Pikud HaOref → Slack Alert Bot

Polls the Israeli Home Front Command (Pikud HaOref) API for real-time rocket and emergency alerts and posts them to a Slack channel.

Architecture

Deployment	How	Polling interval	Cost
AWS Lambda (recommended)	EventBridge triggers Lambda every minute in il-central-1 (Tel Aviv)	1 min	Free tier
Docker / local	Long-running container, polling loop	Configurable (default 10s)	Self-hosted

The Oref API blocks requests from non-Israeli IPs. AWS il-central-1 (Tel Aviv) works reliably.

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Option A — AWS Lambda (recommended)

1. Create a Slack Incoming Webhook

1. Go to api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From scratch
2. Name it (e.g. Pikud HaOref Bot) and select your workspace
3. Sidebar → Incoming Webhooks → toggle On
4. Add New Webhook to Workspace → choose a channel → Allow
5. Copy the webhook URL: https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../...

2. Create an AWS IAM user for deployments

1. Go to AWS IAM Console → Users → Create user
2. Name: github-actions-deployer
3. Attach policies directly — add all of:
   • AWSLambdaFullAccess
   • AmazonSSMFullAccess
   • CloudFormationFullAccess
   • IAMFullAccess
   • AmazonS3FullAccess
   • AmazonEventBridgeFullAccess
4. Create an Access Key → use case: Third-party service → copy the Key ID and Secret

3. Add GitHub repository secrets

Go to github.com/zitzman/pikud-haoref-bot → Settings → Secrets → Actions → New secret:

Secret	Value
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	from step 2
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	from step 2
SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL	from step 1

4. Deploy

Push any change to main — GitHub Actions will build and deploy automatically to il-central-1.

To trigger a manual redeploy:

git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger redeploy" && git push

5. View logs

AWS Console → Lambda → pikud-haoref-bot → Monitor → View CloudWatch logs

Or: CloudWatch → Log groups → /aws/lambda/pikud-haoref-bot

Make sure the region is set to il-central-1 (Tel Aviv).

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Option B — Docker (local / self-hosted)

Only works from an Israeli IP. Suitable for running on a home server in Israel.

1. Configure environment variables

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and set SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL

2. Run

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f

Stop

docker compose down

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Testing

Send a fake alert to Slack without waiting for a real one:

SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL=https://hooks.slack.com/services/... python3 test_alert.py

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Alert categories

Emoji	Type
🚀	Missile / Rocket fire
🛸	UAV / Drone intrusion
✈️	Hostile aircraft
🌍	Earthquake
☣️	Hazardous materials
🌊	Tsunami
☢️	Nuclear threat
🔫	Terrorist infiltration

Alert titles and shelter instructions are translated from the Hebrew API response. City names are translated where known and fall back to Hebrew for unmapped locations.

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How it works

1. AWS Lambda is triggered by EventBridge every minute
2. The function fetches https://www.oref.org.il/WarningMessages/alert/alerts.json
3. The last-seen alert ID is stored in SSM Parameter Store for deduplication
4. On a new alert: formats a Slack Block Kit message and POSTs to the webhook
5. When the alert clears (empty response): resets SSM state so the next alert always fires