Claude Slack connectorWhat Claude can do in your Slack account.
The Claude Slack connector exposes 11 tools. 8 of them read your workspace (search, channels, threads, canvases, profiles) and 3 write to it: one posts a message, two build or revise a canvas. Below: what Claude reaches, what it asks first, and who can switch it off.
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What changes once Claude can read your Slack
A decision made three weeks ago in a busy channel is hard to dig out. With the connector on, you ask Claude in plain words and it runs the search itself, across public channels and the private ones you already belong to, then answers with what it found. It can also post the answer back or turn it into a canvas, one of Slack's formatted documents you can share.
Catch up after a week off. Claude pulls a channel's history with slack_read_channel and a long discussion with slack_read_thread, then sums up what was decided and who owns what.
Find the person, not just the message. slack_search_users and slack_read_user_profile return names, statuses and custom profile fields, handy when you need the right contact in another team.
Turn a conversation into a document. After a long thread, slack_create_canvas lays out a formatted recap, and slack_update_canvas adds to it as the project moves.
What the connector does not do matters just as much. Slack's own documentation describes scheduled messages, reactions, file uploads, lists and new channels, yet none of these appears among the 11 tools on the directory sheet, so Claude does not expose them here. Nothing runs by itself either: no tool wakes up when a message lands in a channel. For that kind of background flow, the Slack n8n integration and the Slack Make integration do a different job, on a trigger, without anyone in a chat.
Five words before you connect
The vocabulary around this connector, in one minute.
- Connector
- The link you set up once between Claude and a Slack account you already use, so Claude can work in it while it answers you.
- Tool
- One named thing the connector lets Claude do, like reading a thread. Claude picks the tools it needs on its own while it replies.
- Authorization
- Slack's own sign-in screen, where you hand Claude the access it will use. You grant it once, for yourself, and you can take it back.
- Approval
- The confirmation Claude waits for in the conversation before it goes ahead with something that changes your workspace.
- MCP
- The shared standard connectors are built on: it is what lets an assistant like Claude talk to an outside service such as Slack.
Connect Slack to Claude in three steps
- 01
Find Slack in the list
Open Claude's settings, go to Customize then Connectors, and look for Slack. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, an Owner or Primary Owner enables it for the organization first, then each member connects their own account.
- 02
Start the connection
Click Connect on the Slack row and sign in to Slack in the window Slack opens itself. When the link works, the button reads Disconnect. If it ever breaks, disconnect and connect again.
- 03
Check the authorization screen
Read Slack's authorization screen before you accept it. That screen belongs to Slack, not to Claude, and it decides what the access covers. You can also withdraw the access later from the Slack side.
The 11 tools, split by what they do
Slack gives Claude 11 tools: 8 that read your account, 3 that change something in it.
Two groups: what Claude reads, and what it changes in your workspace. Tool names stay exactly as Claude shows them.
- 8 read
- 3 write
What Claude reads (8)
8 toolsEight tools that look at messages, channels, canvases and people and leave them as they are.
slack_search_public_and_private
Searches messages and files across public channels and the private conversations you are part of, filtered by date, author or type. Claude gets back the matches with their details.
slack_search_users
Looks up people in the workspace by name, even a partial one, by email or by user ID, and brings back their details and current status.
slack_search_channels
Finds public and private channels by their name or their description, and returns each channel's metadata so Claude knows where a topic lives.
slack_search_public
A narrower search that stays inside public channels. Same filters on date, author and content type, but private conversations stay out of the results.
slack_read_channel
Pulls the full message history of one channel so Claude can read it in order rather than through scattered search hits.
slack_read_thread
Fetches every reply of a single thread, from the first message to the last, so the context of a discussion comes through whole.
slack_read_canvas
Exports an existing canvas as plain formatted text that Claude can read, quote and reason about in the chat.
slack_read_user_profile
Returns someone's complete profile, including the custom fields your company added and their current status.
What Claude changes (3)
3 toolsThree tools that post or edit content in Slack. No source spells out their confirmation, so the general rule below applies.
slack_send_message
Approval: see the rulePosts a message on your behalf into any kind of Slack conversation: a channel, a direct message or a group chat.
slack_create_canvas
Approval: see the ruleBuilds a new canvas from scratch, with headings and formatting, ready to share with the people in a channel.
slack_update_canvas
Approval: see the ruleEdits a canvas that already exists, so an existing page keeps growing instead of a new one appearing each week.
What Claude checks with you first
By default, Claude stops and asks before each action it takes on an account for someone. The prompt shows up in the conversation at the moment it matters.
On Team and Enterprise workspaces, owners decide whether a member may let some actions through without being asked every time. They can also limit what a connector may do for the whole organization, for instance keeping search on and posting off. That setting binds everyone, and nobody lifts it from a personal account. Claude also works with the rights of the person who connected and nothing beyond: a private channel you are not in stays out of its reach.
Which plans include it
None of the 819 sheets in the official directory shows plan availability. The answer per connector is published nowhere, which is a real hole in the catalog.
What Anthropic does publish is the general rule: remote connectors are open to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner opens a connector for the organization before members can each connect. Anthropic's own Slack page says something narrower, and the limits section below sets both texts side by side. For the live state on your account, the connector's sheet in the official directory is the place to look.
Where this connector stops
A connector is not an automation. Claude calls these tools while it answers you, so nothing fires when a message arrives, a thread heats up or someone mentions you.
The tool list is an observed floor, not a promise: an administrator can open actions that appear on no public sheet. The partner badge in the directory is not a security audit either, and Anthropic states on every sheet that it neither picks the tools a publisher exposes nor guarantees they behave as announced. Here the publisher is Slack itself. For a connector whose own official sources contradict each other on what it can send, the Claude gmail connector page walks through that case.
Which Claude plans can use the Slack connector?
- Claude help center, general connector rule ↗September 2026Remote connectors are open to all users; on Team and Enterprise an Owner enables each one first.
- Claude documentation, Slack page ↗Undated, read September 2026The Slack connector is described as available on Team and Enterprise plans.
What this page followsThe Slack page is the only Anthropic text aimed at this connector, so it is the more specific one, but it carries no date and also covers the older Claude in Slack app. Neither text settles it for your account: check the directory sheet while signed in.
Need help connecting Slack to Claude?
A person reads every message.
