After Connecting WorkBuddy to Feishu, Don't Rush to Go Fully Automated

Yesterday, a client dropped a quote sheet in our Feishu group chat. They wanted me to clean up the messy columns into a bilingual (Chinese-English) format and then sort them by client priority. I used to do this manually, which would take up nearly half my morning. I've been using WorkBuddy for about a month; it's decent for cleaning tables locally on my PC, but I always had to be at my desk. Then I saw an article about integrating WorkBuddy Claw with Feishu, claiming it could connect your local PC to a Feishu bot so you can assign tasks remotely while commuting. So, I tried it out with my client's lead list.

I followed the tutorial step-by-step. Opened the WorkBuddy desktop app, clicked the profile button in the top right, went to claw settings, and selected Feishu integration. The main things to fill in are App ID and App Secret. The App ID is the identity number Feishu gives the app, and the App Secret is the key—definitely don't share that in the group chat. The tutorial said setup takes one minute max, but mine took about twenty minutes, mostly stuck on the steps in the Feishu Open Platform.

In the Feishu Open Platform, I chose "Enterprise Self-built App," clicked Create, named it "WorkBuddy Assistant," wrote a random description, and ignored the icon. After creation, I found "Add App Capabilities" on the details page and enabled the Bot capability. Then I went to Permission Management and used bulk import to check all permissions needed for the bot to send/receive messages and read necessary app data. I also had to create a version and publish it because, without publishing, the bot was completely silent in the group. This step might vary slightly depending on your enterprise backend, but the core goal is making the app actually usable.

Back in WorkBuddy, I entered the App ID and App Secret from Feishu and clicked Register. It generated a Webhook URL. This URL is the entry point where Feishu notifies WorkBuddy to start working when it receives a message. I copied it, went back to the Feishu Open Platform, navigated to Events & Callbacks, selected "Send events to developer server" as the subscription method, pasted the Webhook, and saved. Only after this were Feishu and WorkBuddy connected.

Once configured, I didn't let WorkBuddy automatically modify client data entirely. I prefer giving it a dedicated working directory containing only the CSV and quote sheet for this specific task. CSV is a comma-separated values file, more universal than Excel, but if column names are messy, errors happen easily. In the task prompt, I strictly added: "Only process the current working directory, do not overwrite original files, save results to the output folder, and column names must follow my template." I'd written this template before; with many fields, AI tends to improvise, resulting in something it worked hard on but you're afraid to use.

I @mentioned the bot in Feishu, asking it to organize the client lead list by Country, Product, Last Contact Time, and Estimated Closing Probability. WorkBuddy ran locally and returned a new CSV plus a processing summary. When I opened it, the format was mostly correct, but notes for a few clients got merged into one paragraph, and price units were inconsistent. It definitely saves time, but I couldn't just hand it over to the client. Especially for fields like quotes, payment terms, and certifications—one mistake makes things awkward.

I'm strict about permissions too. The Feishu group only includes me and one assistant; the WorkBuddy bot is only added to this test group. I don't forward the App Secret or post the Webhook URL in the group. The local working directory is restricted to one foreign trade leads folder, not the entire desktop. My setup might not fit everyone, but foreign trade acquisition sheets often contain client contacts, prices, and notes; granting loose permissions will eventually cause issues. AI can handle rough work, but having anyone able to edit or delete anything? No way.

Every two days, I clear the output folder, archiving confirmed files and keeping failed records separate. Last week during initial tests, my PC went to sleep once, the task didn't finish, and WorkBuddy stopped responding. Now, before assigning tasks while out, I make sure the PC is plugged in and sleep mode is disabled, or I have my assistant confirm the task status. Not high-tech, but it works.

After integrating Feishu, I check that my PC isn't sleeping before heading out, then @mention the bot to run a version. Cleaning, organizing, and summarizing can indeed be triggered from my phone now, but for quotes, payment terms, and certifications, I still verify everything myself. Until permissions, directories, and templates are locked down, I won't let it fully automate changes to client data.