Add the pokemonSync flow

Send unique daily Pokémon updates from your Pandium integration by adding a pokemonSync flow that fetches Pokémon, posts Slack messages, and advances IDs using tenant metadata.

You have clients that talk to both APIs, so put them together to start sending educational Pokémon messages via Slack.

A Pandium integration can be run in normal mode or init mode. The pokemonSync flow is for normal mode.

The goal in this flow is to send a Slack message about a new Pokémon each day. To do this we will need to:

• Read which Pokémon was selected in the most recent run- to ensure the Pokémon in this run is a new one.

• Fetch the Pokémon for this run.

• Send a Slack message about that Pokémon to the Academy's students.

1. Add the file for this new flow:

   • Within src add a folder called processLogic.

   • Within src/processLogic add pokemonSync.ts.

   Your file structure should now look like this:

  ├── build 
  ├── node_modules 
  ├── src
  │  ├── processLogic
  │  │  └── pokemonSync.ts
  │  ├── index.ts
  │  └── lib.ts
  ├── package.json
  ├── PANDIUM.yaml
  └── tsconfig.json

1. Within src/processLogic/pokemonSync.ts get a logger for the file and add the shell of an asynchronous pokemonSync function.

import log4js from 'log4js'

const logger = log4js.getLogger('pokemonSync')

export const pokemonSync = async () => {
    logger.info('------------------------POKEMON SYNC------------------------')
}

1. Within src/index.ts import pokemonSync and invoke it within the main function when the run mode is normal.

The src/index.ts should now look something like this:

import * as dotenv from 'dotenv'
dotenv.config({ quiet: true })
import log4js from 'log4js'
import { WebClient } from '@slack/web-api'
import Pokedex from 'pokedex-promise-v2'
import { Pandium } from './lib.js'
import { pokemonSync } from './processLogic/pokemonSync.js'

const logger = log4js.getLogger('index')

const main = async () => {
    const pandium = Pandium.fromEnv()
    logger.info(`This run is in mode: ${pandium.runMode()}`)
    logger.info(`Tenant configs: ${JSON.stringify(pandium.config)}`)

    const pokeClient = new Pokedex()
    const slackClient = new WebClient(pandium.secrets.slack_oauth_access_token)

    if (pandium.runMode() === 'normal') {
        await pokemonSync()
    }
}

main().then(
    () => {},
    () => {
        process.exitCode = 1
    }
)

1. Run pandium local build && pandium local run <tenant-id>, and you should see the following logged:

[2026-09-08 10:31:05:220] [index] INFO: This run is in mode: normal
[2026-09-08 10:31:05:221] [index] INFO: Tenant configs: {}
[2026-09-08 10:31:05:221] [pokemonSync] INFO: ------------------------POKEMON SYNC------------------------

1. Fetch a Pokémon by doing the following:

   • In src/index.ts pass the Pokémon Client to pokemonSync.

   • Add pokeClient as an argument to pokemonSync.

   • Import Pokedex to src/processLogic/pokemonSync.ts to define the type of the pokeClient.

   • Declare a variable nextPokemonId. For now just set it to 247.

   • Pass nextPokemonId to the pokeClient.getPokemonByNamemethod to fetch a Pokémon by ID, because the docs for the Pokémon library state "Any function with the designation 'ByName' can also be passed an integer ID."

   • Log out the results of that fetch.

The pokemonSync.ts file should look something like this:

import log4js from 'log4js'
import Pokedex from 'pokedex-promise-v2'

const logger = log4js.getLogger('pokemonSync')

export const pokemonSync = async (pokeClient: Pokedex) => {
    logger.info('------------------------POKEMON SYNC------------------------')
    const nextPokemonId = 247
    const pokemonOfTheDay = await pokeClient.getPokemonByName(nextPokemonId)
    logger.info(pokemonOfTheDay)
}

1. Run pandium local build && pandium local run <tenant-id>.

You should see the same information logged as before - except that now a large Pokémon object has also been printed. This confirms the Pokémon client within pokemonSync is working, so you can remove the logger.info(pokemonOfTheDay).

1. Add a function to transform the pokemonOfTheDay into a Slack message.

   • Within src add the file transformations.ts.

   • Within transformations.ts define and export the function pokemonToSlackMessage.

   • Review these Slack Web API docs for the postMessage endpoint and the Pokemon Typescript interface to fill out the pokemonToSlackMessage transformation function.

Here is one way transformations.ts could look:

import { Pokemon } from 'pokedex-promise-v2'
import { ChatPostMessageArguments } from '@slack/web-api'

export const pokemonToSlackMessage = (
    pokemon: Pokemon,
    channel: string
): ChatPostMessageArguments => {
    const abilities = pokemon.abilities
        .map((ability) => ability.ability.name)
        .join(', ')
    const text = `The Pokemon of the Day is *${pokemon.name}*!
        *Abilties:* ${abilities}
        *Base Experience:* ${pokemon.base_experience}
        *Height:* ${pokemon.height}
        *Weight:* ${pokemon.weight}`
    const message: ChatPostMessageArguments = {
        channel: channel,
        text: text,
        blocks: [
            {
                type: 'section',
                text: {
                    type: 'mrkdwn',
                    text: text,
                },
            },
        ],
    }

    if (pokemon.sprites.back_default) {
        message.blocks?.unshift({
            type: 'image',
            image_url: pokemon.sprites.back_default,
            alt_text: `${pokemon.name} sprite`,
        })
    }
    return message
}

1. Within pokemonSync use pokemonToSlackMessage and slackClient.chat.postMessage to send a message to each of the Academy's Pokémon trainers.

   • Add slackClient as an argument of pokemonSync and import WebClient from the Slack library to define its type.

   • Within src/index.ts pass slackClient to pokemonSync.

   • Import pokemonToSlackMessage to pokemonSync.ts.

   • Within pokemonSync declare an array called slackMemberIds. Eventually it will hold the IDs of all the Academy's Pokémon trainers, but for development purposes just put your own Slack ID in there.

   • Pass each element of slackMemberIds to pokemonToSlackMessage to create a slackMessage.

   • Pass each slackMessage to slackClient.chat.postMessage.

The pokemonSync.ts file should look something like this:

import log4js from 'log4js'
import Pokedex from 'pokedex-promise-v2'
import { WebClient } from '@slack/web-api'
import { pokemonToSlackMessage } from '../transformations.js'

const logger = log4js.getLogger('pokemonSync')

export const pokemonSync = async (
    pokeClient: Pokedex,
    slackClient: WebClient
) => {
    logger.info('------------------------POKEMON SYNC------------------------')
    const nextPokemonId = 247
    const pokemonOfTheDay = await pokeClient.getPokemonByName(nextPokemonId)

    const slackMemberIds = ['<YOUR-SLACK-MEMBER-ID>']

    for (const slackID of slackMemberIds) {
        const slackMessage = pokemonToSlackMessage(pokemonOfTheDay, slackID)
        await slackClient.chat.postMessage(slackMessage)
    }
}

1. Run pandium local build && pandium local run <tenant-id>. You should get a Slack message about the Pokémon of the Day!

We're not quite done though. If you run it again you will get another Slack message about the same Pokémon. One of the Academy's requests is that we won't repeat Pokémon.

To accomplish this goal, we will use tenant metadata to remember which Pokémon was sent last.

At the end of every run Pandium reads the last line the integration printed to the standard out, validates it against the metadata_schema you added to the PANDIUM.yaml, and merges it into the tenant's metadata. On the next run that metadata is handed back to the integration, where pandium.metadata() reads it.

1. Alter the integration so that it updates the tenant metadata during a normal sync.

   • pokemonSync should return { last_pokemon_id: nextPokemonId }.

   • In src/index.ts pass the object returned by pokemonSync to pandium.updateMetadata, which prints it to the standard out.

2. Run pandium local build && pandium local run <tenant-id>.

You should get another slack message about that same Pokémon. However the logs now end with the metadata update, which should look something like this:

[2026-09-08 10:40:12:873] [lib] INFO: updating metadata with {"last_pokemon_id":247}
{"last_pokemon_id":247}

That last line is the standard out. When this code runs on Pandium it will be saved as the tenant's metadata.

1. Use that metadata in pokemonSync to ensure the Pokémon of the day is not repeated.

   • In src/index.ts pass pandium to pokemonSync.

   • In pokemonSync.ts add the argument pandium to pokemonSync and import the Pandium class to define the type for that new argument.

   • In pokemonSync add the variable lastPokemonId. Its value should be read from pandium.metadata(), and default to 0 when the tenant doesn't have any metadata yet.

   • Log out lastPokemonId so you can see it in the logs of each run.

   • In pokemonSync change nextPokemonId so that it will be the next number after lastPokemonId.

Your pokemonSync.ts should look like this:

import log4js from 'log4js'
import Pokedex from 'pokedex-promise-v2'
import { WebClient } from '@slack/web-api'
import { pokemonToSlackMessage } from '../transformations.js'
import { Pandium } from '../lib.js'

const logger = log4js.getLogger('pokemonSync')

export const pokemonSync = async (
    pokeClient: Pokedex,
    slackClient: WebClient,
    pandium: Pandium
) => {
    logger.info('------------------------POKEMON SYNC------------------------')

    const lastPokemonId = Number(pandium.metadata()?.last_pokemon_id) || 0
    logger.info(`The last Pokémon of the day was #${lastPokemonId}`)

    const nextPokemonId = lastPokemonId + 1
    const pokemonOfTheDay = await pokeClient.getPokemonByName(nextPokemonId)

    const slackMemberIds = ['<YOUR-SLACK-MEMBER-ID>']

    for (const slackID of slackMemberIds) {
        const slackMessage = pokemonToSlackMessage(pokemonOfTheDay, slackID)
        await slackClient.chat.postMessage(slackMessage)
    }

    return { last_pokemon_id: nextPokemonId }
}

And your src/index.ts should look like this:

import * as dotenv from 'dotenv'
dotenv.config({ quiet: true })
import log4js from 'log4js'
import { WebClient } from '@slack/web-api'
import Pokedex from 'pokedex-promise-v2'
import { Pandium } from './lib.js'
import { pokemonSync } from './processLogic/pokemonSync.js'

const logger = log4js.getLogger('index')

const main = async () => {
    const pandium = Pandium.fromEnv()
    logger.info(`This run is in mode: ${pandium.runMode()}`)
    logger.info(`Tenant configs: ${JSON.stringify(pandium.config)}`)

    const pokeClient = new Pokedex()
    const slackClient = new WebClient(pandium.secrets.slack_oauth_access_token)

    if (pandium.runMode() === 'normal') {
        const metadata = await pokemonSync(pokeClient, slackClient, pandium)
        pandium.updateMetadata(metadata)
    }
}

main().then(
    () => {},
    () => {
        process.exitCode = 1
    }
)

1. Run pandium local build && pandium local run <tenant-id>. You should get a Slack message about Pokémon #1, Bulbasaur!

The logs should look like this:

[2026-09-08 10:45:50:114] [index] INFO: This run is in mode: normal
[2026-09-08 10:45:50:115] [index] INFO: Tenant configs: {}
[2026-09-08 10:45:50:115] [pokemonSync] INFO: ------------------------POKEMON SYNC------------------------
[2026-09-08 10:45:50:116] [pokemonSync] INFO: The last Pokémon of the day was #0
[2026-09-08 10:45:51:402] [lib] INFO: updating metadata with {"last_pokemon_id":1}
{"last_pokemon_id":1}

Notice the following about the logs:

• Your tenant doesn't have any metadata yet, so lastPokemonId fell back to 0 and the Pokémon of the day was #1.

• The ID printed to the standard out is greater than the last Pokémon's ID.

If you run this locally again you will get Bulbasaur again. That's expected: a local run reads the tenant's metadata from Pandium, but it doesn't write the standard out back to Pandium. Only runs on Pandium update the tenant's metadata, which is what you will see next.

Your pokemonSync.ts should loook like the one here. In fact, all your integration files should match all the ones in this repository at this commit.

The final step is to see what this all looks like when it is run on Pandium!