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Slack credentials#

You can use these credentials to authenticate the following nodes:

Supported authentication methods#

  • API access token:
  • OAuth2:

Refer to Slack's API documentation for more information about the service.

Using API access token#

To configure this credential, you'll need a Slack account and:

  • An Access Token

To generate an access token, create a Slack app:

  1. Open your Slack API Apps page.
  2. Select Create New App > From scratch.
  3. Enter an App Name.
  4. Select the Workspace where you'll be developing your app.
  5. Select Create App. The app details open.
  6. In the left menu under Features, select OAuth & Permissions.
  7. In the Scopes section, select appropriate scopes for your app. Refer to Scopes for a list of recommended scopes.
  8. After you've added scopes, go up to the OAuth Tokens section and select Install to Workspace. You must be a Slack workspace admin to complete this action.
  9. Select Allow.
  10. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token and enter it as the Access Token in your n8n credential.
  11. If you're using this credential for the Slack Trigger, follow the steps in Slack Trigger configuration to finish setting up your app.

Refer to the Slack API Quickstart for more information.

Slack Trigger configuration#

To use your Slack app with the Slack Trigger node:

  1. Go to Features > Event Subscriptions.
  2. Turn on the Enable Events control.

  3. In n8n, copy the Webhook URL and enter it as the Request URL in your Slack app.

    Request URL

    Slack only allows one request URL per app. If you want to test your workflow, you'll need to do one of the following:

    • Test with your Test URL first, then change your Slack app to use the Production URL once you've verified everything's working
    • Use the Production URL with execution logging.

  4. Once verified, select the bot events to subscribe to. Use the Trigger on field in n8n to filter these requests.

    • To use an event not in the list, add it as a bot event and select Any Event in the n8n node.

Refer to Quickstart | Configuring the app for event listening for more information.

Using OAuth2#

Note for n8n Cloud users

Cloud users don't need to provide connection details. Select Connect my account to connect through your browser.

If you're self-hosting n8n and need to configure OAuth2 from scratch, you'll need a Slack account and:

  • A Client ID
  • A Client Secret

To get both, create a Slack app:

  1. Open your Slack API Apps page.
  2. Select Create New App > From scratch.
  3. Enter an App Name.
  4. Select the Workspace where you'll be developing your app.
  5. Select Create App. The app details open.
  6. In Settings > Basic Information, open the App Credentials section.
  7. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret. Paste these into the corresponding fields in n8n.
  8. In the left menu under Features, select OAuth & Permissions.
  9. In the Redirect URLs section, select Add New Redirect URL.
  10. Copy the OAuth Callback URL from n8n and enter it as the new Redirect URL in Slack.
  11. Select Add.
  12. Select Save URLs.
  13. In the Scopes section, select appropriate scopes for your app. Refer to Scopes for a list of scopes.
  14. After you've added scopes, go up to the OAuth Tokens section and select Install to Workspace. You must be a Slack workspace admin to complete this action.
  15. Select Allow.
  16. At this point, you should be able to select the OAuth button in your n8n credential to connect.

Refer to the Slack API Quickstart for more information. Refer to the Slack Installing with OAuth documentation for more details on the OAuth flow itself.

Scopes#

Scopes determine what permissions an app has.

  • If you want your app to act on behalf of users who authorize the app, add the required scopes under the User Token Scopes section.
  • If you're building a bot, add the required scopes under the Bot Token Scopes section.

Here's the list of scopes the OAuth credential requires, which are a good starting point:

Scope name Notes
channels:read
channels:write Not available as a bot token scope
chat:write
files:read
files:write
groups:read
im:read
mpim:read
reactions:read
reactions:write
stars:read Not available as a bot token scope
stars:write Not available as a bot token scope
usergroups:read
usergroups:write
users.profile:read
users.profile:write Not available as a bot token scope
users:read

Common issues#

Token expired#

Slack offers token rotation that you can turn on for bot and user tokens. This makes every tokens expire after 12 hours. While this may be useful for testing, n8n credentials using tokens with this enabled will fail after expiry. If you want to use your Slack credentials in production, this feature must be off.

To check if your Slack app has token rotation turned on, refer to the Slack API Documentation | Token Rotation.

If your app uses token rotation

Please note, if your Slack app uses token rotation, you can't turn it off again. You need to create a new Slack app with token rotation disabled instead.