Connect Slack to an agent

Connect Slack when your team already lives there: the agent joins as a bot, answers when it is mentioned or messaged directly, and can post in the channels you invite it to.

Qoren connects Slack apps in socket mode. The agent opens the connection to Slack itself, so you do not need a public web address or a request URL.

Before you start#

• A Hermes or OpenClaw agent that has finished setting up. Codex agents cannot use chat channels yet.
• Permission to create and install apps in your Slack workspace. On many workspaces that means a Slack admin.

Create the Slack app#

You build the app on Slack's side first. Slack's own references are creating an app, socket mode and token types.

1. Go to api.slack.com/apps, click Create New App, choose From scratch, name it and pick your workspace.
2. Open OAuth & Permissions. Under Bot Token Scopes, add chat:write, app_mentions:read, channels:history, channels:read and im:history. Add groups:history too if the agent should work in private channels.
3. Open Socket Mode and turn it on. Slack asks you to create an App-Level Token: give it the connections:write scope and copy the value that starts with xapp-.
4. Open Event Subscriptions, turn it on, and under Subscribe to bot events add app_mention and message.im.
5. Install the app to your workspace (Install App, at the top of OAuth & Permissions) and approve it. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token, which starts with xoxb-.
6. Optional: the Signing Secret under Basic Information. Socket mode does not need it.

Connect the app in Qoren#

1. Open the agent, click Settings, then Connections.
2. Under Channels, pick Slack from Add a gateway….
3. Paste the xoxb- token into Bot token (xoxb-) (1).
4. Paste the xapp- token into App-level token (xapp-) (2).
5. Leave Signing secret (3) blank unless you have one you want to keep with the agent.

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6. Click Save changes at the bottom of the page.

Each token field also has Use vault, to pick a token you saved in the Vault instead of pasting it. The form checks each token's prefix as you type: a bot token must start with xoxb- and an app-level token with xapp-, or you see "Not in the expected format."

Invite the bot and test it#

1. Wait for the panel to say Saved. Under Connections, Slack should turn to Connected (1), with the bot's name underneath.

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2. In Slack, open each channel the agent should work in and run /invite @your-bot-name. A bot only sees channels it has been invited to.
3. Mention the bot in that channel, or send it a direct message. The reply comes from your agent.

Troubleshooting#

• Needs attention. The agent could not sign in to Slack; the reason is on the card. The usual causes are a token copied from the wrong place (the two tokens swapped, or a user token instead of the bot token), or an app-level token without the connections:write scope. Paste fresh tokens and click Save changes.
• Connected, but silent in a channel. Invite the bot to that channel with /invite, and check the app has the scopes and the app_mention event from the steps above. If you added scopes after installing, Slack asks you to reinstall the app before they take effect.
• Answers direct messages but not channel posts. With the events above, the bot is woken in a channel when someone mentions it. Mention it by name.

For anything else, see what to do when an agent is not responding.