Integration
Connect Slack to Polaris
Six scopes, no access to direct messages, and a bot that only reads the channels somebody invited it into.
What connecting buys
Connecting Slack gives a Polaris worker the channels the bot has been invited to. The copilot can list channels, read their history and post messages, so a thread becomes a prefilled task suggestion in the Inbox with bucket, lane, labels and owner already set, waiting for one click. Slack is authorized once per organisation by an owner and stored server-side.
- Authorization
- One click, or a bot token
- Scopes requested
- 6
- Direct messages
- Out of scope
- Verified live
- Against Slack before storing
What Slack gives a worker
Most teams already run their day in Slack, which means most teams already lose work in Slack. A decision gets made in a thread on Thursday, three people read it, nobody writes it down, and on Monday it does not exist.
With Slack connected, the copilot can list the channels the bot is in, read their recent messages and post back. That is the raw material for the Inbox: a message that looks like work becomes a task suggestion with a bucket, a lane, labels and an owner already filled in. You approve it or you do not. Signals become suggestions, never silent tasks, because a workspace that creates tasks behind your back stops being trusted within a week.
Posting matters as much as reading. A worker that can write to a channel can put its delivery where the team already looks, instead of leaving it in a tool somebody has to remember to open.
Connecting Slack
- 1
Click connect directly
The button opens Slack's own consent screen with the six scopes listed. Approve there and you land back in Polaris connected, with no token to copy anywhere.
- 2
Or paste a bot token instead
The advanced path takes a bot token beginning xoxb- from your own Slack app, under OAuth and Permissions. Same result, more steps, useful when your workspace restricts which apps can be installed.
- 3
Polaris checks it against Slack
Either path ends with a call to Slack that confirms the token works and returns the workspace name, which is what the interface then shows you. A bad token is refused with Slack's own error.
- 4
Invite the bot where you want it read
Slack only exposes channels the bot is a member of. Run the invite command for Polaris in each channel that matters. This is the step people forget, and the symptom is a worker that says it can see nothing.
The six scopes, and what each one buys
This is the exact scope list the Polaris Slack app requests. Nothing outside it is available to a worker.
| Scope | What it allows |
|---|---|
| channels:read | See which public channels exist |
| channels:history | Read messages in public channels the bot joined |
| groups:read | See private channels the bot was invited to |
| groups:history | Read messages in those private channels |
| chat:write | Post messages as Polaris |
| users:read | Resolve user IDs into names, so a suggestion can name an owner |
What Slack cannot do here
Worth reading before you connect, because it is shorter than the list of things people assume.
It cannot read your DMs
No direct-message scope is requested, so private conversations and group DMs are outside what any worker can reach, whatever anybody asks it to do.
It cannot join channels by itself
Access follows invitations. A channel nobody invited the bot into is invisible, including public ones it can see the name of.
It cannot delete or edit your history
The write scope covers posting. Nothing in the scope list allows removing or rewriting what your team already said.
It cannot download files
No file scope is requested, so attachments in a channel are not part of what comes back.
Workers and work this connection feeds
Slack is the connection that turns other people's messages into somebody's task.
Hire an AI project coordinator
The unglamorous half of running projects, done every week without anyone having to be the person who nags.
Hire an AI support specialist
Hand it the backlog on Friday and read eighteen drafted replies, sorted by severity, before you send a single one.
Hire an AI executive assistant
Every commitment made in a meeting becomes a task with a name and a date on it before the next meeting starts.
Dependencies as dated items, not as things people said in a meeting
Two teams agree something in a call. Neither writes it down. Three weeks later each is waiting for the other. A worker makes the promise a tracked item.
Every commitment from the meeting, owned and dated
The decisions were good. The problem is the eleven commitments that existed only in a document nobody reopened.
Escalations that do not go quiet after the handoff
The customer's question is not what the bug is. It is whether anyone is still looking at it.
Questions people ask
+Can a Polaris worker read my Slack direct messages?
No. The Slack app requests six scopes and none of them cover direct messages or group DMs. It reads public channels it has joined and private channels it was invited to, and that is the whole surface.
+Do I need to create my own Slack app?
Only if the deployment has not had one configured, or if your workspace policy requires apps to be internally owned. The repository ships a Slack app manifest with the exact six scopes, so creating one is a paste rather than a form-filling exercise, and the resulting bot token goes in through the advanced path.
+Why can my worker not see a channel I know exists?
Almost always because the bot is not in it. Slack exposes history only for channels the app has joined, so the fix is to invite Polaris in that channel. Private channels additionally need the invite to come from somebody already in them.
+Does connecting Slack create tasks automatically?
No. Messages become suggestions in the Inbox with the fields prefilled, and a person approves them. That boundary is deliberate: a workspace that silently manufactures tasks from chat becomes noise faster than the chat it was meant to tame.
Related
Every tool a Polaris worker can be given
One catalog, one credential per tool per organisation, authorized by an owner and used by every worker who carries it.
Hire an AI project coordinator
The unglamorous half of running projects, done every week without anyone having to be the person who nags.
Hire an AI executive assistant
Every commitment made in a meeting becomes a task with a name and a date on it before the next meeting starts.
Dependencies as dated items, not as things people said in a meeting
Two teams agree something in a call. Neither writes it down. Three weeks later each is waiting for the other. A worker makes the promise a tracked item.
A Slack alternative where the message becomes a task, not scrollback
Slack is where the signal arrives. It is also where the signal goes to be forgotten by Thursday.
Replacing Notion and Slack
A stack with a writing tool and a talking tool, and no place where a piece of work has an owner and a date.
AI worker
The difference between an agent you prompt and an agent you assign work to.