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Connect Slack

This guide walks you through connecting Manasvi to a Slack workspace so team members can interact with it through Slack.

How it works​

  1. You create a Slack app in your workspace
  2. Slack gives you a bot token and a signing secret
  3. You configure Slack to send events (like messages) to Manasvi's webhook URL
  4. Manasvi receives messages, processes them, and replies

Step 1 — Create a Slack app​

  1. Go to api.slack.com/apps
  2. Click Create New App → From scratch
  3. Give it a name (e.g., "Manasvi") and choose your workspace
  4. Click Create App

Step 2 — Configure bot permissions​

In your app settings, go to OAuth & Permissions → Scopes → Bot Token Scopes and add:

  • chat:write — to send messages
  • app_mentions:read — to receive @mentions
  • im:history — to read direct messages (if you want DM support)

Step 3 — Install the app to your workspace​

In OAuth & Permissions, click Install to Workspace. After approving, you'll get a Bot User OAuth Token starting with xoxb-.

Step 4 — Add credentials to your configuration​

Open .env and add:

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-your-token-here
SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET=your-signing-secret-here

Where is the signing secret? In your Slack app settings, go to Basic Information → App Credentials → Signing Secret.

What is the signing secret? Similar to Telegram's webhook secret — it lets Manasvi verify that incoming events are genuinely from Slack.

Step 5 — Make your server accessible​

Like with Telegram, Slack needs to reach your Manasvi ingress service from the internet. Use a tunnel for local development:

ngrok http 4101

Copy the https:// URL that ngrok shows.

Step 6 — Enable event subscriptions​

In your Slack app settings:

  1. Go to Event Subscriptions
  2. Enable events
  3. Set the Request URL to: https://your-ngrok-url/channels/slack/events
  4. Slack will verify the URL — Manasvi will respond with the verification challenge automatically
  5. Under Subscribe to bot events, add message.im and app_mention
  6. Save changes

Step 7 — Test it​

In Slack, send your bot a direct message or @mention it in a channel. It should respond via Manasvi.

What Manasvi does with Slack messages​

  • Slack user IDs become principal identities (slack:U01234ABC)
  • Manasvi verifies the Slack signing secret on every request
  • Messages flow through the same full pipeline as any other channel
  • Responses are sent back to the same Slack conversation

Troubleshooting​

URL verification fails: Make sure your ingress service is running and your tunnel is active.

Bot doesn't respond: Check the event subscription is saved and the bot is added to the channel.

"Invalid signing secret": Double-check SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET matches what Slack shows in Basic Information.