Slack Status Update

Slack Status Update

Compose concise, professional Slack messages for engineering status updates, investigation reports, and support requests. Uses Slack MCP to search users/channels and create drafts.

Message Style

• English, professional but friendly
• Concise and scannable — use bold headers, bullet points, short paragraphs
• Polite and collaborative tone (not demanding)
• Structure: what you need first, then context, then what you'll do

Slack mrkdwn Formatting

Slack uses its own markdown variant, NOT standard markdown:

• Bold: *text* (single asterisk)
• Italic: _text_ (underscore)
• Code: `code` (backtick)
• Strikethrough: ~text~
• Blockquote: >text
• Bullet list: • character or - (NOT * for lists)
• Numbered lists: 1. works
• No headings (# does NOT work) — use *Bold Text* as section headers
• Line breaks: \n in the message string
• Emoji: :emoji_name: (e.g. :white_check_mark:, :warning:, :heart_hands:)

Message Template

[Greeting + one-line summary of what you need]

*[Section Header]*

[Key question or decision needed — put this FIRST if applicable]
• Option A — brief description
• Option B — brief description

*[What I Found / Context]*

*1. Issue title (severity):* Description of the issue.

*2. Issue title:* Description.

*3. Issue title (severity):* Description.

[One line about who IS / ISN'T affected]

*[What I'll Do]*

• Action item 1
• Action item 2

Thanks!

Workflow

1. User describes the situation and who to send to
2. Compose message following the template and style above
3. Show the draft to user for review as a plain text block
4. When approved, use Slack MCP:
   • slack_search_users to find the recipient's user ID
   • slack_search_channels to find channel ID (if sending to a channel)
   • slack_send_message_draft to create the draft (user sends manually)
   • Only use slack_send_message if user explicitly says to send directly

Key Rules

• Always create a draft unless user explicitly asks to send directly
• If draft already exists for that channel, tell user to delete it first
• One draft per channel — Slack limitation
• Use user ID as channel_id for DMs
• Keep messages under 4000 characters (Slack limit)