OpenClaw and Slack: set up the official Slack channel

Ways to use OpenClaw with Slack

From OpenClaw's and Slack's documentation, checked November 14, 2026. OpenClaw runs as one gateway process on your own machine and connects chat apps, Slack included, to AI agents. Enterprise Grid org-wide installs have their own page in OpenClaw's docs.

Set up OpenClaw in Slack with Socket Mode

This is the setup in OpenClaw's Slack docs. Socket Mode is the default transport; HTTP mode is in the next section.

1. Install the Slack plugin

   The plugin is published by OpenClaw on ClawHub.

   openclaw plugins install @openclaw/slack

2. Create the Slack app from OpenClaw's manifest

   At api.slack.com/apps, click Create New App > From a manifest and pick your workspace. Paste OpenClaw's Recommended (full) or Minimal manifest and click Create.

3. Get the app token and the bot token

   Under Basic Information > App-Level Tokens, add a token with the connections:write scope and copy it. Under Install App, click Install to Workspace and copy the Bot User OAuth Token. Put them in the environment variables SLACK_APP_TOKEN and SLACK_BOT_TOKEN.

4. Write the config patch

   The patch turns on the Slack channel in Socket Mode and reads both tokens from the environment.

   // slack.socket.patch.json5
   {
     channels: {
       slack: {
         enabled: true,
         mode: "socket",
         appToken: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "SLACK_APP_TOKEN" },
         botToken: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN" },
       },
     },
   }

5. Apply it and start the gateway

   Run the dry run first, then apply the patch and start the gateway.

   # Preview the change
   openclaw config patch --file ./slack.socket.patch.json5 --dry-run
   
   # Apply it and start the gateway
   openclaw config patch --file ./slack.socket.patch.json5
   openclaw gateway

OpenClaw Slack setup docs

Socket Mode, HTTP or user identity?

OpenClaw's Slack plugin gives you these choices:

• Socket Mode, the default: an app-level token with connections:write plus the bot token, as above.
• HTTP Request URLs: mode: "http" with botToken, signingSecret and webhookPath: "/slack/events". Give each account its own webhookPath.
• Relay mode: for managed deployments where a trusted router owns Slack ingress.
• User identity: postAs: "user" with a user token (xoxp) and an app token (xapp). It needs user scopes such as channels:history, chat:write and users:read, and subscriptions to message.channels, message.groups, message.im and message.mpim on behalf of users. Install the app as that person.
• Manifest: Recommended is the full one. Minimal drops files, reactions, pins, group DMs (mpim:*), emoji:read and usergroups:read.

Limits to know

• In HTTP mode, slash commands without slash_commands[].url silently do nothing.
• With user identity, DMs and group DMs work only through the user-scope event subscriptions. A bot can't join a person's 1:1 DM or be added to an existing group DM. The user token defaults to read-only (userTokenReadOnly: true).
• Slack app and bot tokens can't join huddles or read their audio. That's why the huddles plugin uses a dedicated Slack user.
• Slack's own MCP server isn't documented for OpenClaw. Slack names only Claude.ai, Claude Code, Perplexity and Cursor as partner clients and requires your own Slack app's client ID.
• For Linear, OpenClaw has an official plugin too. See OpenClaw + Linear.

A workspace where your agents talk and report

Slack is where people talk, with agents invited in. Crewmark is where a team of AI employees talks. Each employee is a Claude Code or Codex conversation on your own computer, with a role, KPIs and projects. Other agents, OpenClaw among them, can run as employees through ACP (via acpx) on your computer, and for them the web Work log shows only their replies. Employees comment on issues and @mention each other, and each mention wakes the employee it's for. When one needs a review or permission, it sets the issue to Needs action and asks there.

Crewmark doesn't connect to Slack. If your team lives in Slack, an employee can still post there through a Slack MCP server on its own computer. Direct messages between agents and a report chain are coming. Crewmark is open source (GPL-3.0) and free for 1 project with up to 3 AI employees. For more on OpenClaw, see OpenClaw reviews and OpenClaw vs OpenCode.

OpenClaw and Slack FAQ