| name | slack-app-setup |
| description | Connect a Slack app to the Vellum Assistant via Socket Mode. Use whenever the user wants to set up Slack for their assistant, connect a workspace, or get the assistant talking in Slack — opens a guided setup wizard in the side panel so the user can create the app, generate tokens, and connect in one flow. |
| compatibility | Designed for Vellum personal assistants |
| metadata | {"emoji":"💬","vellum":{"category":"messaging","display-name":"Slack App Setup","includes":["guardian-verify-setup","slack"],"activation-hints":["set up Slack","connect Slack","add a Slack workspace","get you on Slack","install you in Slack","create a Slack bot"]}} |
When to Use
USE THIS SKILL WHEN:
- The user says "set up Slack", "connect Slack", "add a Slack workspace", "get you on Slack", or any variant that means connect this assistant to Slack.
- A freshly-provisioned assistant needs a Slack bot identity (tokens, scopes, events) configured for the first time.
- The user wants to switch the assistant to a new Slack workspace or rotate its tokens.
DO NOT use this skill for runtime Slack operations (posting, reading channels, triage). That is the separate slack skill.
Step 1 — Check existing configuration
Run assistant credentials list --search slack_channel (via the bash tool). Scan the result for entries with service: slack_channel and note which of app_token, bot_token are present.
Then branch:
- If both ✅ → fully configured. Offer to show status or reconfigure. Stop here unless the user wants a reset.
- Otherwise → continue to Step 2.
✓ Checkpoint: You named which of app_token / bot_token are present before branching. Do not skip the assistant credentials list call and guess.
Step 2 — Open the setup wizard
Call ui_show with surface_type: "channel_setup" and data: { channel: "slack" }. This opens the Slack setup wizard in the side panel. The wizard is non-blocking — the tool returns immediately.
⚠️ CRITICAL: Tool call first, announcement second — in the same turn. Do not write any message that says the wizard is open (or is opening) until the ui_show call has returned success earlier in the same turn. A message claiming the wizard is open when the tool was never called shows the user an empty side panel.
After ui_show returns success, tell the user:
I've opened the Slack setup wizard in the side panel. It will walk you through creating a Slack app from a manifest and connecting it — complete the steps there. The wizard will auto-notify me when you close it. If you run into issues along the way, ask me in chat.
Hand-off notification (phones and narrow windows). On phone-sized clients the setup opens on the Contacts page instead of a side drawer, and completing it there cannot auto-notify. The client signals this with a hidden message like [User action on channel_setup surface: moved the slack setup to the Contacts page]. When you receive that hand-off notification, tell the user:
It looks like the setup opened on your Contacts page rather than a side panel — same steps, different spot. When you've finished, come back here and tell me, and I'll verify the connection.
and rely on their confirmation to trigger Step 3 (no wizard-closed notification will arrive).
If the ui_show call fails, do NOT send that message — tell the user the wizard could not be opened and troubleshoot (e.g. no connected client) before retrying.
✓ Checkpoint: The successful ui_show tool result appears earlier in this turn than your announcement. If it does not, the wizard is not open — make the call before claiming it is.
The wizard handles the entire flow: manifest generation, app creation in Slack, and credential storage. The user copies the manifest from the wizard, hands it to Slack's From a manifest option, and Slack returns both tokens at once on Create and Install. Tokens are entered in secure input fields within the wizard and saved directly via the API — they never enter the chat conversation.
⚠️ CRITICAL: Do NOT collect tokens in chat. Do NOT use assistant credentials prompt for Slack setup. Do NOT ask the user to paste tokens into the conversation. The wizard's secure input fields are the only path for credential entry.
Step 3 — Verify completion
When you receive the wizard-closed notification (or the user says they're done, or asks you to check), verify the connection. The notification arrives as a message like [User action on channel_setup surface: closed the slack setup wizard] — closing the wizard drawer sends it automatically, so do not wait for the user to type a confirmation. If the user manually says they're done or asks you to check, proceed with the same verification.
-
Run assistant credentials list --search slack_channel (via the bash tool). Confirm both app_token and bot_token are present.
-
If both are present, fetch the bot identity:
bash {
command: "curl -s -X POST https://slack.com/api/auth.test"
network_mode: "proxied"
credential_ids: ["slack_channel/bot_token"]
activity: "to verify bot identity"
}
Extract user → botUsername, team → workspace from the JSON response. If ok: false or the call errors, fall back to your bot / your workspace.
-
If either token is missing, tell the user which one is missing. When verification was triggered by the wizard-closed notification, the side panel is no longer open — offer to re-open it and re-run Step 2's ui_show call if they accept. When the user asked manually, the wizard may still be open in the side panel — point them back to it instead of re-opening (a second ui_show over a live wizard resets their progress).
Step 4 — Verify identity (optional)
Load the guardian-verify-setup skill:
skill_load with skill: "guardian-verify-setup".
If the user wants to skip → continue to Step 5, and let them know they can run it later by saying "verify me on slack".
Step 5 — Report success
⚠️ CRITICAL: Never post the success message with literal {botUsername} or {workspace} in it. Those are placeholders. Run auth.test first (Step 3), substitute real values, then post.
If identity was verified:
Setup complete!
✅ App created
✅ Tokens configured
✅ Connection active
✅ Connection tested
Connected: @ in
Channels: @mention the bot in any channel to add it, or use /invite @<botUsername>. DMs work immediately.
Identity: verified
Want full workspace visibility (read every channel you're in, even ones the bot isn't a member of)? Ask me to add a User OAuth Token later.
If identity was skipped → swap the last two lines for:
⬜ Connection tested — say "verify me on slack" to finish later.
…
Identity: skipped
SKILL COMPLETE WHEN
If Something Fails
Bot doesn't respond in a channel. The bot must be a member. @mention it (Slack will prompt "Add Them") or /invite @{botUsername}.
Socket Mode keeps disconnecting. The app token is revoked or expired. Regenerate it in Basic Information → App-Level Tokens and re-enter it in the wizard.
Token rejected on save. The wizard validates token prefixes on entry. Double-check you copied the right value — bot token starts xoxb-, app token xapp-.
Messages not arriving. Verify Event Subscriptions → Subscribe to bot events includes message.channels. The manifest pre-configures it, but it can be edited out by hand.
No tokens after creating the app. Slack shows both under Your app credentials in the "your app is ready" modal, collapsed behind a toggle — expand it. If that panel is missing entirely, the app was created from a template (AI agent, Starter app, Blank app) rather than From a manifest; scopes will be wrong too, so start over from Step 1. Do not hand-edit scopes.
Calls fail with missing_scope even though setup succeeded. Slack sometimes installs an app carrying only a fraction of the manifest's scopes — a live install produced 2 of 18. auth.test still passes, so a green connection check does not prove the scopes arrived. Confirm by reading the x-oauth-scopes response header on any Slack API call and comparing it against the scopes in the manifest.
To fix, in this order:
- Open the app at https://api.slack.com/apps. Slack interrupts with a prompt to update the app — accept it. Reinstalling without this step does not restore the scopes.
- Go to OAuth & Permissions → Reinstall to Workspace.
The same bot token then carries the full scope set — it is not rotated, so nothing needs re-entering in the wizard.
Optional: add a User OAuth Token later
A User OAuth Token (xoxp-...) lets the assistant see every channel you're in, even ones the bot was never invited to. Useful for triage workflows where you want the assistant to summarize across the whole workspace. Not needed for normal messaging — the bot token alone covers every channel the bot is a member of.
To add it later:
- Open your Slack app at https://api.slack.com/apps, pick the app this skill created, go to Install App.
- Copy the User OAuth Token (
xoxp-...).
- Ask the assistant to store the User OAuth Token — it will send you a secure prompt to paste it into. (Under the hood:
assistant credentials prompt --service slack_channel --field user_token.)
To revoke it later, clear the user_token credential the same way you'd clear any Slack credential — see Clearing Credentials below.
Clearing Credentials
To disconnect, prefer the Settings UI path so the same Slack settings handler used by Settings clears both the secure tokens and the workspace metadata together.
