# Slack notifications

> An optional Slack message about each new inquiry, sent after the response and free of personal data.

When you set the Worker secret `SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL` to a Slack incoming webhook URL, goodnight-web sends a Slack message whenever a new inquiry arrives. The message is sent after the visitor gets a response. It names your site and the page the form was on, and it contains no personal data and no inquiry contents.

## What the message looks like

For an inquiry sent from `/contact` on `example.com`, with the language set to English, the message has these parts from top to bottom:

| Part     | What it shows                                                                                      |
| -------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Heading  | 🌙 New inquiry                                                                                     |
| Text     | A new inquiry arrived on **example.com**.                                                          |
| Received | The date and time, such as `2026-10-23 22:35`, in the reader's time zone                           |
| Page     | `/contact`                                                                                         |
| Note     | This notification does not include personal data or anything typed into the form.                  |
| Button   | Open in admin. It opens the inquiry in the admin screen, which asks for a passkey sign-in as usual |

In Japanese, the heading is "🌙 新しいお問い合わせ". Slack's notification banner and screen readers use the text line without bold instead: "A new inquiry arrived on example.com."

## What it contains

- **The site name.** By default this is the hostname of the request, such as `example.com`. Set the `siteName` option to show another name.
- **The time the inquiry was received.** It is sent as a Slack date token, so Slack shows it in each reader's own time zone. The date is shown as `2026-10-23` in every language. The time follows each reader's Slack setting, so it appears as `22:35` or `10:35 PM`. A Slack app that cannot show the token shows the time in UTC, such as `2026-10-23 13:35 UTC`.
- **The page the form was on.** Only the path, such as `/contact`. A query string or a `#` part is removed. When the page path is not known, this part is left out.
- **A button to the inquiry** in the admin screen.

The message contains no email address, no name, no form field values, not even the option chosen in a dropdown field, and no IP address or user agent. This does not change when admins add fields to the form.

## Language and site name

Both are options of `createGoodnightWorker()` in your site's `src/worker.ts`:

```ts title="src/worker.ts"
export default createGoodnightWorker({
  locale: siteConfig.defaultLocale,
  siteName: 'My Company',
});
```

- `locale` sets the language of the message: `ja` or `en`. Without it, the message is in English. The starter passes the site's default language.
- `siteName` replaces the hostname in the message. A blank value counts as not set. Slack shows the name as plain text: `*`, `_`, `~`, and backticks appear as their full-width forms, so they cannot turn on bold or other formatting, and `<` and `>` cannot make links or mentions. A name longer than 80 characters is cut and ends with `…`.

## Other rules

- **Only Slack is called.** After the Worker saves an inquiry that is not suspected spam, it posts to the webhook. The URL must have the form `https://hooks.slack.com/services/T…/B…/…`, with nothing after the last segment, not even a slash. Any other value is ignored, and the inquiry list in the admin screen shows a warning that the URL is not in the expected format. The warning does not show the URL.
- **Success is recorded; there is no retry.** When the post succeeds, the Worker records `notified_at`. A failed post is not sent again.
- **Suspected spam does not trigger a notification.** That is a submission with a filled honeypot or a spam score of 3 or more. It is saved and listed under **Suspected spam** in the admin screen. See [Contact form protection](https://goodnight-web.dev/docs/how-it-works/contact-protection.md).

## In the code

After the row is saved, the contact API starts the notification only for an inquiry that is not suspected spam:

```ts title="packages/server/src/features/contact/contact-routes.ts"
// 8. After the response: notification (never for suspected spam) and
//    pruning.
const webhookUrl = env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL;
if (!suspectedSpam && isSlackWebhookUrl(webhookUrl)) {
  runInBackground(c, 'slack', () =>
    sendSlackNotification({
      db: env.DB,
      webhookUrl,
      submissionId: id,
      payload: buildSlackPayload({
        locale: options.locale,
        receivedAt: now,
        adminUrl: `${origin}/admin/inquiries/${id}`,
        siteName: options.siteName ?? new URL(c.req.url).hostname,
        pagePath: data.pagePath,
      }),
    }),
  );
}
```

The message is built from these values only. The function has no parameter for anything the visitor typed:

```ts title="packages/server/src/features/notify/slack.ts"
export const buildSlackPayload = ({
  locale,
  receivedAt,
  adminUrl,
  siteName,
  pagePath,
}: {
  locale: Locale;
  receivedAt: number;
  adminUrl: string;
  siteName: string;
  pagePath?: string | null;
}): SlackPayload => {
```

## Why it is built this way

- **The response does not wait for Slack.** The post runs in `ctx.waitUntil` after the inquiry is saved and the visitor has the response. A Slack outage cannot lose an inquiry or show the visitor an error.
- **No personal data leaves Cloudflare.** Slack is a separate service. The message carries only the site name, the page path, the time, and a link, so inquiry contents stay in the D1 database.
- **No form answers are sent.** Admins decide what the form asks, so the server cannot know which answers are safe to send.
- **The site name tells sites apart.** When several sites post to one channel, the name shows which site the inquiry came to.
- **No Cloudflare Queues and no retry.** The admin screen always shows the unread count in its header, so a missed notification does not mean a missed inquiry.
- **The webhook URL is a secret.** Anyone with the URL can post to your channel, so it is kept as a Worker secret and never shown in the admin screen.