool results, and file knowledge instead of re-reading the workspace from scratch. The bounded Slack history is still sent as reference, with the new message marked as the only new input. Classification calls remain stateless.

A stored session is resumed only while the thread stays active. After session_timeout seconds without a reply in that thread (default 1209600, two weeks), the next turn starts a fresh session and stores its identifier; set 0 to never resume. If the backend reports that a stored session no longer exists (for example after the provider's session files were removed), Fridica logs it and starts a fresh session for that thread. Other failures are not retried. Resumed turns use the same sandbox, permission, and workspace settings as new ones; for Codex, the resume subcommand receives the equivalent -c settings because it lacks the --sandbox and --add-dir flags. Set resume_sessions = false to return to one ephemeral session per reply.

Workspace authority

The selected agent can read, edit, and run commands using its provider-supported sandbox in the configured workspace roots. Task-command network access is disabled. Provider API access is still needed to run the model. Claude requires its sandbox dependencies. Fridica does not enable bypass-permission flags or automatically approve broader access. Claude enables native Edit and Write tools in acceptEdits mode for the workspace and additional_workspaces, alongside sandboxed Bash for file operations such as renaming or deleting files. Classification still has no tools. Codex continues to use its workspace-write sandbox. No blanket permission-bypass flag is enabled. OS file permissions, managed policies, and provider-protected paths still apply; this does not grant administrator access or unrestricted writes outside the roots. Blocked actions require local intervention; there is no remote approval UI.

Only grant access to project directories you intend Slack participants to use. The provider sandboxes may permit reads beyond writable project directories and use temporary files; Fridica does not claim complete filesystem read isolation. Managed provider settings and project instructions remain part of the execution environment. Slack tokens are removed from agent subprocess environments, but do not store credentials in project files accessible to the agent.

Fridica supplies its own bounded conversation history for each invocation and, with resume_sessions, resumes only sessions it created; existing desktop conversations are not imported. The optional model setting is passed to the selected provider. No model name or paid API key is required by Fridica itself; each CLI uses its own authentication and billing.

Local state and recovery

State defaults to ~/.local/state/fridica/state.sqlite3; override state_path with an absolute path outside agent workspaces. It contains message text, task results, and delivery state, so treat it as private local data. A file lock prevents two processes from opening the same state database. Context sent to the model is bounded; stored history is retained until you remove the database while the daemon is stopped. There is no historical Slack backfill on startup.

Incoming events are persisted before acknowledgment. Agent runs are serialized, and their results are saved before Slack delivery. Rate-limited replies retry without rerunning the agent. Interrupted executions and uncertain deliveries are not retried automatically because file changes or Slack posts may already have occurred. Startup logs their event IDs. Inspect them locally:

sqlite3 ~/.local/state/fridica/state.sqlite3 \
  "SELECT event_id,state FROM events WHERE state IN ('interrupted','ambiguous','failed','blocked');"

Check the workspace and Slack thread before requesting work again in a new thread. Restarting cannot guarantee exactly-once execution across an external agent, filesystem, and Slack. Raw subprocess output and Slack tokens are not logged. Stop the daemon and use a separate state database when changing owner.

When resume_sessions is enabled, the providers also keep their own transcripts on disk: Claude under ~/.claude/projects/ and Codex under ~/.codex/sessions/. They contain the Slack text Fridica sent and the agent's tool activity, so treat them like the state database. Removing them is safe; the next turn in an affected thread starts a new session. Setting resume_sessions = false stops new transcripts from being written.

Python interfaces

fridica.models defines Message, ConversationContext, Decision, AgentResult, AgentBackend, and Transport. fridica.replica.Replica combines configuration, storage, a backend, and a transport. Alternative backends implement async classify(message, context) and async respond(message, context); transports implement async send(message, result, task_id, turn) and return the confirmed message timestamp. Backend responses contain text and a status of complete, waiting, or blocked. fridica.contract.load_contract(path) parses an agent contract into its participation and replies sections; custom backends should send the matching section as their instruction.

Validate

python -m pytest
python -m build --no-isolation
fridica --help
python -m fridica --version

Tests use fake Slack clients and fake agent processes and require no tokens or live model calls. For a live smoke test, select one test channel and an empty project directory, run doctor, then run start --observe-only. Have another member post a message and verify the observation log. Restart normally and ask that member to mention you with a request to create a small text file. Check the file and threaded reply. Request a file without specifying its location to exercise clarification, then try a request outside configured write roots to verify blocked behavior. Repeat with the other backend. Live tests can consume provider credits and require your Slack installation and CLI login.

CI, releases, and deployment

The workflows follow snapy's CI → automatic tag → manual PyPI publishing flow, adapted for a pure-Python package. Fridica produces one universal wheel and one source distribution, rather than platform-specific compiled wheels.

• Continuous Integration (.github/workflows/ci.yml) runs on pull requests and pushes to main. It tests Python 3.11 on Ubuntu and macOS, builds both distributions after every matrix job passes, checks package metadata, and smoke-tests the installed wheel and bundled Slack manifest. Tests use fake agents and Slack clients; no Slack/model credentials are required.
• Auto Tag on PR Merge (cd.yml) tags the exact merge commit and creates a GitHub release. The first tag is v0.1.0; subsequent merges default to a patch bump. Add one of release:major, release:minor, or release:patch to select the increment. Multiple release labels fail the job. Rerunning an already tagged merge reuses its tag and repairs a missing GitHub release. Authentication uses the automatically supplied GITHUB_TOKEN, with contents: write permission limited to the tagging job. No GitHub App, private key, or personal access token is needed. Merged fork PRs are supported through a merged-only pull_request_target event; the checkout is verified to belong to main before release code runs. Tag jobs use GitHub's concurrency queue to run serially (up to 100 pending runs).
• Publish to PyPI (release.yml) is manually dispatched with an existing stable tag, such as v0.1.0. It verifies the tag belongs to main, reruns the full CI workflow on its resolved commit, checks that both artifact versions match the requested tag, then publishes those exact artifacts. Publishing does not run on every merge or tag push.

Versions come from Git tags using hatch-vcs. fridica.__version__ and the CLI read installed package metadata. Untagged/dirty checkouts produce development versions; reinstall an editable checkout after changing tags to refresh its installed version. Full Git history is fetched in CI. Source distributions carry version metadata so they also build without Git.

Repository maintainers must configure these GitHub settings before using CD:

1. Ensure repository/organization Actions policies allow the tagging job's GITHUB_TOKEN to have Contents: write permission. The workflow requests this explicitly; do not create a token secret. If tag rules restrict v* creation, configure them to allow this workflow's tag creation. The built-in token does not bypass repository rules. Existing BUMP_BOT_APP_ID and BUMP_BOT_PRIVATE_KEY settings are unused and can be removed from Fridica.
2. Create a GitHub Actions environment named pypi. Add PYPI_API_TOKEN as an environment secret using a PyPI account authorized to publish fridica. Configure required reviewers if publication needs an approval gate. A new PyPI project may need an account-scoped token for its first upload; replace it with a project-scoped token afterward.
3. Protect main and require CI before merging. Auto-tagging reacts to a merge, so branch protection supplies its CI gate. Publishing independently reruns all tests. Require the matrix test jobs and the package job as checks.
4. After a release tag exists, open Actions → Publish to PyPI → Run workflow on main, enter the tag, and approve the pypi environment if configured. PyPI versions are immutable; use a new tag for changed artifacts rather than overwriting a published version.

Tags and releases created using GITHUB_TOKEN do not trigger downstream tag-push or release-event workflows. Fridica's publishing workflow is manually dispatched and reruns CI itself, so it does not depend on those events. See GitHub's workflow-trigger rules.

Only the package is deployed by CI. Run the daemon on each owner's machine, where their Slack tokens, agent authentication, and project directories live:

python -m pip install --upgrade 'fridica==0.1.0'
fridica doctor
fridica start

Replace 0.1.0 with the published version. Stop the running daemon before an upgrade, then restart it in the same environment. No remote daemon, Slack app, GitHub secrets, or PyPI project is provisioned by installing these workflows.

For local workflow linting with actionlint 1.7.12, use actionlint -ignore 'unexpected key "queue" for "concurrency" section' .github/workflows/*.yml. That version's schema predates GitHub's documented queue field; the exception only suppresses that schema mismatch.