Knowledge Base Integration — Business Automation with Local AI (Chapter 8)

A standalone FAQ bot is useful, but integration with existing tools makes it actually valuable. Common integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, and web interfaces.

A Slack integration requires a Flask web server and the Slack SDK:

from flask import Flask, request, jsonify
from slack_sdk import WebClient
from slack_sdk.errors import SlackApiError
import os

app = Flask(__name__)
slack_client = WebClient(token=os.environ['SLACK_BOT_TOKEN'])

CHUNKS = []  # Loaded from knowledge base

@app.route('/slack/events', methods=['POST'])
def slack_events():
    """Handle incoming Slack events."""
    data = request.json
    
    # URL verification
    if data.get('type') == 'url_verification':
        return jsonify({'challenge': data['challenge']})
    
    # Direct message or mention
    event = data.get('event', {})
    if event.get('type') == 'message' and 'bot_id' not in event:
        user_id = event.get('user')
        question = event.get('text')
        channel = event.get('channel')
        
        response = answer_faq(question, CHUNKS)
        
        try:
            slack_client.chat_postMessage(
                channel=channel,
                text=f"<@{user_id}> {response['answer']}"
            )
        except SlackApiError as e:
            print(f"Error posting message: {e}")
    
    return '', 200

A web interface requires a simple HTML page and a backend endpoint:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>FAQ Assistant</title>
    <style>
        body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; max-width: 800px; margin: 40px auto; padding: 20px; }
        .question-input { width: 100%; padding: 12px; font-size: 16px; }
        .response { margin-top: 20px; padding: 20px; background: #f5f5f5; border-radius: 8px; }
        .sources { font-size: 12px; color: #666; margin-top: 10px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>FAQ Assistant</h1>
    <input type="text" class="question-input" id="question" placeholder="Ask a question...">
    <button onclick="ask()">Ask</button>
    <div class="response" id="response"></div>
    <div class="sources" id="sources"></div>
    
    <script>
        async function ask() {
            const question = document.getElementById('question').value;
            if (!question) return;
            
            const res = await fetch('/api/faq', {
                method: 'POST',
                headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
                body: JSON.stringify({question})
            });
            
            const data = await res.json();
            document.getElementById('response').innerText = data.answer;
            document.getElementById('sources').innerText = 
                'Sources: ' + (data.sources || []).join(', ');
        }
    </script>
</body>
</html>

@app.route('/api/faq', methods=['POST'])
def faq_api():
    """API endpoint for FAQ questions."""
    data = request.json
    question = data.get('question', '')
    
    if not question:
        return jsonify({'error': 'No question provided'}), 400
    
    response = answer_faq(question, CHUNKS)
    return jsonify(response)

Integration patterns remain similar across platforms. The core logic lives in answer_faq(), and platform-specific code only handles transport and authentication.