Zoom Chatbot Tutorial Series (Node.js + Express)

Welcome to the Zoom Chatbot Tutorial Series, a hands-on guide to building your own Zoom Team Chatbot using Node.js and Express.

This series will teach you how to create, configure, and extend a chatbot that interacts with Zoom Team Chat — from sending messages and handling events to building interactive cards and threaded replies.

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What You’ll Build

By the end of this series, you’ll have a working chatbot that can:

• Post and reply to messages within Zoom Team Chat
• Handle events from users and channels
• Respond to slash commands
• Send interactive messages, markdown, and emojis
• Search messages using the Zoom Team Chat API
• Integrate with external APIs or databases

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Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

1. A Zoom Developer Account

2. A General OAuth App created in the Zoom App Marketplace

3. Node.js (v18+ recommended)

4. ngrok (or another tunneling service)

5. Your Zoom Chatbot credentials:

   • Client ID
   • Client Secret
   • Bot JID
   • Verification Token

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Getting Started

1. Clone this repo

   git clone https://github.com/zoom/chatbot-nodejs-quickstart.git
   cd zoomworkplace-chatbot

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Create a .env file

   ZOOM_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
   ZOOM_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
   ZOOM_BOT_JID=your_bot_jid
   ZOOM_VERIFICATION_TOKEN=your_verification_token
   ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key_here
   FRONTEND_ORIGIN=http://localhost:3000
   ACCOUNT_ID=your_zoom_account_id_here

⚠️ Do not store credentials in plain text on production environments

4. Start the local server

   npm start

5. Expose your server using ngrok

   ngrok http 4000

   Copy the ngrok HTTPS URL and set it as your Chatbot Endpoint URL in the Zoom App Marketplace.

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Tutorial Series

Episode	Title	Description
1	Setup & Send Messages	Set up a basic Express server, connect it to Zoom, and send your first message.
2	Handle Events	Use webhook events to respond dynamically to chat messages.
3	Slash Commands	Implement custom slash commands to trigger bot actions.
4	Markdown & Emojis	Format messages beautifully using markdown and emojis.
5	Reactions & Interactive Messages	Capture and respond to reactions and interactive message components.
6	Threaded Replies	Learn how to reply to specific messages within a thread using the reply_to parameter.
7	Search Messages via API	Retrieve and filter Zoom Team Chat messages using the API.
8	Scheduling Messages	Automate and schedule future chatbot messages.
9	Build a Zoom Workplace App	Integrate your chatbot into a Zoom Workplace App for seamless collaboration.

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Keeping secrets secret

This application makes use of your Zoom App Client ID and Client Secret as well as a custom secret for signing session cookies. During development, the application will read from the .env file. ;

In order to align with security best practices, this application does not read from the .env file in production mode.

This means you'll want to set environment variables on the hosting platform that you' re using instead of within the .env file. This might include using a secret manager or a CI/CD pipeline.

⚠️ Never commit your .env file to version control: The file likely contains Zoom App Credentials and Session Secrets

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Need help?

If you're looking for help, try Developer Support or our Developer Forum. Priority support is also available with Premier Developer Support plans.

Documentation

Make sure to review our documentation as a reference when building your Zoom Apps.