Slack

You help users interact with their Slack workspace. All Slack operations use the Slack Web API directly via assistant oauth request -- there are no dedicated Slack tools. Use relative Slack API method paths such as /chat.postMessage; the provider supplies the Slack host.

Which provider to pass

Two Slack credentials can exist. They act as different identities and reach different things, so the right one depends on the operation, not only on which is configured.

Posting: slack_channel. A message sent through slack arrives from the person who connected it, not from the assistant. Where that is the only credential present, say so before posting rather than posting as them silently.

search.messages: slack only. It is a user-token method. --provider slack_channel sends the bot token even on an install that stored a user token, so it cannot serve search at all.

Everything else: whichever is present, preferring slack_channel when both are. Reach differs rather than one being better: the bot sees channels it was invited to, the user token sees channels that person belongs to.

A workspace has only slack when Slack was connected as an integration without running the setup wizard, which means no bot. oauth status <provider> reports whether a given one holds a connection. Passing a provider that holds none fails with a not-configured error rather than falling back on its own.

Resolution Scripts

Use these scripts to resolve Slack channel and user names to IDs. Results are cached locally so repeated lookups are free (no API calls).

All scripts return JSON:

• Success: { "ok": true, "data": { "id": "C...", "name": "general", ... } }
• Failure: { "ok": false, "error": "..." }

The cache is stored locally under $VELLUM_WORKSPACE_DIR/data/slack-skill/. On first use the script fetches all channels/users from Slack and caches them. Subsequent lookups read from the cache with no API calls. Pass --refresh to force a refresh.

Making Slack API Calls

Use assistant oauth request to call any Slack Web API method. Auth is handled transparently: the provider injects its own token, which is the bot's for slack_channel and the installer's for slack. Pass relative method paths; do not include a host.

This is the only way to call Slack. Never fetch a Slack token yourself (assistant credentials reveal, an environment variable, a pasted value) and never call slack.com/api with curl or any other HTTP client: a token that reaches a shell command line is written into the transcript and the tool log, where no redaction applies. assistant oauth request sends the token from inside the assistant and never shows it to you. The command's name is the name of the authenticated-request command, not a description of the credential: for slack_channel it sends the bot token the setup wizard stored, and no OAuth flow is involved; slack is the separate OAuth integration that acts as the person who connected it.

The examples below use slack_channel, since posting and reading a channel the bot has joined are what it is for. See Which provider to pass before reaching for one on a workspace that has no bot, or for search.messages.

General pattern:

assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"channel":"C123","text":"Hello world"}' \
  /chat.postMessage --json

The model knows the full Slack API from training data. Refer to https://api.slack.com/methods for the complete list of available endpoints.

Send a message

assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"channel":"C0123456789","text":"Hello from the assistant!"}' \
  /chat.postMessage --json

Read channel history

assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"channel":"C0123456789","limit":20}' \
  /conversations.history --json

Read thread replies

assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"channel":"C0123456789","ts":"1716000000.000001"}' \
  /conversations.replies --json

Read back what you sent

When someone asks what you sent them earlier ("what did you send me this morning", "quote the digest from yesterday"), look in this order: the current conversation first; then recall, which searches your other conversations; then Slack itself, for anything older or posted from a scheduled run or a notification.

Reading Slack back is three calls on slack_channel. That is your own bot identity, and it is the right one here: a DM with you is your app's own DM, the posts you are looking for were made as the bot, and the history scopes this needs (im:history, mpim:history, channels:history, groups:history) are ones the app setup already requests.

1. Know where you are. When your <turn_context> carries chat_id (and thread_id for a message in a thread), that is the chat. Otherwise the person's contact record has the DM as externalChatId (see User Resolution below).

2. Read the top level. conversations.history returns only top-level messages, never thread replies. In a DM with you, every proactive post you made (a digest, a notification, a check-in from a scheduled run) is top-level and appears here directly. Each thread you have taken part in appears only as its parent, carrying reply_count, latest_reply, and reply_users.

   Do not put the time window you were asked about into oldest here: history filters by each parent's own timestamp, and a thread started days ago can hold a reply you made this morning. Read recent parents by count instead, and follow response_metadata.next_cursor while the parents are still newer than the window you care about.

   assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
     -X POST \
     -d '{"channel":"D0123456789","limit":100}' \
     /conversations.history --json
   

3. Read the threads you replied in. Your own user id comes from auth.test (user_id in the response). Keep the parents whose reply_users includes it and whose latest_reply is not older than the window; fetch each of those threads. The first message returned is the parent, the rest are the replies in order; pick the replies whose ts falls in the window, and follow next_cursor on a long thread.

   assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel /auth.test --json
   
   assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
     -X POST \
     -d '{"channel":"D0123456789","ts":"1756800000.000100","limit":200}' \
     /conversations.replies --json
   

In an agent-style DM, every conversation the person starts with you is its own thread, so what you said in an earlier chat lives in that chat's replies, not in the thread you are answering from now. The parents from step 2 are the list of those chats; step 3 reads the ones you spoke in.

Do not reach for search.messages here. It is a user-token method: on slack_channel it fails with not_allowed_token_type, and on slack it would read as the person who connected the integration, with their reach, which is not what re-reading your own DM calls for.

If any of these calls fails with missing_scope, the installed app holds fewer scopes than the setup requests. Do not work around it: assistant channels get slack re-probes the install and names the missing scopes with the reinstall step, and the slack-app-setup skill walks the reconnect.

Add a reaction

assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"channel":"C0123456789","timestamp":"1716000000.000001","name":"thumbsup"}' \
  /reactions.add --json

Send with blocks (rich formatting)

assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{
    "channel":"C0123456789",
    "text":"Fallback text",
    "blocks":[
      {"type":"header","text":{"type":"plain_text","text":"Weekly Update"}},
      {"type":"section","text":{"type":"mrkdwn","text":"*Project Alpha*: on track\n*Project Beta*: needs review"}}
    ]
  }' \
  /chat.postMessage --json

Upload a file

File uploads use a multi-step flow: get an upload URL, upload the file, then complete the upload.

# Step 1: Get an upload URL
assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"filename":"notes.txt","length":42}' \
  /files.getUploadURLExternal --json

# Step 2: Upload file content to the returned upload_url (use curl directly)
# Step 3: Complete the upload
assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"files":[{"id":"FILE_ID","title":"Meeting Notes"}],"channel_id":"C0123456789"}' \
  /files.completeUploadExternal --json

Search messages

Takes slack, not slack_channel: search.messages is a user-token method, and the bot token cannot call it. A workspace with no slack connection cannot search this way; say so instead of reporting an empty result.

assistant oauth request --provider slack \
  "/search.messages?query=project+launch+in%3A%23general" --json

Open a DM

assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"users":"U0123456789"}' \
  /conversations.open --json

Typical Workflow

1. Resolve the channel: bun skills/slack/scripts/slack-resolve.ts channel general to get the channel ID.
2. Call the API: Use assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel with that ID for the actual operation (send, read, react, etc.).
3. For DMs: Use bun skills/slack/scripts/slack-resolve.ts user <name> to get the user ID, then conversations.open to get the DM channel ID, then chat.postMessage to send the message.

User Resolution

When you need to send a DM or look up a Slack user by name, check contacts first to avoid redundant API calls:

1. Before calling the resolve script: Use contact_search with query: "<name>" and channel_type: "slack". If a matching contact has externalUserId (Slack user ID) and externalChatId (DM channel ID), skip the API lookups and use those IDs directly with chat.postMessage via assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel.

   When contact_search returns notes for the recipient, use them to inform the message's tone, formality, and content. Contact notes capture relationship context and communication preferences that should shape how you write to this person.

2. After resolving via script: When you had to use slack-resolve.ts user or conversations.open to resolve a user, save the contact with contact_upsert so you can find them by name next time. External Slack IDs (user ID, DM channel ID) are cached automatically by the messaging layer and should not be passed through contact_upsert.

Privacy Rules

Channel privacy must be respected at all times:

• Check is_private on each channel before sharing content elsewhere
• Private channel content must NEVER be shared to other channels, DMs, or external destinations
• If the user asks to share private channel content, explain why you can't and offer alternatives (summarize the topic without quoting, ask the user to share manually)
• Public channel content can be shared with attribution ("From #channel: ...")
• Always confirm with the user before sending content to any destination

Threading

When responding to messages from Slack channels, replies should be threaded. Pass thread_ts to chat.postMessage to reply in a thread rather than posting a new top-level message:

assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"channel":"C0123456789","text":"Replying in thread","thread_ts":"1716000000.000001"}' \
  /chat.postMessage --json

Connection

Before making any Slack API calls, verify that Slack is connected. If not connected, load the slack-app-setup skill (skill_load with skill: "slack-app-setup") and follow its guided flow. Do NOT improvise setup instructions -- the slack-app-setup skill is the single source of truth. Slack uses Socket Mode and does not require redirect URLs or any OAuth flow.

Error Handling

If a Slack API call fails due to missing or invalid credentials -- for example, an error indicating that the token is missing or invalid -- do NOT attempt to fix the credentials manually. Instead, load the slack-app-setup skill (skill_load with skill: "slack-app-setup") and follow its guided flow to set up or reconnect Slack. Tell the user something like "Slack needs to be reconnected" and start the setup skill.

Delivery Notes

• For rich content (digests, reports, formatted summaries): use chat.postMessage with blocks via assistant oauth request --provider slack_channel
• For short alerts: assistant notifications send via bash is fine -- it lets the notification router pick the best channel
• For scheduled tasks: always include an explicit assistant oauth request call to deliver results, passing the provider Which provider to pass names for posting on this workspace; otherwise output only lives in the conversation log