How to connect Slack

This integration lets Tulina read and post in your Slack — channels, threads and direct messages — either as a bot or on your own behalf.

Who can do this. Someone who can install an app in your Slack workspace. Depending on your workspace settings that may need a Slack admin to approve it. On the Tulina side, an org member, or an org or team admin if you want the connection shared.

How long it takes. 10 minutes.

Slack issues its tokens per workspace, so each workspace creates its own app. That is expected, and it is what this guide walks through.

One thing to know before you start: this cannot be done from the Slack mobile app. Slack's app management lives on the web, at api.slack.com. You can do it from a phone browser, but the console is built for a wide screen — turn on "Request desktop site", or use a computer if you have one nearby. The Slack app itself is only needed at the last step.

Step 1 — Create the Slack app

1. Open api.slack.com/apps?new_app=1, which goes straight to the creation dialog.
2. Choose From scratch.
3. Give it a name — Tulina, for example. This name is what your colleagues will see next to any message it posts.
4. Pick the workspace to install it in, then create the app.

Step 2 — Choose what it is allowed to do

In the app's left menu, open OAuth & Permissions and scroll to Scopes. Add scopes under Bot Token Scopes if you plan to use a bot token, or under User Token Scopes for a user token. Step 4 explains which one you want.

Add only what you need. You can come back and add more later, at the cost of reinstalling the app.

• Post a message — chat:write
• List public channels — channels:read
• Read a public channel's history — channels:history
• Find someone by their email address — users:read and users:read.email
• Work in private channels — groups:read and groups:history
• Open and read direct messages — im:write, im:read and im:history
• React to a message — reactions:write
• Download a file shared in Slack — files:read

A reasonable starting set is chat:write, channels:read, channels:history, users:read and users:read.email. That covers reading and posting in public channels and addressing people by email.

Step 3 — Install it and copy the token

1. Back at the top of OAuth & Permissions, install the app to your workspace and approve the permission screen.
2. Copy the token that appears. A bot token starts with xoxb-, a user token with xoxp-.

If you are told the request has been sent rather than being shown a token, your workspace requires admin approval for new apps. Someone with that right has to approve it before the token exists.

Treat the token like a password. It grants everything you ticked in step 2.

Step 4 — Connect Slack from Tulina

In Tulina, open Connectors, find Slack, and pick the tab that matches who the connection is for.

• Personal — a user token (xoxp-). Tulina acts as you, and reaches every channel and direct message you can already see. Nothing to invite anywhere.
• Org or Team — a bot token (xoxb-). One shared identity for the whole org or team, which keeps working when any individual leaves. It only reaches channels it has been invited to.

Paste the token into the matching field and save. You can fill in both if you want each behaviour available.

Step 5 — Invite the bot to your channels

Skip this if you used a user token.

A bot only sees channels it belongs to. In Slack — the mobile app is fine for this part — open each channel you want Tulina to work in and type:

/invite @Tulina

Use whatever name you gave the app in step 1.

Troubleshooting

The channel list comes back empty, or posting fails with not_in_channel. The bot has not been invited to that channel. Go back to step 5.

An error naming a missing scope, such as missing_scope. Slack says which one it wants. Add it in step 2, then reinstall the app so the new permission is granted, and copy the token again.

invalid_auth or not_authed. The token was copied with a stray space, or it has been revoked. Copy it again from OAuth & Permissions.

Tulina says no Slack credential is configured. The token was saved on a different tab than the one being used. A personal token only applies to you; a shared one has to go on the Org or Team tab.

Someone left the company and Slack stopped working. A user token belongs to the person who issued it and dies with their account. This is the reason to prefer a bot token on the Org tab for anything the team depends on.