How to Integrate Slack with Your App

Slack provides powerful APIs for building bots, workflows, and integrations that automate notifications, collect information, and interact with users.

Step 1: Create a Slack App

1. Go to api.slack.com/apps
2. Click Create New App
3. Choose From scratch and enter your app name and workspace

Step 2: Configure OAuth & Permissions

Navigate to OAuth & Permissions and add bot scopes:

• chat:write - Send messages
• chat:write.public - Post in channels
• channels:read - View channel list
• commands - Use slash commands

Step 3: Install to Workspace

Click Install to Workspace to receive your Bot User OAuth Token (starts with xoxb-).

Step 4: Install the SDK

# Python
pip install slack-sdk

# Node.js
npm install @slack/web-api

Step 5: Send Messages

from slack_sdk import WebClient
from slack_sdk.errors import SlackApiError

client = WebClient(token="xoxb-your-bot-token")

try:
    response = client.chat_postMessage(
        channel="#general",
        text="Hello from Kurai! :wave:"
    )
    print(response)
except SlackApiError as e:
    print(f"Error: {e.response['error']}")

Common Use Cases

Notifications & Alerts: CI/CD status, error alerts, deployment notifications

Interactive Bots: Q&A assistants, task management, data lookup

Workflow Builder: Approval processes, information collection, onboarding

Best Practices

• Use ephemeral messages for intermediate steps
• Format messages with blocks and attachments
• Implement rate limiting to avoid spam
• Handle errors gracefully with retry logic

For comprehensive documentation, visit Slack API Documentation.