Slack Chat Integration with Novu

This feature is currently in public beta, please contact us at support@novu.co to enable it for your organization.

The Slack chat integration lets your application send notifications directly to your subscribers’ Slack workspaces using their own Slack accounts and workspace permissions. With this integration, Novu can deliver messages to Slack channels, direct messages (DMs) to Slack users, and incoming webhooks. For incoming webhooks, Novu can use Slack’s native channel picker during OAuth. Novu handles the full lifecycle of Slack connections and message delivery. You define where notifications should be delivered, and Novu automatically routes each message to the correct Slack workspace, channel, or user. This guide walks you through setting up Slack chat, connect workspaces, and deliver notifications to the exact Slack destinations your users expect it.

Check out the agents documentation for more information on how to build agents using Slack.

Configure a Slack app

Before integrating Slack chat with Novu, you must create and configure a Slack app. The Slack app manages the OAuth permissions, bot token scopes, and redirect URLs needed for Novu to connect to your users’ workspaces securely.

Create a Slack app

First, you need to create a Slack app. This provides you with the credential you need to create a Slack integration in Novu.

Open the Slack API dashboard

Create an app

In Slack, click Create an App to start a new app registration.

Select From scratch

Choose From scratch and enter an app name and workspace.

Enter app name and workspace

Enter an app name of your choice in the App Name field. Pick a Slack workspace to develop your app in.

Create the app

Click Create App. You’ll be directed to the Basic Application for the Slack app which contains the credentials you need for configuring Slack chat inside Novu:

App ID
Client ID
Client Secret

Configure scopes (Permissions)

Your app needs permission to perform actions like sending messages or reading channel lists.

Open OAuth & Permissions

In the sidebar, select OAuth & Permissions.

Open Scopes

Scroll down to the Scopes section.

Add an OAuth Scope

Under Bot Token Scopes, click Add an OAuth Scope.

Add recommended scopes

chat:write
chat:write.public
channels:read
groups:read
users:read
users:read.email
(optional) incoming-webhook if you want Slack’s built-in channel picker.

These scopes are required for Novu to send messages, read channels and read users (for DMs and pickers). If you remove some of them, then certain features like channel or user selection might not work.

Set the redirect URL

This tells Slack where to send the user after they successfully authorize your app.

Open OAuth & Permissions

In the sidebar, select OAuth & Permissions.

Open Redirect URLs

Scroll down to the Redirect URLs section.

Add a redirect URL

Paste the Novu callback URL

Paste the Novu OAuth callback URL. Add the redirect URL that matches your Novu region:

https://api.novu.co/v1/integrations/chat/oauth/callback

https://api.eu.novu.co/v1/integrations/chat/oauth/callback

Save the URLs

Configure Slack integration in Novu

Once your Slack app is set up, the next step is to configure the Slack Chat integration inside Novu.

Open the Novu Dashboard.

Open Integrations Store

In the sidebar, click Integrations Store.

Connect a provider

In the Integration Store, click Connect provider to begin setup.

Select Slack

Fill in credentials

Fill in the required fields using the credentials from your Slack app:

Application Id: Paste your Slack app App ID.
Client ID: Paste your Slack App Client ID.
Client Secret: Paste your Slack App Client Secret.
Redirect URL (Optional): Enter the URL where you want users to be redirected to after they successfully connect their workspace. If there is no redirect URL, then Novu closes the tab immediately after the OAuth flow completes.

Create the integration

Click Create Integration to create the Slack integration. Once saved, Novu is able to:

Generate OAuth (Connect Slack) URLs for your users
Receive Slack’s OAuth callback.
Store workspace tokens as connections.

You are now ready to implement the frontend flow to let users connect their workspaces.

Let users connect their Slack workspace

To send messages to Slack, your users must first authorize Novu to access one of their Slack workspaces. This authorization happens through Slack’s OAuth flow, which Novu generates and manages for you.

Generate the OAuth URL

When a user clicks Connect Slack in your application, your backend should request a unique authorization URL from Novu. This URL is specific to the Subscriber or the Context (Tenant) it will be generated for.

The generated OAuth URL is valid for only 5 minutes. Do not cache this URL; generate it dynamically when the user initiates the flow.

import { Novu } from '@novu/api';

const novu = new Novu({ secretKey: "<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>" });

const response = await novu.integrations.generateChatOAuthUrl({
  integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
  subscriberId: 'subscriberId',
  context: {
    "tenant": "orgId"
},
});

import os
from novu_py import Novu

with Novu(secret_key=os.getenv("NOVU_SECRET_KEY", "")) as novu:
    response = novu.integrations.generate_chat_o_auth_url(generate_chat_oauth_url_request_dto={
        "integration_identifier": "slack",
        "subscriber_id": "subscriberId",
        context={
        "tenant": "orgId"
},
    })

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    novugo "github.com/novuhq/novu-go"
    "github.com/novuhq/novu-go/models/components"
)

s := novugo.New(novugo.WithSecurity(os.Getenv("NOVU_SECRET_KEY")))

res, err := s.Integrations.GenerateChatOAuthURL(context.Background(), components.GenerateChatOauthURLRequestDto{
    IntegrationIdentifier: "slack",
    SubscriberID: novugo.String("subscriberId"),
}, nil)

use novu;
use novu\Models\Components;

$sdk = novu\Novu::builder()->setSecurity('<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>')->build();
$response = $sdk->integrations->generateChatOAuthUrl(
    generateChatOauthUrlRequestDto: new Components\GenerateChatOauthUrlRequestDto(
        integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
        subscriberId: 'subscriberId',
    ),
);

using Novu;
using Novu.Models.Components;

var sdk = new NovuSDK(secretKey: "<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>");
var response = await sdk.Integrations.GenerateChatOAuthUrlAsync(
    generateChatOauthUrlRequestDto: new GenerateChatOauthUrlRequestDto() {
        IntegrationIdentifier = "slack",
        SubscriberId = "subscriberId",
    });

import co.novu.Novu;
import co.novu.models.components.*;

Novu novu = Novu.builder().secretKey("<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>").build();
var response = novu.integrations().generateChatOAuthUrl()
    .body(GenerateChatOauthUrlRequestDto.builder()
        .integrationIdentifier("slack")
        .subscriberId("subscriberId")
        .build())
    .call();

curl -L -X POST 'https://api.novu.co/v1/integrations/chat/oauth' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: ApiKey <NOVU_SECRET_KEY>' \
-d '{
  "integrationIdentifier": "slack",
  "subscriberId": "subscriberId",
  "context": {
    "tenant": "orgId"
  }
}'

Your application can support multiple Slack workspace connections per user or per tenant by triggering separate OAuth flows. Novu allows one connection per (integration + subscriber + context). To connect multiple workspaces, provide different combinations of subscriber or context.

Redirect the user

Once your backend returns the oauthUrl, open it in a new tab or window.

window.open(oauthUrl, '_blank');

Slack then guides the user through:

Review permissions

Reviewing your app’s requested permissions

Approve authorization

Approving the authorization

Redirect to Novu

Redirecting back to Novu’s callback URL

After the user approves access, Novu handles the rest of the OAuth flow automatically.

Novu exchanges the code

Novu stores the Slack access token for the connected workspace.

Novu creates a connection

Novu creates a Slack connection for that workspace, it is referenced by connectionIdentifier when creating endpoints.You can also provider a custom connectionIdentifier to the generateChatOAuthUrl() and then connection with such identifier will be created instead of randomly generated one.

Alternative: handle OAuth yourself. Instead of generateChatOAuthUrl(), you can run the Slack OAuth flow with your own app, use the access token with Slack’s APIs directly, then register the workspace with Novu via channelConnections.create (or POST /v1/channel-connections):

await novu.channelConnections.create({
  integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
  subscriberId: 'user-123',        // provide subscriberId, context, or both — at least one is required
  context: { tenant: 'acme' },     // scope to a tenant (required when subscriberId is omitted)
  workspace: {
    id: authData.team.id,          // Slack workspace ID from OAuth
    name: authData.team.name,
  },
  auth: {
    accessToken: authData.access_token,
  },
});

Provide at least one of subscriberId or context — same as the Novu-managed OAuth flow.

Choose delivery destinations

After a workspace is connected, you or users decide where in Slack to send the messages. This can either be a Slack channel, to a user or an incoming webhook URLs. After the delivery location has been selected, a Slack endpoint is then created for that location.

Slack channel
Slack user
Incoming webhook

This is the typical flow for sending notifications to public or private channels.

Get the channel ID

curl -X GET "https://slack.com/api/conversations.list" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>"

To learn more about using Slack conversations API to either get public or private channels, refer Slack documentation.

Create the endpoint

import { Novu } from '@novu/api';

const novu = new Novu({ secretKey: "<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>" });

await novu.channelEndpoints.create({
  subscriberId: 'user-123',
  integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
  connectionIdentifier: 'conn_slack_acme',
  context: { tenant: 'acme' },
  type: 'slack_channel',
  endpoint: { channelId: 'C012345' },
});

import os
from novu_py import Novu

with Novu(secret_key=os.getenv("NOVU_SECRET_KEY", "")) as novu:
    novu.channel_endpoints.create(request_body={
        "subscriber_id": "user-123",
        "integration_identifier": "slack",
        "connection_identifier": "conn_slack_acme",
        "context": {"tenant": "acme"},
        "type": "slack_channel",
        "endpoint": {"channel_id": "C012345"},
    })

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    novugo "github.com/novuhq/novu-go"
    "github.com/novuhq/novu-go/models/components"
    "github.com/novuhq/novu-go/models/operations"
)

s := novugo.New(novugo.WithSecurity(os.Getenv("NOVU_SECRET_KEY")))

res, err := s.ChannelEndpoints.Create(context.Background(), operations.CreateChannelEndpointsControllerCreateChannelEndpointRequestBodySlackChannel(
    components.CreateSlackChannelEndpointDto{
        SubscriberID: "user-123",
        IntegrationIdentifier: "slack",
        ConnectionIdentifier: novugo.String("conn_slack_acme"),
        Type: components.CreateSlackChannelEndpointDtoTypeSlackChannel,
        Endpoint: components.SlackChannelEndpointDto{ChannelID: "C012345"},
    },
), nil)

use novu;
use novu\Models\Components;

$sdk = novu\Novu::builder()->setSecurity('<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>')->build();
$sdk->channelEndpoints->create(
    requestBody: new Components\CreateSlackChannelEndpointDto(
        subscriberId: 'user-123',
        integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
        connectionIdentifier: 'conn_slack_acme',
        type: Components\CreateSlackChannelEndpointDtoType::SlackChannel,
        endpoint: new Components\SlackChannelEndpointDto(channelId: 'C012345'),
    ),
);

using Novu;
using Novu.Models.Components;

var sdk = new NovuSDK(secretKey: "<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>");
await sdk.ChannelEndpoints.CreateAsync(
    requestBody: CreateSlackChannelEndpointDto.CreateSlackChannel(
        new CreateSlackChannelEndpointDto() {
            SubscriberId = "user-123",
            IntegrationIdentifier = "slack",
            ConnectionIdentifier = "conn_slack_acme",
            Type = CreateSlackChannelEndpointDtoType.SlackChannel,
            Endpoint = new SlackChannelEndpointDto() { ChannelId = "C012345" },
        }));

import co.novu.Novu;
import co.novu.models.components.*;

Novu novu = Novu.builder().secretKey("<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>").build();
novu.channelEndpoints().create()
    .requestBody(CreateSlackChannelEndpointDto.builder()
        .subscriberId("user-123")
        .integrationIdentifier("slack")
        .connectionIdentifier("conn_slack_acme")
        .type(CreateSlackChannelEndpointDtoType.SLACK_CHANNEL)
        .endpoint(SlackChannelEndpointDto.builder().channelId("C012345").build())
        .build())
    .call();

curl -L -X POST 'https://api.novu.co/v1/channel-endpoints' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: ApiKey <NOVU_SECRET_KEY>' \
-d '{
  "subscriberId": "user-123",
  "integrationIdentifier": "slack",
  "connectionIdentifier": "conn_slack_acme",
  "context": {
    "tenant": "acme"
  },
  "type": "slack_channel",
  "endpoint": {
    "channelId": "C012345"
  }
}'

Use this to send personal messages and notifications directly to a specific user.

Get the Slack user ID

curl -X GET "https://slack.com/api/users.list" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>"

For example, you can look up a Slack user ID by their email address, if you requested the users:read.email scope.To learn more about using Slack users.list method, refer Slack documentation.

Create the endpoint

import { Novu } from '@novu/api';

const novu = new Novu({ secretKey: "<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>" });

await novu.channelEndpoints.create({
  type: 'slack_user',
  subscriberId: 'user-123',
  integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
  connectionIdentifier: 'conn_slack_acme',
  context: { tenant: 'acme' },
  endpoint: { userId: 'U01234567' },
});

import os
from novu_py import Novu

with Novu(secret_key=os.getenv("NOVU_SECRET_KEY", "")) as novu:
    novu.channel_endpoints.create(request_body={
        "type": "slack_user",
        "subscriber_id": "user-123",
        "integration_identifier": "slack",
        "connection_identifier": "conn_slack_acme",
        "context": {"tenant": "acme"},
        "endpoint": {"user_id": "U01234567"},
    })

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    novugo "github.com/novuhq/novu-go"
    "github.com/novuhq/novu-go/models/components"
    "github.com/novuhq/novu-go/models/operations"
)

s := novugo.New(novugo.WithSecurity(os.Getenv("NOVU_SECRET_KEY")))

res, err := s.ChannelEndpoints.Create(context.Background(), operations.CreateChannelEndpointsControllerCreateChannelEndpointRequestBodySlackUser(
    components.CreateSlackUserEndpointDto{
        SubscriberID: "user-123",
        IntegrationIdentifier: "slack",
        ConnectionIdentifier: novugo.String("conn_slack_acme"),
        Type: components.CreateSlackUserEndpointDtoTypeSlackUser,
        Endpoint: components.SlackUserEndpointDto{UserID: "U01234567"},
    },
), nil)

use novu;
use novu\Models\Components;

$sdk = novu\Novu::builder()->setSecurity('<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>')->build();
$sdk->channelEndpoints->create(
    requestBody: new Components\CreateSlackUserEndpointDto(
        subscriberId: 'user-123',
        integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
        connectionIdentifier: 'conn_slack_acme',
        type: Components\CreateSlackUserEndpointDtoType::SlackUser,
        endpoint: new Components\SlackUserEndpointDto(userId: 'U01234567'),
    ),
);

using Novu;
using Novu.Models.Components;

var sdk = new NovuSDK(secretKey: "<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>");
await sdk.ChannelEndpoints.CreateAsync(
    requestBody: CreateSlackUserEndpointDto.CreateSlackUser(
        new CreateSlackUserEndpointDto() {
            SubscriberId = "user-123",
            IntegrationIdentifier = "slack",
            ConnectionIdentifier = "conn_slack_acme",
            Type = CreateSlackUserEndpointDtoType.SlackUser,
            Endpoint = new SlackUserEndpointDto() { UserId = "U01234567" },
        }));

import co.novu.Novu;
import co.novu.models.components.*;

Novu novu = Novu.builder().secretKey("<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>").build();
novu.channelEndpoints().create()
    .requestBody(CreateSlackUserEndpointDto.builder()
        .subscriberId("user-123")
        .integrationIdentifier("slack")
        .connectionIdentifier("conn_slack_acme")
        .type(CreateSlackUserEndpointDtoType.SLACK_USER)
        .endpoint(SlackUserEndpointDto.builder().userId("U01234567").build())
        .build())
    .call();

curl -L -X POST 'https://api.novu.co/v1/channel-endpoints' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: ApiKey <NOVU_SECRET_KEY>' \
-d '{
  "type": "slack_user",
  "subscriberId": "user-123",
  "integrationIdentifier": "slack",
  "connectionIdentifier": "conn_slack_acme",
  "context": {
    "tenant": "acme"
  },
  "endpoint": {
    "userId": "U01234567"
  }
}'

If incoming-webhook scope was included when configuring the OAuth and permissions scopes in Step 1.1. Slack would show its own channel picker during the OAuth flow:

User selects a channel

The subscriber picks a Slack channel where notifications should be delivered.

Slack returns webhook URL

Novu creates webhook endpoint

Novu automatically creates a webhook endpoint for that subscriber using that URL.

You don’t need to collect channelId yourself in this mode, Slack’s native channel picker handles it.

Send notifications

Once you have at least one Slack connection, and one or more Slack endpoints. You can trigger the workflow:

import { Novu } from '@novu/api';

const novu = new Novu({ secretKey: "<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>" });

await novu.trigger({
  workflowId: "order-shipped",
  to: { subscriberId: "user-123", },
  payload: {
    "orderNumber": "ORD-12345",
    "trackingUrl": "https://acme.com/track/123"
},
  context: {
    "tenant": "acme"
},
});

import os
import novu_py
from novu_py import Novu

with Novu(secret_key=os.getenv("NOVU_SECRET_KEY", "")) as novu:
    novu.trigger(trigger_event_request_dto=novu_py.TriggerEventRequestDto(
        workflow_id="order-shipped",
        to={"subscriber_id": "user-123"},
        payload={
        "orderNumber": "ORD-12345",
        "trackingUrl": "https://acme.com/track/123"
},
        context={
        "tenant": "acme"
},
    ))

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    novugo "github.com/novuhq/novu-go"
    "github.com/novuhq/novu-go/models/components"
)

s := novugo.New(novugo.WithSecurity(os.Getenv("NOVU_SECRET_KEY")))

res, err := s.Trigger(context.Background(), components.TriggerEventRequestDto{
    WorkflowID: "order-shipped",
    To: components.CreateToSubscriberPayloadDto(components.SubscriberPayloadDto{
        SubscriberID: "user-123",
    }),
    Payload: map[string]any{
    "orderNumber": "ORD-12345",
    "trackingUrl": "https://acme.com/track/123"
},
    Context: map[string]any{
    "tenant": "acme"
},
}, nil)

use novu;
use novu\Models\Components;

$sdk = novu\Novu::builder()->setSecurity('<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>')->build();

$sdk->trigger(
    triggerEventRequestDto: new Components\TriggerEventRequestDto(
        workflowId: 'order-shipped',
        to: new Components\SubscriberPayloadDto(subscriberId: 'user-123'),
        payload: {
        "orderNumber": "ORD-12345",
        "trackingUrl": "https://acme.com/track/123"
},
        context: {
        "tenant": "acme"
},
    ),
);

using Novu;
using Novu.Models.Components;

var sdk = new NovuSDK(secretKey: "<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>");

await sdk.TriggerAsync(triggerEventRequestDto: new TriggerEventRequestDto() {
    WorkflowId = "order-shipped",
    To = To.CreateSubscriberPayloadDto(new SubscriberPayloadDto() { SubscriberId = "user-123" }),
    Payload = {
    "orderNumber": "ORD-12345",
    "trackingUrl": "https://acme.com/track/123"
},
    Context = {
    "tenant": "acme"
},
});

import co.novu.Novu;
import co.novu.models.components.*;

Novu novu = Novu.builder().secretKey("<NOVU_SECRET_KEY>").build();

novu.trigger()
    .body(TriggerEventRequestDto.builder()
        .workflowId("order-shipped")
        .to(To2.of(SubscriberPayloadDto.builder().subscriberId("user-123").build()))
        .payload({
        "orderNumber": "ORD-12345",
        "trackingUrl": "https://acme.com/track/123"
})
        .context({
        "tenant": "acme"
})
        .build())
    .call();

curl --location 'https://api.novu.co/v1/events/trigger' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: ApiKey <NOVU_SECRET_KEY>' \
-d '{
    "name": "order-shipped",
    "to": [
        "user-123"
    ],
    "payload": {
        "orderNumber": "ORD-12345",
        "trackingUrl": "https://acme.com/track/123"
    },
    "context": {
        "tenant": "acme"
    }
}'

When the workflow is triggered, Novu will:

Find Slack endpoints

Novu looks up Slack endpoints that match the subscriber ID and context.

Use the workspace connection

Deliver messages

Novu sends the notification to each configured Slack destination.

Using Slack with agents

Slack is a supported agent provider. Connect your Slack app to an agent so users can message in channels or DMs and get replies in the same thread — without building Slack event handling yourself.

Build agents on Slack

Learn how Novu agents work, including managed and custom code agents.

What you get

When Slack is connected to an agent:

Users message your app in Slack and your agent responds in the same thread
Conversations appear in the dashboard under Agent Conversations
Supported content includes text, markdown, files, interactive cards, reactions, and typing indicators

See agent conversations for capabilities across all providers.

Agent conversations vs. workflow notifications

Use case	What happens
Agent conversation	The user messages your Slack app and your agent replies in the same thread.
Workflow notification	You trigger a workflow with a Chat step and Novu sends a one-way message to the subscriber’s linked Slack destination.

Both can use the same Slack integration. Your agent handles back-and-forth conversations while workflows send updates such as deploy alerts to the same workspace.

Agents and providers

Connect Slack and other providers to an agent.

Getting Started

Integrate <Inbox />

Integrate <Subscription />

Build a Workflow

Integrate Channels Providers

SDKs

Developer

Account

Build with AI

Additional Resources

Slack Chat Integration with Novu

Configure a Slack app

Create a Slack app

Configure scopes (Permissions)

Set the redirect URL

Configure Slack integration in Novu

Let users connect their Slack workspace

Generate the OAuth URL

Redirect the user

Choose delivery destinations

Send notifications

Using Slack with agents

Build agents on Slack

What you get

Agent conversations vs. workflow notifications

Agents and providers

​Configure a Slack app

​Create a Slack app

​Configure scopes (Permissions)

​Set the redirect URL

​Configure Slack integration in Novu

​Let users connect their Slack workspace

​Generate the OAuth URL

​Redirect the user

​Choose delivery destinations

​Send notifications

​Using Slack with agents

Build agents on Slack

​What you get

​Agent conversations vs. workflow notifications

​Related

Agents and providers

Configure a Slack app

Create a Slack app

Configure scopes (Permissions)

Set the redirect URL

Configure Slack integration in Novu

Let users connect their Slack workspace

Generate the OAuth URL

Redirect the user

Choose delivery destinations

Send notifications

Using Slack with agents

What you get

Agent conversations vs. workflow notifications

Related