Slack
How to connect AI agents to Slack
To connect an AI agent to Slack in Ninjafy, open the agent's Channels tab, add Slack, and follow the guided setup: create the Slack app, paste its tokens into Ninjafy, install it to your workspace and add a profile picture. The walkthrough video does it in under three minutes.
Before you start
- A Ninjafy agent you have already set up.
- A Slack workspace where you can install apps.
Steps
Add Slack as a channel
Open your agent in Ninjafy, go to the Channels tab, choose Add channel and pick Slack. A guided setup opens and walks you through the rest.
Review and accept the permissions
The setup lists the Slack permissions (scopes) your agent needs. Accept them, then follow the on-screen instructions.
Copy your Slack tokens into Ninjafy
Follow the prompts to copy the access token and then the refresh token from Slack, and paste each one into the matching field in Ninjafy. This creates the Slack app for your agent.
Generate the app-level token
In your new Slack app, open Basic Information and scroll to App-Level Tokens. Choose Generate Token and Scopes, name the token after your agent, add the connections:write scope, click Generate, then copy the token and paste it into Ninjafy. This lets your agent receive messages in real time.
Install the app to your workspace
Choose Install to Slack, check that it is your workspace, and click Allow. Your agent is now live in Slack.
Add the bot token
In the Slack app, open the OAuth settings, copy the bot OAuth token and paste it into Ninjafy, then save the bot token.
Give your agent a profile picture
Download your agent's profile picture from Ninjafy and upload it under Display Information in the Slack app's Basic Information page. Slack asks you to change the background colour before it will save, so pick one and save your changes.
Start a conversation
Open Slack and find your agent in Apps. Send it a message, and you can now work with your AI teammate in the place your team already works.
Key points
- You connect Slack from the agent's Channels tab in Ninjafy, using a guided setup.
- You paste three tokens from Slack: access and refresh, an app-level token with the connections:write scope, and the bot OAuth token.
- Installing the app to your workspace makes the agent appear in Slack as a teammate you can message.
- You can give each agent its own profile picture so people recognise it.
- Agents can also be reached in the Ninjafy app and on Telegram; Microsoft Teams is coming soon.
Common questions
- How long does it take to connect an AI agent to Slack?
- The walkthrough video connects an agent to Slack in under three minutes. It is not hard, but there are several steps, so follow along with the guide.
- Can I use Microsoft Teams instead?
- Microsoft Teams support is coming soon. Today you can connect an agent to Slack or Telegram, and you can always talk to your agents in the Ninjafy app.
- Which tokens do I need?
- You paste the access and refresh tokens from the setup, an app-level token with the connections:write scope so the agent can receive messages in real time, and the bot OAuth token after you install the app.
- Can my agent have its own profile picture in Slack?
- Yes. Download the agent's profile picture from Ninjafy and upload it under Display Information in the Slack app's Basic Information page. Slack requires you to change the background colour before it lets you save.
- What if I get stuck?
- Reach out to the Ninjafy team and we will help you finish the setup.
Video transcript
Okay, so you've built an amazing AI agent that will work towards real goals. Now, how do you connect them to the channels where you and your team do work? Connecting agents to Slack and Teams used to be quite hard, but with Ninjafy it's super straightforward, and this is what the process looks like. I'm going to do Slack. This is our agent, Vera. These are the scopes. You can just accept those and follow the instructions. It's not hard, but it is a bit involved, so follow along. The first step is to copy the access token here. I'll say I have my tokens, copy that, and then it says copy the refresh token. Copying that and pasting it in. Step one, done. Now, basic information. We open this up and scroll down to generating the token and scopes. Our agent's called Vera, so I'll just call it Vera and give it the right permissions here. Generate, copy, and paste that in as well. Great. Install to Slack. You can see our workspace here. Do you want to install the Vera app? Yes, I do. And now we are pretty much live. I also like to have our agent profile pictures in Slack as well. I think it's a bit of fun. So I'm going to download Vera's profile, and I've also got one last step here, to make sure all of the user auths are lined up. I'll click this button, scroll down, copy the OAuth token and paste that as well. Saving the bot token now too. That's pretty much it. While we're in the agent app in Slack, you can go into basic information and customise anything you want, including the profile picture. I'll put Vera in. For some reason you can't save it without changing the background colour too, so I'll do that as well. I'll save changes, and now we are pretty much away. You should be able to see Vera here. Her profile picture's just updated, and we're ready to start having conversations with our AI agents in a place where we work. So that's it for that one. You can add Telegram, and soon we'll have Teams too. Of course, you can still speak to your AI agents just via the app as well. Pretty straightforward. If you get stuck, reach out and let us know. Done in under three minutes, and I look forward to seeing you in the next one. Cheers.