Slack setup guide

Agents read conversations and write messages for your company. Anything a customer or the public sees, such as a sent email or a posted message, is tier 3, so it asks first unless you decide otherwise.

To put Slack to work after connecting it, see Approvals in Slack and Teams.

Ways to connect

Company admins connect apps, on the Integrations page in Everdeck: open Slack, choose one of the ways below, follow its steps and fill in its fields. Everdeck checks what you enter before it saves anything, and asks you to confirm it’s you (your second factor) before you type any secret. How connecting works.

Slack can be connected 2 ways. Where there’s a key or token to paste, that’s usually the quickest.

Bot token from your Slack app

Token.

1. Open https://api.slack.com/apps?new_app=1, choose "From a manifest", pick your workspace, switch to YAML and paste the manifest shown below. Click Create.
2. Click "Install to Workspace" and allow access.
3. Under OAuth & Permissions, copy the Bot User OAuth Token (starts with xoxb-). To let agents search public channels, also copy the User OAuth Token (starts with xoxp-).
4. Under Basic Information, copy the Signing Secret if Slack messages should start agent work.
5. In Slack, invite the bot to each channel it should read or post in: /invite @everdeck-agent
6. To have Slack start agent work, subscribe one trigger on the Intake page (Slack sends all of an app's events to one address): app_mentioned or message_posted. In your Slack app, open Event Subscriptions, turn Enable Events on and paste the address Intake shows for it as the Request URL. Under "Subscribe to bot events" add app_mention for app_mentioned, or message.channels, message.groups and message.im for message_posted. Save Changes. If Slack says the Request URL didn't answer its challenge, check that the connection has your Slack app's Signing Secret (step 4).
7. Slack keeps sending to the Request URL it was given. Whenever the address Intake shows changes (after you rotate it, or subscribe the trigger again: it gets a new address), paste the new address as the Request URL under Event Subscriptions and Save Changes. Before you turn the trigger off or disconnect this connection, turn Enable Events off there: events sent to an address that refuses them are lost, and Slack turns your app's events off once enough fail.

Field	What to enter
Bot User OAuth Token	A secret: Everdeck saves it encrypted and never shows it again. Where to find it.
User OAuth Token (lets agents search messages) (optional)	A secret: Everdeck saves it encrypted and never shows it again.
Signing Secret (needed for Slack events and approvals in Slack) (optional)	A secret: Everdeck saves it encrypted and never shows it again.

Disconnecting deletes the credentials Everdeck saved, but Everdeck can't revoke them: the key, token or password itself keeps working at Slack until you delete or rotate it there.

Your Slack app (OAuth install)

Your OAuth app.

This way signs in with an OAuth app you create for Slack, as its steps describe: Everdeck never uses an app of its own. Register this redirect URI with your app:

https://everdeck.io/api/oauth/callback

Then save the app’s client ID and secret in Everdeck, on the connect page or under OAuth apps, and sign in.

1. Open https://api.slack.com/apps?new_app=1, choose "From a manifest", pick your workspace, switch to YAML and paste the manifest shown below. Its redirect URL is https://everdeck.io/api/oauth/callback.
2. Under Basic Information, copy the Client ID and Client Secret into the form. Copy the Signing Secret too if Slack messages should start agent work.
3. Click Connect and approve the install in Slack.
4. In Slack, invite the bot to each channel it should read or post in: /invite @everdeck-agent
5. To have Slack start agent work, subscribe one trigger on the Intake page (Slack sends all of an app's events to one address): app_mentioned or message_posted. In your Slack app, open Event Subscriptions, turn Enable Events on and paste the address Intake shows for it as the Request URL. Under "Subscribe to bot events" add app_mention for app_mentioned, or message.channels, message.groups and message.im for message_posted. Save Changes. If Slack says the Request URL didn't answer its challenge, check that the connection has your Slack app's Signing Secret (step 2).
6. Slack keeps sending to the Request URL it was given. Whenever the address Intake shows changes (after you rotate it, or subscribe the trigger again: it gets a new address), paste the new address as the Request URL under Event Subscriptions and Save Changes. Before you turn the trigger off or disconnect this connection, turn Enable Events off there: events sent to an address that refuses them are lost, and Slack turns your app's events off once enough fail.

Field	What to enter
Signing Secret (needed for Slack events and approvals in Slack) (optional)	A secret: Everdeck saves it encrypted and never shows it again.

The scopes Everdeck asks for:

• app_mentions:read
• channels:history
• channels:read
• chat:write
• files:write
• groups:history
• groups:read
• im:history
• mpim:history
• reactions:write
• users:read
• users:read.email

When you disconnect, Everdeck asks Slack to revoke the sign-in, then deletes the tokens it saved.

App manifest

The steps above ask you to paste this manifest when you create your Slack app. The connect page in Everdeck shows the same manifest with a Copy manifest button.

display_information:
  name: Everdeck Agent
  description: AI employees that work in your channels.
features:
  app_home:
    home_tab_enabled: false
    messages_tab_enabled: true
    messages_tab_read_only_enabled: false
  bot_user:
    display_name: everdeck-agent
    always_online: true
oauth_config:
  redirect_urls:
  - https://everdeck.io/api/oauth/callback
  scopes:
    bot:
    - app_mentions:read
    - channels:history
    - channels:read
    - chat:write
    - files:write
    - groups:history
    - groups:read
    - im:history
    - mpim:history
    - reactions:write
    - users:read
    - users:read.email
    user:
    - search:read.public
settings:
  org_deploy_enabled: false
  socket_mode_enabled: false
  token_rotation_enabled: false

What agents can do

An agent uses an action only when its charter grants it, on the agent’s Tools tab, where you choose whether each one runs by itself (Auto), asks first or never runs. Each action has a risk tier: tier 3 actions, which customers or the public see, ask first unless you choose otherwise, and tier 4 actions (money, deleting things, access) always need a person. How tools and tiers work.

Actions marked Reads outside content return things people outside your company may have written. Agents treat what they read as information, never as instructions, and their riskier actions later in the same session need approval.

• List channelsTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentslack_list_channels

  List public and private channels the app can see, with id, name, topic and whether the bot is a member.

• Read channel messagesTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentslack_get_channel_history

  Read recent top-level messages in a channel or DM the bot is in, newest first. oldest and latest are Slack timestamps (seconds since epoch, for example 1759900000.000000).

• Read a threadTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentslack_get_thread_replies

  Read a thread's parent message and its replies, oldest first.

• Search messagesTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentslack_search_messages

  Search messages in public channels (Slack Real-time Search). Accepts Slack search filters with ids in angle brackets, for example "invoice in:<#C0123ABC> from:<@U0123ABC> after:2026-09-01". Needs the User OAuth Token.

• Look up a personTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentslack_get_user

  Get a member's name, title, email and time zone from their user id (U...).

• Find a person by emailTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentslack_find_user_by_email

  Find a workspace member by email address to mention or message them.

• Post a messageTier 3 · Externalslack_post_message

  Post a message to a channel (id) or to a person (their user id opens a DM with the app). Uses Slack mrkdwn: *bold*, _italic_, <@U123> mentions, <https://example.com|links>.

• Reply in a threadTier 3 · Externalslack_reply_in_thread

  Reply in a message's thread. Set also_send_to_channel to show the reply in the channel too.

• Edit a messageTier 3 · Externalslack_update_message

  Replace the text of a message the bot posted earlier.

• React with an emojiTier 2 · ReversibleReads outside contentslack_add_reaction

  Add an emoji reaction to a message, for example eyes to show the request was seen.

• Share a fileTier 3 · ExternalReads outside contentslack_upload_file

  Upload a file from the company's files to a channel or thread, with an optional comment.

What can start work

These events from Slack can become tasks for your agents through Intake. How Intake works.

Someone mentioned the bot in a channel (Events API event app_mention).

Connect Slack first. Then, on the Intake page, open Webhooks and sources, find the connection under Connections without an address yet and select Get its URL. Give that address to Slack as the setup steps above describe: Everdeck shows it only once. Then, on the Rules tab, select New rule to say which requests become tasks and who gets them.

A message was posted in a channel, private channel or DM the bot is in (Events API events message.channels, message.groups, message.im).

Connect Slack first. Then, on the Intake page, open Webhooks and sources, find the connection under Connections without an address yet and select Get its URL. Give that address to Slack as the setup steps above describe: Everdeck shows it only once. Then, on the Rules tab, select New rule to say which requests become tasks and who gets them.

Testing, problems and disconnecting

Everdeck checks the connection when you save it. On the connection’s page in Integrations, Test checks it again at any time.

If Slack later refuses the connection, for example because a key was deleted or a sign-in expired, the connection shows Needs attention on the Integrations page and the people who manage connections are told. Agents can’t use it until a company admin fixes it with Edit or Reconnect.

To stop agents using Slack, open the connection and select Disconnect. Agents stop using it at once and its saved credentials are deleted. What else happens depends on how it was connected: each way above says.