> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.scoutos.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Connect Slack to Scout: Agents That Work Where You Do

> Integrate Slack with Scout to let agents post summaries, respond to messages, search history, and deliver your daily briefing directly to a channel.

Most teams don't want another dashboard to check. Connecting Slack to Scout lets your agents work where your team already communicates — posting pipeline summaries to a sales channel, summarizing a support thread before a rep picks it up, or responding to questions in a dedicated help channel. Setup takes about five minutes and you'll switch between Scout and Slack once to authorize the connection.

## What Scout Agents Can Do in Slack

| Capability              | Example                                                            |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Post to channels**    | Share daily pipeline summaries, incident alerts, or weekly digests |
| **Read threads**        | Understand context from a conversation before responding           |
| **Search history**      | Find past decisions, discussions, or referenced documents          |
| **React and reply**     | Acknowledge messages and continue in-thread conversations          |
| **Respond to mentions** | Answer questions when someone mentions the agent in a channel      |

## How to Connect Slack

<Steps>
  <Step title="Connect Slack to Scout">
    Go to [studio.scoutos.com/integrations](https://studio.scoutos.com/integrations), find **Slack**, and click **Connect**. You'll be redirected to Slack's authorization page.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Authorize in Slack">
    Select the Slack workspace you want to connect, review the permissions Scout requests, and click **Allow**. You'll be redirected back to Scout when the authorization is complete.

    <details>
      <summary>What permissions does Scout request?</summary>

      | Permission         | What it's for                     |
      | ------------------ | --------------------------------- |
      | `channels:history` | Read messages in public channels  |
      | `groups:history`   | Read messages in private channels |
      | `chat:write`       | Post messages to channels         |
      | `channels:read`    | List available channels           |
      | `groups:read`      | List private channels             |
      | `users:read`       | Look up user information          |
      | `reactions:write`  | Add emoji reactions to messages   |

      Scout only accesses channels you explicitly add it to in Step 4.
    </details>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Configure your agent">
    Choose how you want your agent to work in Slack — as a **tool** it uses on demand, or as a **deployment** that lives persistently in a channel.

    **Option A: Tools + Instructions (flexible)**

    Use this when you want the agent to post to or read from Slack as part of a broader workflow, but not actively monitor conversations.

    1. Go to your agent's **Settings**
    2. Click **Add Tool** in the Tools section and search for **Slack**
    3. In your agent's **Instructions**, specify which channels it can access:

    ```
    You can access the following Slack channels:
    - #sales-leadership — for posting pipeline summaries
    - #engineering — for technical discussion summaries
    - #alerts — for posting incident updates
    ```

    **Option B: Deployments (channel-first)**

    Use this when you want the agent to live in a Slack channel — listening, responding, and staying in the conversation rather than acting only on demand.

    1. Go to your agent's **Settings**
    2. Click **+ Add Deployments** → **Slack**
    3. In the configuration panel, select your **Workspace** and the **Channel** where the agent should operate
    4. Configure the deployment options (see below) and click **+ Add channel** to save

    | Option                      | What it does                                                                                                                                          |
    | --------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | **Workspace**               | The Slack workspace to deploy to — must be connected first                                                                                            |
    | **Channels**                | The specific channel this deployment monitors and responds in                                                                                         |
    | **Threaded context**        | Passes prior thread messages to the agent for in-context replies                                                                                      |
    | **Respond if**              | An optional condition that filters when the agent responds — e.g., "the user is asking a technical question." Leave blank to respond to all messages. |
    | **Additional instructions** | Channel-specific instructions appended to the agent's system prompt — useful for adjusting tone or scope per channel                                  |

    <Note>
      If you leave **Respond if** blank, the agent replies to every message in the channel. That's right for a dedicated support bot, but too noisy for a general channel like #general. Use a condition to keep the agent focused.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add Scout to your Slack channels">
    This step is the most commonly skipped. Even after connecting and configuring everything in Scout, your agent cannot see any channel until you invite it in Slack.

    For each channel where you want Scout to work, go to that channel in Slack and run:

    ```
    /invite @Scout
    ```

    Or open the channel, click the channel name at the top, go to **Integrations → Add apps**, search for "Scout," and click **Add**. Repeat for every channel your agent needs to access.

    <Note>
      Scout can only read messages posted *after* it's added to a channel. It won't have access to earlier history. If you need context from past discussions, copy the relevant content into your agent's instructions or a connected knowledge source.
    </Note>
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Slack as a Deployment Channel

The most powerful Slack use case isn't an agent that occasionally posts — it's an agent that runs on a schedule and delivers something useful every day without being prompted.

A few examples of what this looks like in practice:

**Daily pipeline brief** — An agent connected to Salesforce runs each morning, pulls open deals with no activity in the last seven days, and posts a summary to #sales-leadership before standup. The team reviews it asynchronously instead of pulling a manual report.

**Incident summaries** — An agent monitors #incidents, reads the thread when a new incident is posted, and replies with a structured summary: what's affected, current status, and the latest update. On-call engineers get context without reading back through a noisy thread.

**Weekly digest** — An agent reads activity across your engineering channels each Friday afternoon, generates a summary of decisions, PRs merged, and open questions, and posts it to #general-engineering before the weekend.

## Instruction Examples

Add channel-specific instructions to your agent so it knows what to post and where:

```markdown theme={null}
For Slack tasks:

1. Post pipeline summaries to #sales-leadership in a bullet list format.
2. Keep posts under 400 words. Use headers for readability.
3. Always mention the data source (e.g., "Source: Salesforce as of [date]").
4. Never post PII or customer contact information to public channels.
5. Use threaded replies rather than new top-level messages when responding in context.
```

## Prompt Examples

These prompts work once Slack is connected and enabled on your agent:

* "Summarize the discussion in #engineering and post the key points to #general."
* "Find messages about the API outage yesterday and create a timeline."
* "Post a weekly digest to #general-engineering based on activity this week."
* "Read the thread in #support about the login issue and propose solutions."
* "Post today's pipeline summary to #sales-leadership — use Salesforce data."

## Testing Your Integration

<Steps>
  <Step title="Test posting from Scout">
    In Scout chat, ask your agent to post a test message to a channel. Verify the message appears in Slack with the correct formatting.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Test reading a channel">
    Ask your agent to summarize the last five messages in a channel. Confirm it returns the correct content.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Test a Deployment (if configured)">
    Go to one of your configured channels in Slack, mention the agent or send a message that matches your **Respond if** condition, and verify it replies in the thread.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Troubleshooting

<details>
  <summary>Agent says it can't access a channel</summary>

  Scout needs to be added to each channel individually. Go to the channel in Slack and run `/invite @Scout`. Also check that:

  * You're in the workspace you connected (not a different one)
  * The channel name in your instructions matches exactly, including capitalization
  * For Deployments: the channel is listed in your deployment configuration in Scout Studio
</details>

<details>
  <summary>Agent can't read replies to its messages</summary>

  Scout can only read messages posted after it was added to the channel. Historical messages aren't accessible. For new threads, make sure Scout is in the channel before the conversation starts.
</details>

<details>
  <summary>I connected Slack but my agent doesn't see Slack tools</summary>

  1. Go to your agent's **Tools** tab
  2. Make sure the Slack tools are toggled **on**
  3. Confirm Slack shows as **Connected** in [studio.scoutos.com/integrations](https://studio.scoutos.com/integrations)
</details>

<details>
  <summary>Deployment isn't responding in Slack</summary>

  Check in order:

  1. Go to your agent's **Settings → Deployments** and confirm the Slack deployment exists and the channel is listed
  2. Run `/invite @Scout` in the channel if you haven't already
  3. If you set a **Respond if** condition, confirm your test message meets it
  4. Check that your agent is published and not in draft mode
</details>

<details>
  <summary>My Slack workspace isn't showing up during authorization</summary>

  If you're signed into multiple Slack workspaces, make sure you select the correct one. To fix a wrong workspace: go to [studio.scoutos.com/integrations](https://studio.scoutos.com/integrations), disconnect Slack, click **Connect** again, and select the right workspace.
</details>

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="CRM" icon="database" href="/integrations/crm">
    Feed Salesforce and HubSpot data into your Slack pipeline summaries.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Email & Calendar" icon="envelope" href="/integrations/email-calendar">
    Post meeting briefs and calendar digests to Slack automatically.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Google Drive & M365" icon="folder-open" href="/integrations/drive-m365">
    Summarize documents from Drive or SharePoint and post results to channels.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Integrations Overview" icon="grid" href="/integrations/overview">
    See the full integration stack and recommended connection order.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>