Slack

Slack gives your team a way to work with an agent without leaving the conversation. Someone mentions the agent in a channel, Paperclip turns that into a task, and the reply lands back in the thread. The same Slack bot also lets that agent read the discussion, post updates, and send you messages from its ordinary tasks and routines.

There are two separate Slack connections in Paperclip, with separate credentials. For most teams, Chat with an agent is the one you want.

Warning: Slack is available, but it is not yet fully functional. Follow-up fixes are planned. The chat route is behind an experimental setting, and the separate agent-tool route has known compatibility limitations. Review both sections before relying on Slack for production work.

Which do you want?

If you want Set up What it gives you
People to start and continue work by talking to an agent in Slack, and that agent to read and post in Slack while it works Chat with an agent A Slack bot for one agent: mentions and DMs become Paperclip tasks, and the agent gets governed Slack tools
An agent to use Slack's own hosted MCP server with a personal Slack authorization Use this connection as an agent tool Slack's MCP actions, governed by action permissions

Connecting one does not connect the other. When Chat connectors is on and you pick Slack under Connectors, Paperclip asks Choose how to connect and offers both options.

Slack as a channel

People mention the agent in a channel or send it a direct message, and Paperclip creates a task. Replies come back in the thread.

Before you connect

  • Chat connectors must be switched on for the instance. It is an experimental setting, off by default, enabled by an instance administrator under experimental settings.
  • A publicly reachable HTTPS address for the instance. Slack delivers events by calling Paperclip; this route does not use Slack's socket mode. Paperclip Cloud already has one. If you self-host, a private address (for example, a Tailscale Serve URL only your tailnet can reach) is not enough. The wizard shows Public HTTPS URL required with a Learn how to set up HTTPS link when this is missing.
  • Permission to create and install a Slack app in the workspace.
  • A Paperclip account that is a member of the company, so you can link your own Slack account at the end.

Connect it

Open Connectors, select Slack, then Chat with an agent. A guided setup walks you through seven steps, shown in the sidebar. You can leave at any point with Save & exit and come back through Finish setup on the connection's row; your progress is kept.

  1. Choose agent. Pick the agent people will talk to. This agent is permanent for the connection; to represent a different agent, connect another Slack app.

  2. Create Slack app. Review the Slack app name, Bot display name, and Slash command. Paperclip fills them in from the agent's name, and every later instruction uses whatever you save here. Click Create Slack app: Slack opens in a new tab with Paperclip's manifest already filled in. Pick your workspace, create the app, and install it. If you made the app earlier, use I already created the app instead. To inspect the generated configuration, open View Slack App Manifest.

  3. Add credentials. The two secrets live on different Slack screens, and the wizard gives you directions next to each field:

    • Bot User OAuth Token, from OAuth & Permissions. It starts with xoxb-.
    • Signing Secret, from Basic Information. It has no token prefix. An xapp- app token is not the signing secret.

    Click Connect Slack app.

  4. Verify Slack connection. In your Slack app, choose Event Subscriptions. Beside the prefilled Request URL, click Retry if it isn't verified yet, and save if Slack asks. Paperclip moves on by itself once Slack has verified the connection.

  5. Add avatar (optional). Download your agent's avatar as a 512 × 512 PNG, then upload it in Slack under Basic Information → Display Information → App icon & Preview and click Save Changes. Click I’ve uploaded the avatar, or Skip for now. The download stays available in the connection's Settings under Agent avatar.

  6. Connect your Slack account. Copy the command Paperclip shows (your slash command followed by connect, for example /yourbot connect) and send it in your Slack workspace. It only identifies you; it does not start any agent work. When your Slack account appears in Paperclip, click This is my Slack account. Only confirm an account that belongs to you. You'll see Linked to you, then Continue to message test.

  7. Try it (optional). Open a channel, invite the bot if needed, and send the suggested message, for example @yourbot you there?. Pick the bot from Slack's @mention suggestions so it is really notified. Continue the conversation in the thread. Paperclip checks for your message automatically; finish with I've sent the test message or Skip test and finish.

Use the generated manifest rather than configuring scopes by hand. It is the supported configuration, and hand-picked scopes are the most common reason a setup half-works.

Tip: On the Choose agent step, Copy setup prompt gives you a ready-made prompt you can paste into an assistant that has browser tools, so it can drive the Paperclip and Slack screens for you. It is told never to ask you to paste secrets into chat and to hand back to you for logins and ownership decisions.

Danger: The bot token and signing secret are full credentials for the app. Paste them only into Paperclip. If either leaks, rotate it in Slack and reconnect.

How a conversation becomes work

In Slack In Paperclip
A linked person mentions the agent in a channel One task per new mentioned thread
A linked person sends the agent a direct message The agent replies in the DM (when Allow direct messages is on)
The conversation continues in the thread It continues on the same task
The agent has answered and nothing is left to do The task shows as Idle

Paperclip acknowledges with a reaction so people can see a message was picked up before the agent has finished thinking.

Idle means the agent answered and is waiting for the next message. It is not a request for review, so an answered Slack thread does not clutter your review queue or active work counts. You can still find it under the connection's Conversations tab, in search, and in recent tasks. A new message in the thread, or one you send from Paperclip, picks the task straight back up. If delivery failed, a decision is pending, or more work is queued, the task stays active instead.

Reply from Paperclip

A Slack-linked task shows a Connected to Slack banner with an Open Slack link. Messages you send on the task, and the agent's replies, are also posted to the Slack thread, labelled with your name. You can also write in the banner's composer and click Send to channel: your message is posted to Slack with your name and starts the agent. Your Slack account must be linked to this connection for your messages to go through.

What the agent can do from Slack

The bot connection gives its agent a set of Slack tools. Ask for things in plain language, such as "summarize this thread and create follow-up tasks for the decisions". The agent can:

  • Read channels, threads, messages, files and source links, and search available channel history.
  • Send messages and files, react, pin, bookmark, and work with canvases and lists.

Some actions always need approval through Paperclip first: creating channels, inviting people, deleting the bot's messages, removing bookmarks, and sharing a list with a channel. A message inside Slack that says "approved" does not count. A channel the bot creates stays switched off for replies until a person turns it on.

The agent works with the permissions of the linked person who asked. Only linked people can direct these tools, and the agent can only read channels that both the bot and that person can see. Private-channel material stays in its source channel or in that person's DM with the bot. The bot cannot join channels on its own, invite itself, or read other people's DMs with it.

See the list in the connection's Settings under Slack tools. Expand Tool permissions and availability to see each tool marked Available, Ask first, Needs permissions, or Not verified, and use Manage action permissions to change the rules. See Set action permissions.

If you connected Slack before these tools existed, Settings shows Add permissions to unlock more tools with the missing scopes. Your connection keeps working. To unlock the rest, open your app in Slack, go to OAuth & Permissions, add those Bot Token Scopes, and reinstall the app to your workspace.

The same tools are available to the agent in its ordinary Paperclip tasks and routines, using the bot assigned to that agent and the Slack account linked to the person responsible for the work.

Send messages later, or on a schedule

You can ask the agent for a Slack message from any of its tasks: "send me a Slack message when the report is ready". It opens its DM with you (the task's responsible person) and posts there. You need a linked Slack account for this to work.

For something like "every weekday at 10am, post the standup summary in #team", use an ordinary routine assigned to the agent. Put the time, timezone, and destination channel in the routine's instructions. There is no separate Slack scheduler. Each run uses the routine's responsible person and checks their Slack link, channel access, and permissions again when it fires. Routine results only reach Slack when the agent sends them explicitly, so say where the message should go.

Note: Sending DMs needs the im:write scope. If your app was created before this was added, reinstall it with the updated manifest.

Settings and access

The connection's page has Settings, Access, Conversations, and Activity tabs.

  • Settings repeats the suggested first message under Chat in Slack, holds the avatar download, the Slack tools summary, and Additional communication instructions. Under Where this agent can work, Allowed Channels lists every channel the bot is in, and there's an Allow direct messages toggle.
  • Access holds identity links and the Allow unlinked people setting.

Allowed Channels controls where the agent replies and writes, not what it can read. Channels you invite the bot to start enabled. If you switch one off, it stays off until someone turns it back on in Paperclip; a new mention does not re-enable it.

By default, the agent replies conversationally in Slack: answer first, short paragraphs or short lists, with bigger deliverables attached or linked. Use Additional communication instructions (up to 4,000 characters) to add your own guidance, such as product names or audience. It applies when new tasks start, and does not grant any extra permissions.

Access

Provider channel access determines where a message can reach the integration; it does not by itself authorize agent work. Paperclip also checks the sender's linked identity and company membership. Linked users must be active non-viewer members, and their messages run with their own Paperclip permissions.

To let a teammate use the agent, share the instructions under Invite others to connect their Slack accounts on the Access tab:

  1. They send the connect command in your Slack workspace.
  2. The bot sends them a private link. They open it, sign in to Paperclip, and confirm their Slack account. The link expires in 15 minutes and works once.
  3. If they aren't a member of the organization yet, they choose Request access, and an admin approves the request before they can link.

Nobody needs to create another Slack app or share credentials.

Allow unlinked people is off for new connections. When on, unlinked senders are restricted guests: their tasks run only with an isolated workspace and sandbox environment, and they cannot approve, hire, spend, manage access, or reassign agents.

On the Access tab, Your Slack search access lets each linked person authorize private search with Connect Slack search. Basic channel reading works without it. A connection manager first sets up the Slack app's Client ID and Client Secret under OAuth app configuration for connection managers, registering the shown redirect URL and the user scopes search:read.public, search:read.private and search:read.files in Slack.

Note: Slack's real-time search is not enabled on current runtimes, even when a personal grant is connected. Paperclip shows this limitation on the same screen. Agents use bounded channel-history search instead and report what they covered.

Slack as an agent tool

This route connects an agent to Slack's own hosted MCP server, using a personal Slack authorization instead of a bot.

If what you want is an agent that reads and posts in Slack, the chat connection above already gives its agent governed Slack tools. You don't need this route as well for that.

Agent-tool compatibility notice

The Slack agent-tool route is available but has known compatibility limitations in v2026.1001.0. That release still configures OAuth endpoints and scopes that differ from Slack's current hosted MCP requirements. A successful bot installation does not verify an MCP connection.

Slack MCP requires a registered internal or marketplace-published app, user-token OAuth endpoints, and the user scopes for the intended tools. See Slack's MCP authentication requirements.

Wait for a release with verified Slack MCP compatibility, or contact support@paperclip.ing before attempting this route. The access notes below explain the intended tool behavior; they are not a record of successful setup on this release.

Access and actions

Channel reach is Slack's decision: the authorized token sees what its scopes and the workspace allow, and private channels require the authorizing user to be a member. Paperclip does not have a channel picker on this route, so narrow access on the Slack side.

Slack's server supplies the action list. Posting is classified as a write, so leave it on Ask first unless you want an agent posting to a shared workspace unprompted. Open the connection's Permissions tab for the live list. See Set action permissions.

Try it

Search Slack for the most recent message mentioning "deploy" and tell me which channel it was in. Do not post anything.

A read confirms the credential without putting a message in front of colleagues.

Note: Illustrative task, not a recorded test result.

Troubleshooting

Problem Likely cause Fix
Chat with an agent is not offered Chat connectors is off for the instance Ask an administrator to enable it
Public HTTPS URL required appears Slack can't reach the instance Put the instance behind a public HTTPS address, then continue
Slack refuses to install the app The workspace restricts app installation or requires approval Ask a workspace administrator, then resume with Finish setup
Paperclip warns about the signing secret You pasted a bot or app token into Signing Secret Copy Signing Secret from Basic Information
Verify Slack connection keeps waiting Slack hasn't re-checked the Request URL since you saved credentials In Event Subscriptions, click Retry beside the Request URL
Your account never appears after the connect command The command went to a different workspace or app Send your app's exact slash command plus connect in the workspace where you installed it
A mention in a channel does nothing The bot isn't in the channel, the channel is off in Allowed Channels, or the bot was typed as plain text Invite the bot, enable the channel, and pick the bot from @mention suggestions
The agent reads a channel but won't reply there The channel is off in Allowed Channels Enable it in Settings
Settings shows Add permissions to unlock more tools The app predates the newer Slack tools Add the listed Bot Token Scopes in Slack and reinstall the app
A scheduled or requested DM doesn't arrive The responsible person has no linked Slack account, or the app lacks im:write Link the account from Access, or reinstall with the updated manifest
Signature verification failures The signing secret does not match the installed app Copy the current signing secret and reconnect
Agent-tool route: "Slack MCP access is disabled for this app" MCP access is switched off in the Slack app's settings; signing in doesn't turn it on Ask the Slack app owner to enable MCP access, then refresh the connection
The tool route asks for a client ID and secret Expected — Slack requires your own OAuth app on this route Register the app in Slack's console

Limitations

  • One workspace per connection on either route.
  • The chat route needs public ingress and does not support socket mode.
  • The bot cannot join channels by itself; people invite it. Private channels require explicit membership.
  • Search inside Slack-origin work is a bounded history scan, not workspace-wide search, and doesn't read thread replies unless it fetches them.
  • Removing the connection in Paperclip does not uninstall the Slack app. The app and its bot stay in your workspace until you remove them in Slack.