Slack

Connect Slack to Airweave using real-time federated search

Connect Slack to Airweave to make messages searchable by AI agents using real-time federated search.

What Gets Synced

Federated Search Approach

The Slack connector uses federated search - it queries Slack in real-time at search time rather than syncing all messages. This avoids Slack’s strict rate limits and keeps your data in Slack.

• Messages - Message content from all accessible channels
• Context - Previous and next messages for conversation context
• Metadata - Channel names, timestamps, authors, and permalinks

Authentication

This connector uses OAuth 2.0 with the search:read scope for production, or a manual token for local development.

Setup

Production Setup (OAuth)

1. Add Slack Connection

   In Airweave, navigate to your collection and click Add Source → Slack.

2. Authorize Access

   Click Connect and authorize Airweave to search your Slack workspace.

3. Search

   Your Slack workspace is now searchable. Queries to Airweave will automatically include results from Slack.

Local Development Setup (Manual Token)

Slack doesn’t allow OAuth flows for localhost, so for local development you need to create a token manually.

1. Create Slack App

   1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
   2. Click Create New App → From scratch
   3. Enter app name (e.g., “Airweave Local Dev”) and select your workspace
2. Add OAuth Scope

   1. Navigate to OAuth & Permissions
   2. Under User Token Scopes, add search:read
3. Install to Workspace

   1. Click Install to Workspace at the top of the OAuth & Permissions page
   2. Review permissions and click Allow
   3. Copy the User OAuth Token (starts with xoxp-)
4. Add Token to Airweave

   In Airweave, select Slack and choose Direct Token Injection, then paste your User OAuth Token.

How Federated Search Works

1. When you search in Airweave, your query is sent to Slack’s search.all API in real-time
2. Slack returns relevant messages from across your workspace
3. Results are merged with data from your other sources using intelligent ranking
4. No data is stored in Airweave - everything happens at search time

Supported Entities

Slack Messages

Messages from federated search results.

Key fields:

• Message text and author
• Channel ID and name
• Timestamp and permalink
• Previous/next messages for context
• Search relevance score

Implementation Details

View Source Code

Explore the Slack connector implementation on GitHub