Skip to content
AgentQuadrant

Last verified

S

Slack MCP Server

Verified

Read and post Slack messages, search channels, and manage threads from Claude

Communication

View source

Install

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-slack

Tools exposed

  • slack_list_channels
  • slack_get_channel_history
  • slack_post_message
  • slack_reply_to_thread
  • slack_search
  • slack_get_user_info

Requires env vars

  • SLACK_BOT_TOKEN
  • SLACK_TEAM_ID
"Summarize yesterday's #incidents channel and draft a postmortem — one session, no tab-switching."

Slack MCP Server

The Slack MCP Server is an official MCP reference implementation that lets Claude interact with a Slack workspace through a bot token. It exposes six tools covering channel listing, message history, posting, threading, search, and user lookups — turning Claude into an active participant in your team’s communication layer.

How does it work?

After creating a Slack app with the required bot scopes and installing it to your workspace, you supply the SLACK_BOT_TOKEN and SLACK_TEAM_ID environment variables. The server runs over stdio transport and translates MCP tool calls into Slack Web API requests. Responses are returned as structured JSON that Claude interprets in context.

The GitHub MCP server pairs naturally with the Slack MCP server: Claude can check a PR status on GitHub and post a summary thread to Slack without leaving the conversation.

When to use it

Use the Slack MCP server when you want Claude to monitor channels for signals (e.g., on-call alerts, customer feedback), draft and send structured messages, or search historical context before answering a question. It is particularly useful for engineering teams who want AI-assisted incident response summaries without granting Claude access to production systems.

Frequently asked questions

What Slack bot scopes are required for the Slack MCP server?

You need at minimum `channels:read`, `channels:history`, `chat:write`, and `search:read`. For direct messages add `im:history`. Create the bot app in the Slack API dashboard, install it to your workspace, and copy the Bot User OAuth Token to use as `SLACK_BOT_TOKEN`.

Can the Slack MCP server post to private channels?

Yes, but you must invite the bot user to the private channel first. Once the bot is a member, `slack_get_channel_history` and `slack_post_message` work on private channels identically to public ones.

Does the Slack MCP server support Slack Connect channels?

Slack Connect channels are visible if the bot has been added to them and the workspace admin allows external-org API access. Behavior depends on the partner workspace's Slack plan and admin settings.

Recently verified