Slack Setup

February 15, 2026 · View on GitHub

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Slack Setup

Goal: Connect OpenClaw with a single Slack App, then use a "channel = role" binding for each Agent. Adding or removing Agents later is just a matter of adding/removing channels and updating bindings.

OpenCrew uses Slack Socket Mode by default -- no public webhook required.

What you will have when you are done

After completing these steps you will have:

  • One Slack App (with one bot)
  • Two tokens:
    • App Token: xapp-... (required for Socket Mode)
    • Bot Token: xoxb-...
  • OpenClaw connected to Slack, with the bot invited to every channel you want to use

Step 1: Create a Slack App and enable Socket Mode

  1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps and click Create New App (From scratch)
  2. Navigate to Socket Mode and enable it
  3. Go to Basic Information then App-Level Tokens and click Generate Token and Scopes
    • Add the scope: connections:write
    • Generate and copy the App Token (xapp-...)

Step 2: Configure bot permissions (Scopes) and install to your Workspace

Under OAuth & Permissions, add the following Bot Token Scopes (the minimum set recommended by OpenClaw):

  • chat:write
  • im:write
  • channels:history, groups:history, im:history, mpim:history
  • channels:read, groups:read, im:read, mpim:read
  • users:read
  • reactions:read, reactions:write
  • pins:read, pins:write
  • emoji:read
  • files:write

Then click Install to Workspace and copy the Bot User OAuth Token (xoxb-...).

Step 3: Enable Event Subscriptions

Go to Event Subscriptions and enable events. Subscribe to the following (as recommended in the OpenClaw docs):

  • message.* (includes edits, deletes, and thread broadcasts)
  • app_mention
  • reaction_added, reaction_removed
  • member_joined_channel, member_left_channel
  • channel_rename
  • pin_added, pin_removed

Run the following in your terminal (replace the tokens with your own):

openclaw channels add --channel slack \
  --app-token "xapp-..." \
  --bot-token "xoxb-..."

This writes the Slack configuration into ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (more reliable than editing by hand).

Then restart the gateway:

openclaw gateway restart

Verify that Slack is online:

openclaw channels status --probe
# or
openclaw status

Step 5: Create OpenCrew channels and invite the bot

We recommend creating 7 channels to start (names are up to you):

  • #hq (CoS)
  • #cto (CTO)
  • #build (Builder)
  • #invest (CIO, optional)
  • #know (KO)
  • #ops (Ops)
  • #research (Research, optional)

Then, in each channel, run /invite @<your-bot-name>.

If the bot is not in a channel it usually cannot read history or post messages (unless you additionally grant chat:write.public, which is not recommended for beginners).

Step 6: Get Channel IDs (two methods)

Right-click the channel name and select Copy link. The C0XXXXXXXX portion of the URL is the Channel ID.

Method B (optional): Use OpenClaw to resolve

openclaw channels resolve --channel slack "#hq" --json

Reference

  • OpenClaw Slack documentation (bookmark this): /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/openclaw/docs/zh-CN/channels/slack.md