AnythinkDocs
See something missing?
powered by

Connect Slack to send messages from workflows

Updated Sep 30, 2026
Register a Slack app and connect it to your project so workflow steps can post to channels and send direct messages as your Slack bot.

Connect a Slack workspace so a workflow's Integration step can run Send Message (post to a channel) or Send Direct Message (message one person). Messages post as your Slack app's bot.

If you followed Post to Slack when a record is created, Slack is already connected — skip to the variations at the end of this page.

1. Register the Slack app

At api.slack.com/apps, create an app From scratch and add these bot token scopes under OAuth & Permissions. Anythink requests all of them when you connect:

Scope Used for
chat:write, chat:write.public Posting messages, including to public channels the bot hasn't joined
channels:read, groups:read Listing channels for the Channel picker in the Anythink dashboard
users:read Listing people for the User ID picker in the dashboard
im:write Opening direct message conversations
users:read.email, reactions:write, files:write, channels:history Requested by the Slack definition; not used by the current operations

Copy the Client ID and Client Secret from Basic Information.

2. Configure and connect

In the Anythink dashboard

  1. Go to Settings › Integrations, open the Integrations tab and select Configure & Connect on the Slack card.
  2. Add the callback URL shown in the dialog to your Slack app under OAuth & Permissions › Redirect URLs.
  3. Paste the Client ID and Client Secret and select Save.
  4. Approve the app for your workspace when Slack asks.

With the CLI

Add http://localhost:8745/callback to your Slack app's Redirect URLs, then:

bash 
anythink integrations oauth configure slack --client-id <CLIENT_ID> --client-secret <CLIENT_SECRET>
anythink integrations oauth connect slack --name "Team workspace"

oauth connect opens your browser, waits up to five minutes for you to approve the app, then prints the connection ID. Use --port if 8745 is taken, and add the matching redirect URL to the Slack app.

With an AI assistant (MCP)

text 
Connect Slack to this project with the anythink CLI and tell me the connection ID.

The assistant calls the cli tool with integrations oauth connect slack. The browser opens on your machine for you to approve the app, so this needs the MCP server running locally in stdio mode. Run oauth configure yourself first, so the client secret stays out of the conversation.

Verify

Add an Integration step for Slack with operation Send Message, choose a channel, enter a message and run Test Workflow. The message appears in the channel, and the step's output in View Job History has ok: true.

Variations

  • Private channels. chat:write.public covers public channels only. Invite the bot to a private channel before posting to it.
  • Direct messages. Use Send Direct Message and choose the person from the User ID list, or pass a Slack user ID such as U024BE7LH in user.
  • Reply in a thread. Set thread_ts to the ts a previous Send Message step returned, for example {{ $anythink.steps.notify_slack.ts }}.
  • More than one workspace. The dashboard manages one Slack connection per project. Add another with anythink integrations oauth connect slack --name "Support workspace", then set the step's Credential Source to Specific Connection (by ID) so each step uses the right workspace.
  • Rotate or remove. See Rotate, pause or disconnect an integration.

Next steps

How integrations work

Integrations let your workflows call Slack, Google Calendar, GitHub, OpenAI and more, using OAuth or API-key connections Anythink stores encrypted for you.

Slack alerts and Google Calendar bookings from workflows

Two complete workflows: alert Slack about high-value orders, and create a Google Calendar event with a Meet link for every new booking.

Connect Slack to send messages from workflows | Anythink Docs