Slack App Setup

Set up Slack for AnswerLoops — 1-click OAuth or polling mode (no webhook, no admin required).

AnswerLoops offers two Slack connection paths. Both feed into the same AI pipeline. Pick based on your security posture.

Option A: 1-click OAuth (recommended)

1. Create a Slack App

Go to api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From scratch
Name it (e.g. "AnswerLoops") and select your workspace

2. Configure OAuth scopes

Go to OAuth & Permissions → Bot Token Scopes and add:

channels:history
channels:read
channels:join
chat:write
reactions:write
users:read

channels:join lets AnswerLoops add the bot to a public channel automatically the moment you select it in the channel picker — without it, Slack never adds the bot to a channel on its own, so conversations.history fails with not_in_channel and messages silently never ingest. Private channels are a hard Slack platform limit either way: a bot can never join one on its own, so those still need a human to add the app via the channel's Integrations → Add apps. users:read resolves a message's raw user ID to a display name — without it, tickets show an opaque ID (e.g. U0BMB9H6SFQ) instead of a name.

Already connected before August 2026? Slack scopes aren't retroactive — your existing bot token keeps its old scopes until you reauthorize. Go to Settings → Integrations → Slack, click Disconnect, then Add to Slack again to pick up users:read and start showing real names. Until then, tickets keep showing the raw user ID exactly as they do today — nothing breaks either way.

3. Add redirect URL

Go to OAuth & Permissions → Redirect URLs and add:

https://your-domain.com/api/slack/callback

Replace your-domain.com with your AUTH_URL value.

4. Get credentials

Go to Basic Information → App Credentials and copy:

SLACK_CLIENT_ID=<your-app-id>.<your-workspace-id>
SLACK_CLIENT_SECRET=<your-client-secret>
SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET=<your-signing-secret>
AUTH_URL=https://your-domain.com

5. Connect in AnswerLoops

Go to Settings → Integrations → Slack → Add to Slack. Authorize the workspace. The channel picker loads automatically.

6. (Optional) Enable real-time Events API

By default AnswerLoops polls for new messages. For instant delivery:

Event Subscriptions → Enable Events → Request URL: https://your-domain.com/api/slack/events
Subscribe to bot events: message.channels, reaction_added

Events API requires a public HTTPS URL. If your deployment is behind a firewall or VPN, use polling mode — same pipeline, no inbound connections needed.

Option B: Polling mode (no admin, no webhook)

Designed for teams that cannot expose a public webhook URL, cannot get security approval for inbound HTTP from Slack, or simply prefer outbound-only connections.

What you don't need:

No public-facing URL
No inbound firewall rules
No admin approval
No signing secret

The bot reaches out to Slack's API on a schedule — Slack never calls back.

1. Create a Slack App (minimal scopes)

Go to api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From scratch
Name it and select your workspace
OAuth & Permissions → Bot Token Scopes — add only:
- channels:history
- channels:read
- channels:join
- chat:write
- reactions:write
- users:read

2. Install and copy token

Click Install to Workspace → Allow. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token (xoxb-...).

3. Get Team ID and Channel IDs

Team ID: your workspace URL — https://app.slack.com/client/T0123ABCDE — the T… part
Channel IDs: right-click a channel → Copy link — last segment (e.g. C01234ABCDE)

4. Connect in AnswerLoops

Go to Settings → Integrations → Slack → click Set up manually instead. Enter the bot token, team ID, and channel IDs.

5. (Optional) Adjust poll interval

SLACK_POLL_INTERVAL_SECONDS=60  # default. Minimum recommended: 30.

Polling uses conversations.history with cursor-based deduplication — messages are never processed twice even if polls overlap.

Invite the bot to channels

For public channels, selecting them in Settings → Integrations → Slack's channel picker joins the bot automatically — no manual step needed, as long as the channels:join scope above is granted.

Private channels can't be auto-joined by any bot — that's a Slack platform limit, not an AnswerLoops one. Add the app manually: open the channel → Integrations tab → Add apps → select your Slack app (more reliable than /invite @YourBotName, which doesn't always work for bot users depending on workspace settings).

Slack App Setup

On this page