Slack

This guide walks you through creating a Slack app, configuring it with the right permissions, and connecting it to Snippbot so that your agents can receive and reply to messages in Slack.

Prerequisites

• Admin access to a Slack workspace (or permission to install apps)
• A running Snippbot instance accessible from the internet on port 18790 (or via ngrok)
• Your Snippbot version is 1.0 or later

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Setup Steps

1. Create a Slack app

   Go to api.slack.com/apps and click Create New App > From scratch.

   • App Name: Choose a name (e.g. “Snippbot”)
   • Workspace: Select the workspace where the bot will be installed

   Click Create App.

2. Add Bot Token Scopes

   In your new app’s settings, navigate to OAuth & Permissions > Scopes > Bot Token Scopes and add the following:

   Scope	Purpose
   chat:write	Send messages
   channels:read	Read public channel info
   groups:read	Read private channel info
   im:read	Read direct messages
   im:write	Send direct messages
   app_mentions:read	Receive @mention events
   files:read	Read files shared with the bot

3. Install the app to your workspace

   Navigate to OAuth & Permissions > Install to Workspace and click Allow.

   After installation, copy the Bot User OAuth Token — it starts with xoxb-.

4. Configure Snippbot with the bot token

   In the Snippbot UI, navigate to Settings > Channels > Slack.

   Enter the following values:

   Field	Value
   Bot Token	xoxb-your-token-here
   Signing Secret	Found under Basic Information > App Credentials in the Slack app settings

   Click Save.

5. Enable the Events API

   In your Slack app settings, navigate to Event Subscriptions and toggle Enable Events to on.

   Set the Request URL to:

   https://your-server.com:18790/webhook/slack

   Replace your-server.com with your public hostname. If you are developing locally, use an ngrok URL:

   Start ngrok tunnel

   ngrok http 18790

   Slack will send a verification challenge to this URL. Snippbot handles the challenge automatically — the URL turns green once verified.

6. Subscribe to bot events

   Still in Event Subscriptions, expand the Subscribe to bot events section and add:

   Event	Triggered when
   message.channels	A message is posted in a public channel the bot is in
   message.im	A direct message is sent to the bot
   app_mention	The bot is @mentioned in any channel

   Click Save Changes.

7. Start the channel adapter

   Start the channel adapter

   snippbot channel start

   The adapter starts on port 18790 and begins accepting Slack event payloads.

8. Test the integration

   • DM the bot: Open Slack and send a direct message to your app. The bot should reply within a few seconds.
   • Mention in a channel: Invite the bot to a channel with /invite @Snippbot, then type @Snippbot hello.

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Channel Bindings

By default, all messages to the bot are routed to the default agent in Snippbot. To route messages from specific Slack channels or users to different agents, configure channel bindings.

Bind a Slack channel to an agent

1. Open Settings → Channels → Bindings in the Snippbot UI
2. Click New Binding
3. Select the Slack channel (e.g., #dev-help)
4. Select which agent handles messages from that channel
5. Set access mode and click Save

To find a channel’s ID, open the channel in Slack, click the channel name at the top, and scroll to the bottom of the popup — the channel ID is listed there (e.g. C08ABC1234).

You can also route specific users’ DMs to a dedicated agent by creating a binding with the user’s Slack ID (e.g. U01USER123) as the context ID.

Tip

You can view and manage all bindings in the Snippbot UI under Settings > Channels > Bindings.

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Configuration Reference

Option	Type	Required	Description
bot_token	string	Yes	Bot User OAuth Token from Slack (xoxb-...)
signing_secret	string	Yes	Used to verify that events come from Slack
socket_mode	boolean	No	Enable Slack Socket Mode (no public URL needed; default: false)
workspace_id	string	No	Slack workspace ID for multi-workspace setups
default_agent_id	string	No	Agent to use when no binding matches the incoming message
reply_in_thread	boolean	No	When true, bot replies are posted as thread replies (default: false)
show_typing	boolean	No	Send a typing indicator while the agent is working (default: true)

These options can be set in the UI under Settings > Channels > Slack, or in ~/.snippbot/config.toml:

~/.snippbot/config.toml

[channels.slack]
bot_token = "xoxb-..."
signing_secret = "abc123..."
reply_in_thread = true

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Troubleshooting

The Request URL verification fails

• Confirm that snippbot channel start is running and listening on port 18790
• Confirm that port 18790 is reachable from the internet (check your firewall)
• If using ngrok, make sure the tunnel is still active (ngrok sessions expire after 8 hours on the free plan)

The bot does not respond to messages

• Check that the bot has been invited to the channel: /invite @Snippbot
• Verify that the message.channels event is subscribed and the channel is public (use message.groups for private channels)
• Look at the Snippbot channel adapter logs: journalctl -u snippbot-channels -f or the terminal where you ran snippbot channel start

Messages arrive but responses are slow

• The default agent model is claude-opus-4-6. For faster replies, consider switching to a lighter model in the agent settings
• Check for API rate limits in your Anthropic account dashboard

Note

Slack delivers events with a 3-second timeout. If Snippbot does not respond with HTTP 200 within 3 seconds, Slack retries the event. Snippbot acknowledges events immediately and processes them asynchronously to avoid this issue.