> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://novu-c5de82d9-docs-homepage-redesign.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Slack Chat Integration with Novu

> Connect Slack to Novu to send chat notifications through notification workflows. Step-by-step credential setup.

<Note>
  This feature is currently in public beta, please contact us at [support@novu.co](mailto:support@novu.co) to enable it for your organization.
</Note>

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.

<Note>
  Check out the [agents](/agents) documentation for more information on how to build agents using Slack.
</Note>

## 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.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the Slack API dashboard">
    Go to the [Slack API dashboard](https://api.slack.com/apps).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create an app">
    Click **Create an App**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select From scratch">
    Select **From scratch**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="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.

    <img src="https://mintcdn.com/novu-c5de82d9-docs-homepage-redesign/_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d/images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/create-app.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d&q=85&s=750c70f402b759c9ce27519abd8d4dfe" alt="Create app" width="2878" height="1624" data-path="images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/create-app.png" />
  </Step>

  <Step title="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
          <img src="https://mintcdn.com/novu-c5de82d9-docs-homepage-redesign/_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d/images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/basic-information.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d&q=85&s=5005b956bbee499d1ec1a99f1aa15546" alt="Basic application" width="2880" height="1624" data-path="images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/basic-information.png" />
  </Step>
</Steps>

### Configure scopes (Permissions)

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

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open OAuth & Permissions">
    In the sidebar, select **OAuth & Permissions**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open Scopes">
    Scroll down to the **Scopes** section.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add an OAuth Scope">
    Under Bot Token Scopes, click **Add an OAuth Scope**.

    <img src="https://mintcdn.com/novu-c5de82d9-docs-homepage-redesign/_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d/images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/scopes.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d&q=85&s=e8a99a925c16d877fd67e18c3d5ccc6f" alt="Add an OAuth Scope" width="2880" height="1624" data-path="images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/scopes.png" />
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add recommended scopes">
    Add the following 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.
  </Step>
</Steps>

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.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open OAuth & Permissions">
    In the sidebar, select **OAuth & Permissions**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open Redirect URLs">
    Scroll down to the **Redirect URLs** section.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add a redirect URL">
    Click **Add New Redirect URL**.

    <img src="https://mintcdn.com/novu-c5de82d9-docs-homepage-redesign/_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d/images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/redirect-urls.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d&q=85&s=33f487df88bdcc0ce330982db763eb46" alt="Add New Redirect URL" width="2880" height="1624" data-path="images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/redirect-urls.png" />
  </Step>

  <Step title="Paste the Novu callback URL">
    Paste the Novu OAuth callback URL. Add the redirect URL that matches your Novu region:

    <CodeGroup>
      ```bash title="US region" theme={null}
      https://api.novu.co/v1/integrations/chat/oauth/callback
      ```

      ```bash title="EU region" theme={null}
      https://api.eu.novu.co/v1/integrations/chat/oauth/callback
      ```
    </CodeGroup>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save the URLs">
    Click **Add** to save the URLs. If you use a self-hosted Novu instance, then add your instance's callback URL instead.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Configure Slack integration in Novu

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

<Steps>
  <Step title="Log in to the Novu dashboard">
    Log in to the Novu dashboard.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open Integrations Store">
    In the sidebar, click **Integrations Store**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Connect a provider">
    Click **Connect Provider**
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select Slack">
    Select **Chat** and click **Slack**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="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.
          <img src="https://mintcdn.com/novu-c5de82d9-docs-homepage-redesign/_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d/images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/slack-integration.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=_Er4ZWa6vVDiKb7d&q=85&s=e3a070fb45947ebcc7cf85089aaaee0b" alt="Connect slack integration in Novu" width="2880" height="1626" data-path="images/channels-and-providers/chat/slack/slack-integration.png" />
  </Step>

  <Step title="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.
  </Step>
</Steps>

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.

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

```tsx theme={null}
import { Novu } from '@novu/api';

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

// This function should be called by your API when the user requests to connect
async function getSlackUrl(user, orgId) {
  
  const oauthUrl = await novu.integrations.generateChatOAuthUrl({
    integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
    subscriberId: user.id,           // The ID of the user performing the action
    context: { tenant: orgId },      // The tenant/workspace context
  });

return oauthUrl;
}
```

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.

```tsx theme={null}
window.open(oauthUrl, '_blank');
```

Slack then guides the user through:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Review permissions">
    Reviewing your app's requested permissions
  </Step>

  <Step title="Approve authorization">
    Approving the authorization
  </Step>

  <Step title="Redirect to Novu">
    Redirecting back to Novu's callback URL
  </Step>
</Steps>

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

<Steps>
  <Step title="Novu exchanges the code">
    Novu exchanges the code for a Slack token.
  </Step>

  <Step title="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.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## 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.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Slack channel">
    This is the typical flow for sending notifications to public or private channels.

    <Steps>
      <Step title="Get the channel ID">
        **Get the channel ID**: First, the channel where the message will be sent to must be selected, one way to do this is by using your Slack app token to list channels in your own UI.

        ```bash theme={null}
            curl -X GET "https://slack.com/api/conversations.list" \
              -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>"
        ```

        To learn more about using [Slack conversations API](https://docs.slack.dev/apis/web-api/using-the-conversations-api) to either get public or private channels, refer Slack documentation.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Create the endpoint">
        **Create the endpoint**: Once the user selects a channel, save it as an endpoint in Novu.

        ```tsx theme={null}
            await novu.channelEndpoints.create({
              subscriberId: 'user-123',
              integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
              connectionIdentifier: 'conn_slack_acme', // The identifier of the connection created in Step 2
              context: { tenant: 'acme' },
              type: 'slack_channel',                   // TYPE: Channel
              endpoint: {
                channelId: 'C012345'                   // Slack channel ID of the channel selected by the user
              }
            });
        ```
      </Step>
    </Steps>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Slack user">
    Use this to send personal messages and notifications directly to a specific user.

    <Steps>
      <Step title="Get the Slack user ID">
        **Get the Slack user ID**: You can use Slack’s users API to get user IDs.

        ```bash theme={null}
            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](https://docs.slack.dev/reference/methods/users.list), refer Slack documentation.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Create the endpoint">
        Create the endpoint: Save the returned User ID as the endpoint.

        ```tsx theme={null}
            await novu.channelEndpoints.create({
              type: 'slack_user',
              subscriberId: 'user-123',
              integrationIdentifier: 'slack',
              connectionIdentifier: 'conn_slack_acme',
              context: { tenant: 'acme' },
              endpoint: {
                userId: 'U01234567',                  // Slack user ID
              },
            });
        ```
      </Step>
    </Steps>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Incoming webhook">
    If `incoming-webhook` scope was included when configuring the OAuth and permissions scopes in [Step 1.1](/platform/integrations/chat/slack#configure-scopes-permissions). Slack would show its own channel picker during the OAuth flow:

    <Steps>
      <Step title="User selects a channel">
        The user selects a channel directly in Slack.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Slack returns webhook URL">
        Slack returns an `incoming_webhook.url`.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Novu creates webhook endpoint">
        Novu automatically creates a webhook endpoint for that subscriber using that URL.
      </Step>
    </Steps>

    You don’t need to collect `channelId` yourself in this mode, Slack’s native channel picker handles it.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Send notifications

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

```jsx theme={null}
import { Novu } from '@novu/api';

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

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

When the workflow is triggered, Novu will:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Find Slack endpoints">
    Find Slack endpoints matching `subscriberId` and `context`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Use the workspace connection">
    Use the right Slack workspace connection.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Deliver messages">
    Deliver messages to the configured destinations.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Using Slack with agents

Slack is a supported [agent provider](/agents/get-started/agents-and-providers). 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.

<Card title="Build agents on Slack" icon="bot" href="/agents">
  Learn how Novu agents work, including managed and custom code agents.
</Card>

### 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](/agents/conversations#supported-platforms) 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.

## Related

<Card icon="bot" href="/agents/get-started/agents-and-providers" title="Agents and providers">
  Connect Slack and other providers to an agent.
</Card>