Slack MCP Server: AI-Powered Team Communication

TL;DR - Slack MCP Quick Start

Let AI communicate with your team - Send messages and search Slack with natural language.

🆕 2025: Slack now has official MCP server support! Slack’s native AI includes channel recaps, thread summaries, and AI-powered workflows. For an introduction to MCP, see the MCP Introduction guide.

Quick Setup:

1. Create Slack App: Go to api.slack.com/apps
2. Get Bot Token: Copy token starting with xoxb-
3. Add config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-your-token-here",
        "SLACK_TEAM_ID": "T01234567"
      }
    }
  }
}

What you can do:

• 💬 Send: Post messages to any channel
• 🔍 Search: Find messages across workspace
• 📋 List: Browse channels and members
• 📖 Read: View conversation history
• 📌 React: Add emoji reactions

Example conversation:

You: Post to #dev-team: "Just deployed v2.0! 🚀 
     Please test the new auth flow."

Claude: Posted to #dev-team:
        "Just deployed v2.0! 🚀 Please test the new auth flow."
        
        Message sent successfully!

💡 Note: Messages appear from your Slack App bot, not your personal account.

🤖 Official MCP: Slack developed their MCP server in collaboration with Anthropic (available since summer 2024).

Why Slack + AI?

Slack is where teams communicate. AI integration supercharges it:

Use Cases

For more productivity tips, see the AI for Everyday Productivity guide.

2025 Native Slack AI Features

Prerequisites

1. Create a Slack App

1. Go to api.slack.com/apps
2. Click “Create New App”
3. Choose “From scratch”
4. Enter:
   • App Name: “Claude MCP” (or your preference)
   • Workspace: Select your workspace
5. Click “Create App”

2. Configure Permissions

Navigate to OAuth & Permissions and add these Bot Token Scopes:

Essential Scopes:

Optional Scopes:

3. Install App to Workspace

1. Go to Install App section
2. Click “Install to Workspace”
3. Review and approve permissions
4. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token (starts with xoxb-)

4. Get Team ID

Find your Slack Team ID:

• Open Slack in browser
• URL contains: app.slack.com/client/T01234567/...
• The T01234567 part is your Team ID

Or ask AI after setup: “What’s my Slack team ID?“

5. Add Bot to Channels

The bot needs to be in channels to access them:

1. Go to the channel in Slack
2. Type /invite @your-bot-name
3. Or click channel settings → Integrations → Add apps

Installation & Configuration

Claude Desktop Setup

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-1234567890-xxxxx",
        "SLACK_TEAM_ID": "T01234567"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor Setup

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-your-token",
        "SLACK_TEAM_ID": "T01234567"
      }
    }
  }
}

Verify Installation

Restart your AI client and test:

You: List the Slack channels I have access to

Claude: Here are your accessible Slack channels:

        | Channel        | Members | Description              |
        |----------------|---------|--------------------------|
        | #general       | 45      | Company-wide updates     |
        | #dev-team      | 12      | Engineering discussions  |
        | #random        | 45      | Fun and off-topic        |
        | #deployments   | 8       | Deploy notifications     |

Available Tools

Messaging

Reading & Search

Channels & Users

Practical Workflows

Workflow 1: Deployment Notifications

Automate deployment announcements. For more on AI-powered workflows, see the AI-Powered Workflows guide.

You: Post a deployment notification to #deployments:
     - Service: Auth API
     - Version: 2.1.0
     - Changes: Fixed login timeout, added MFA support
     - Status: Successful

Claude: Posted to #deployments:

        🚀 **Deployment Complete**
        
        **Service:** Auth API
        **Version:** 2.1.0
        **Status:** ✅ Successful
        
        **Changes:**
        • Fixed login timeout issue
        • Added MFA support
        
        _Please monitor for any issues._

Workflow 2: Standup Summary

Share meeting summaries:

You: Post our standup summary to #dev-team:
     - Alice: Working on auth bug, needs code review
     - Bob: Finishing API docs, blocked on design specs
     - Carol: Starting new feature sprint

Claude: Posted to #dev-team:

        📋 **Daily Standup - Dec 24**
        
        👤 **Alice**
        • Working on: Auth bug fix
        • Needs: Code review
        
        👤 **Bob**
        • Working on: API documentation
        • Blocked: Waiting for design specs
        
        👤 **Carol**
        • Starting: New feature sprint
        
        _Questions? Reply in thread!_

Workflow 3: Cross-Channel Announcements

Post important updates to multiple channels:

You: Announce the holiday schedule to #general, #dev-team, 
     and #support:
     "Office closed Dec 25-26. Emergency contact: ops@company.com"

Claude: Posted announcement to 3 channels:
        
        ✅ #general - Posted
        ✅ #dev-team - Posted
        ✅ #support - Posted
        
        Message:
        📅 **Holiday Schedule**
        Office closed December 25-26.
        Emergency contact: ops@company.com

Workflow 4: Channel Summary

Catch up on channel activity:

You: Summarize what happened in #dev-team today

Claude: Here's today's #dev-team activity:

        **Summary (Dec 24):**
        - 23 messages from 6 people
        
        **Key Discussions:**
        1. **Auth bug fix** (thread by Alice, 8 replies)
           - Root cause identified: session timeout
           - Fix deployed, monitoring
        
        2. **API v2 planning** (thread by Bob, 5 replies)
           - Migration timeline discussed
           - Breaking changes documented
        
        3. **Performance alert** (from PagerDuty, 3 replies)
           - High CPU on prod-api-3
           - Resolved by scaling
        
        **Action Items Mentioned:**
        - [ ] Code review needed for PR #145
        - [ ] Design specs pending from Carol

Workflow 5: Team Updates

Gather and share team information:

You: Who's online in #dev-team and what are they working on 
     based on recent messages?

Claude: Active in #dev-team today:

        **Online:**
        👤 Alice (@alice) - 3 hours ago
           Recent: "Pushed the auth fix, ready for review"
        
        👤 Bob (@bob) - 1 hour ago
           Recent: "API docs PR is up"
        
        👤 Carol (@carol) - 30 mins ago
           Recent: "Starting the new feature branch"
        
        **Away:**
        👤 Dave - Last seen yesterday
        👤 Eve - Last seen 2 days ago

Example Prompts

Sending Messages

# Simple messages
"Post 'Hello team!' to #general"
"Send a message to #dev saying deployment complete"
"Announce in #random that we hit 1M users"

# Formatted messages
"Post a bullet list of today's updates to #dev-team"
"Send a code block with the error log to #support"
"Post the meeting agenda as a numbered list"

# With mentions
"Post to #dev mentioning @alice that her PR is approved"
"Send a message to #general tagging @channel about the outage"

Reading & Searching

# Channel history
"Show me the last 10 messages in #dev-team"
"What's been discussed in #support today?"
"Read the most recent conversation in #engineering"

# Search
"Find messages mentioning 'database migration'"
"Search for messages from Alice about the auth bug"
"Find all messages containing 'URGENT'"

# Threads
"Show replies to that deployment notification"
"Read the thread about the API redesign"

Channel Management

# Listing
"What channels am I in?"
"List all public channels"
"Show me engineering-related channels"

# Information
"How many members are in #dev-team?"
"What's the purpose of #architecture?"
"When was #new-project created?"

Status & Users

# User info
"Who is @alice?"
"What's Bob's title?"
"Show me the engineering team members"

# Presence
"Who's online in #dev-team?"
"Is Sarah available?"
"Who's been active today?"

Advanced Configuration

Multiple Workspaces

For multiple Slack workspaces:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack-company": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-company-token",
        "SLACK_TEAM_ID": "T_COMPANY"
      }
    },
    "slack-community": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-community-token",
        "SLACK_TEAM_ID": "T_COMMUNITY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Minimal Permissions Setup

For read-only monitoring:

Full Access Setup

For complete automation:

Combining with Other MCPs

Slack + GitHub

Share development updates:

You: When PRs are merged today, post a summary to #deployments

Claude: [Uses GitHub to find merged PRs]
        [Uses Slack to post summary]
        
        Posted to #deployments:
        
        📦 **PRs Merged Today**
        - #123: Fix authentication timeout (Alice)
        - #124: Update API documentation (Bob)
        - #125: Add new dashboard widget (Carol)

Slack + Filesystem

Share file analysis:

You: Analyze the error logs and post a summary to #support

Claude: [Uses Filesystem to read logs]
        [Uses Slack to post summary]
        
        Posted to #support:
        
        ⚠️ **Error Log Summary**
        - 45 errors in last hour
        - Top issue: Database connection timeouts
        - Affected: /api/users endpoint

Slack + Memory

Remember communication patterns:

You: Remember that #dev-team is for engineering updates 
     and #general is for company-wide announcements

Claude: [Uses Memory to store channel purposes]
        
        Stored channel guidelines:
        - #dev-team → Engineering updates
        - #general → Company-wide announcements
        
        I'll use the appropriate channel for future posts!

Troubleshooting

Issue: “Channel not found”

Symptoms: Can’t post to a channel

Solutions:

Issue: “Missing permissions”

Symptoms: Operation fails with scope error

Solutions:

1. Go to Slack App settings
2. Add required scope under OAuth & Permissions
3. Reinstall app to apply new permissions
4. Update config and restart AI client

Issue: “Rate limited”

Symptoms: Operations fail with rate limit error

Solutions:

• Reduce frequency of operations
• Batch messages where possible
• Add delays between bulk operations

Security Best Practices

Token Security

For more on AI security best practices, see the Understanding AI Safety, Ethics, and Limitations guide.

Access Control

Message Safety

• Messages appear from bot, not you
• Can’t impersonate specific users
• Bot activity is logged by Slack
• Admins can see all app activity

Related MCP Servers

Summary

The Slack MCP Server brings AI to team communication:

• ✅ Send messages to any channel
• ✅ Search across conversations
• ✅ Read history and catch up
• ✅ Multi-channel announcements
• ✅ Bot identity - clear automated messages
• ✅ Official MCP - Slack + Anthropic collaboration (2025)

2025 Native Slack AI:

• Channel Recaps - AI summaries of discussions
• Thread Summaries - Quick overviews
• AI Search - Natural language queries
• AI Workflow Builder - Generative AI in automations
• Einstein Copilot - Salesforce CRM integration

Best use cases:

• Deployment notifications
• Standup summaries
• Cross-channel announcements
• Channel activity summaries
• Team updates and coordination

Security checklist:

• ☐ Use minimal required scopes
• ☐ Only add bot to needed channels
• ☐ Store token securely
• ☐ Review permissions periodically
• ☐ Monitor bot activity

Next: Learn about Fetch MCP Server → for web content retrieval.

Questions about Slack MCP? Check the Slack API docs or the official Slack MCP.