The Slack Connector brings your Slack into the AI Assistant directly.
Once connected, the AI Assistant or an agent can search messages, read channel history and threads, post updates and replies, and read or write canvases, all using your own Slack access.
Your account admin must enable Productive AI before the Slack Connector can be used.
👉 Looking to talk to Productive from Slack instead? See AI in Slack or Talking to Agents in Slack
How This Differs From the Slack Integrations
The personal and organization-wide integrations are about Slack reaching into Productive: notifications, task previews, and mentioning @Productive or an Agent in a channel.
The Slack Connector works the other way. It lets the AI Assistant or your agents reach into Slack on its own, using your personal Slack access, so it only sees what you can already see in Slack.
What the Assistant or an Agent Can Do With It
Once connected, you can ask the AI Assistant in Productive to:
Search messages and files across the channels you're in.
Read a channel or thread to pull in context from a conversation.
Post a message or reply, including drafting one for you to review first.
Read or write a canvas, so the Assistant can reference or update shared Slack documents.
React to a message with an emoji.
📌 The Assistant/agent only accesses what you can access in Slack. It can't read private channels or DMs you're not a member of.
Connecting the Slack Connector
An admin needs to enable the Slack Connector for your organization before individual users can connect their own Slack access.
For admins:
Go to Settings > Connectors > Browse Connectors.
Find Slack and click Enable.
For individual users, once enabled:
Go to Settings > Connectors > Slack.
Click Connect and authorize the connection in Slack.
📌 If the connection doesn't fully succeed, Productive will show that it failed rather than displaying Connected. This can happen if your Slack workspace's permission settings block part of the request.
Using the Slack Connector With Agents
Beyond the AI Assistant, you can give an agent its own access to the Slack Connector, so it can search, read, and post in Slack as part of what it does when it runs.
📌 This is separate from a Slack trigger on an agent, which is about the agent responding to a mention. The connector gives it broader Slack access to use whenever it runs, for any reason.
Using the Slack Connector With Skills
You can also write a skill that puts the Slack Connector to use whenever it's applied, in the AI Assistant or through an agent.
Example skill ideas:
Thread Recap: instructions telling the Assistant to summarize a Slack thread you link to, listing key decisions and open questions.
Standup Digest: checks a specific Slack channel for updates posted that day and compiles them into a summary.
Meeting Follow-Up: reads a Slack canvas from a meeting and drafts a recap message to post back to the channel.
👉 See What Are Skills? and How to Create and Manage Skills to build one.
📌 A skill doesn't include the connector itself: it's just instructions. The Slack Connector still needs to be connected (and, for an agent, added to that agent) separately for the skill to actually reach Slack when it runs.
AI Disclaimer
Productive AI may generate inaccurate responses. Results are provided as-is and should be independently verified before making critical decisions.
Where to Go From Here
👉 See Slack Integration: General Overview for how this fits alongside the personal and organization-wide integrations.
👉 See AI in Slack for using the Assistant from within Slack instead.