🤖 VantaBot – Slack Security Knowledge Bot

VantaBot is a Slack-integrated assistant that helps employees get quick, accurate answers to security and compliance-related questions. It connects directly to your company's Knowledge Base in Vanta, so everyone can easily find relevant information without needing to ask the security team directly.

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🧩 Features

• 💬 Ask questions in Slack (e.g. "How do we handle data encryption?")
• 🔍 The bot queries your Vanta Knowledge Base articles via API
• 🧠 Optional: use OpenAI to improve natural language understanding
• ✅ Reduces repetitive questions to the security team
• 🔐 Keeps employees aligned with security and compliance practices

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🚀 Deploying with Render.com

1. Prepare your repository

Your project should include:

• app.py – Flask-based backend
• requirements.txt – Python dependencies
• Procfile – startup command for Render
• README.md – this file

2. Deploy on Render

1. Sign up at https://render.com
2. Connect your GitHub repo
3. Create a new Web Service:
   • Build command: pip install -r requirements.txt
   • Start command: python app.py
   • Select "Free" or "Starter" plan
   • Note your Render URL (e.g. https://vanta-kb-bot.onrender.com)

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🔐 Slack Bot Configuration

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps

2. Create a new app

3. Under OAuth & Permissions, add these scopes:

   • app_mentions:read
   • chat:write
   • commands (optional for future slash commands)

4. Under Event Subscriptions:

   • Enable events
   • Set your Request URL: https://<your-render-url>/slack/events
   • Subscribe to: app_mention

5. Install the bot to your workspace and copy your SLACK_BOT_TOKEN

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🔐 Vanta API Access

1. Log into your Vanta account
2. Go to Settings > Developer Console
3. Create an API key with access to your Knowledge Base
4. Store it securely as VANTA_API_KEY in Render's environment variables

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⚙️ Environment Variables

Variable Name	Description
SLACK_BOT_TOKEN	Your Slack Bot Token (xoxb-...)
VANTA_API_KEY	Vanta API key with read access to the KB
OPENAI_API_KEY	(Optional) For better NLP question handling

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🛠️ Roadmap (Next Steps)

• ✅ Basic query handling from Slack
• 🧠 Add OpenAI integration for flexible language input
• 🧾 Handle article search and fallback gracefully
• 📚 Log most-asked questions for FAQ optimization

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📎 Example Questions

• “How do we manage user access?”
• “What’s our data retention policy?”
• “Are we HIPAA compliant?”
• “How are backups encrypted?”

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Made with ❤️ to help reduce repetitive security questions.