Poke Assistant

Overview

Send messages to your Poke assistant via the inbound webhook API. Poke is a conversational AI assistant that supports iMessage, SMS, and WhatsApp messaging. This skill enables Claude to send you notifications, alerts, and updates directly to your Poke.

When to Use

• Notifying the user when a long-running task completes
• Sending error alerts or warnings that need attention
• Providing status updates on build, test, or deployment progress
• Sending reminders or summaries
• Alerting about important events (CI failures, security issues, etc.)

Prerequisites

• Poke account at poke.com

• POKE_API_KEY

  environment variable

Installation

Getting Your API Key

1. Go to poke.com/settings
2. Navigate to the Advanced section
3. Generate or copy your API key
4. Add to your shell profile:

echo 'export POKE_API_KEY="your-api-key"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Quick Start

Send a simple message:

python scripts/send_message.py -m "Hello from Claude Code!"

Pipe content to Poke:

echo "Build completed successfully" | python scripts/send_message.py

Command Reference

python scripts/send_message.py [options]

Options:
  -m, --message TEXT    Message to send to Poke
  -v, --verbose         Show detailed output
  -h, --help            Show help message

Input:
  Message can be provided via -m flag or piped to stdin.
  If both are provided, -m takes precedence.

Exit codes:
  0  Success
  1  Missing message or API key
  2  API error (authentication, rate limit, etc.)
  3  Network error

Examples

Task Completion Alert

python scripts/send_message.py -m "Build completed: 42 tests passed, 0 failed"

Error Notification

python scripts/send_message.py -m "ERROR: Deployment to production failed. Check logs."

Pipe Command Output

git log --oneline -5 | python scripts/send_message.py -m "Recent commits:
$(cat)"

Status Update with Details

python scripts/send_message.py -m "Code review complete:
- 3 files changed
- 2 suggestions made
- Ready for merge"

Alert on Test Failure

npm test || python scripts/send_message.py -m "Tests failed! Check the output."

Workflow Integration

Notify After Long Tasks

When running tasks that take time, notify on completion:

# Run build and notify
npm run build && python scripts/send_message.py -m "Build finished successfully" \
  || python scripts/send_message.py -m "Build failed!"

Daily Summary

Send a summary of work done:

python scripts/send_message.py -m "Daily summary:
- Implemented user auth
- Fixed 3 bugs
- Updated documentation"

Best Practices

When to Send Notifications

• Tasks taking longer than 2-3 minutes
• Errors requiring user attention
• Important milestones (deployment, release)
• Security-related alerts

When NOT to Send

• Routine operations that complete quickly
• Every small step (avoid notification fatigue)
• Sensitive information (credentials, tokens)

Message Guidelines

• Keep messages concise but informative
• Include actionable context (what happened, what to do)
• Use clear formatting for multi-line messages

Troubleshooting

"POKE_API_KEY environment variable not set"

Set your API key:

export POKE_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Or add to

~/.zshrc

for persistence.

"API returned 401: Unauthorized"

Your API key is invalid or expired. Generate a new one at poke.com/settings.

"API returned 429: Too Many Requests"

You're being rate limited. Wait a few minutes before sending more messages.

"Network error: Connection refused"

Check your internet connection. The Poke API requires network access.

Message not appearing in Poke

• Verify your API key is correct
• Check that messaging is enabled in your Poke settings
• Ensure your messaging channel (iMessage/SMS/WhatsApp) is configured