Slack

Connect Cardinal to Slack to send AI-generated notifications and alerts to channels, and to let the AI agent resolve users and channels and post messages on demand.

Overview

With the Slack integration, the AI agent can:

Send notifications to specified Slack channels
Deliver alerts when triggered by monitoring rules or workflows
Post summaries of incidents, reports, or query results
Find a user by name, real name, display name, or email
Find a channel by name (public, private, DMs, multi-party DMs)
Send a message to a resolved user or channel

The same bot token powers all of the above — Slack’s permission model attaches scopes to the bot, not to individual API calls. Add the scopes you intend to use; leave out the ones you don’t.

Capabilities

Capability	Enabled
Notify	Always
Agent	When the bot has the discovery + send scopes (see below)

Configuration

Credentials

Field	Required	Description
Bot Token	Yes	Slack bot OAuth token (format: `xoxb-...`)

Prerequisites

A Slack workspace where you have permission to install apps
A Slack app with a Bot User OAuth Token
The bot must be invited to any channel you want it to post in

Required Slack scopes

The minimum is chat:write (notify-only). Each additional scope unlocks an agent capability:

Scope	What it enables
`chat:write`	Sending messages to channels (notify + agent `send_message`)
`chat:write.public`	Sending to public channels the bot hasn’t been invited to (optional)
`users:read`	`find_user` — listing workspace users
`users:read.email`	Letting `find_user` match against and return user emails
`channels:read`	`find_channel` — listing public channels
`groups:read`	`find_channel` — listing private channels
`im:read`	`find_channel` — listing direct-message channels
`mpim:read`	`find_channel` — listing multi-party DM channels

If a scope is missing, the matching agent tool returns a clean error telling the planner to fall back. The notify path keeps working with chat:write alone.

Creating a Slack App

Go to api.slack.com/apps .
Click Create New App > From scratch.
Name the app (e.g., “Cardinal Bot”) and select your workspace.
Navigate to OAuth & Permissions.
Under Bot Token Scopes, add the scopes from the table above that match the capabilities you want.
Click Install to Workspace and authorize the app.
Copy the Bot User OAuth Token (starts with xoxb-).

If you change the scope list after install, you must reinstall the app for the new scopes to take effect.

Setup

Navigate to Settings → Integrations and click Add Integration.
Select Slack.
Paste the Bot Token (xoxb-...).
Click Test Connection to verify the token is valid.
Click Save.
Invite the bot to the desired channels using /invite @Cardinal Bot in Slack.

For private channels, the bot must be a member before find_channel will return them. chat:write.public covers public-channel sends without invites; for any other case you need to invite the bot.

What This Enables

Once configured, the AI agent and automated workflows can:

Send alert notifications when anomalies are detected
Post incident summaries to on-call channels
Deliver scheduled report digests
Resolve a name or email to a Slack user (find_user) and 1:1 message them (send_message)
Resolve a channel name to its id (find_channel) and post to it (send_message)

Reach out to support@cardinalhq.io for support or to ask questions not answered in our documentation.