slack-tools

AI SDK tools for Slack. Typed, structured tool calls for AI agents. No MCP transport required.

Installation

npm install slack-tools
# or
yarn add slack-tools
# or
pnpm add slack-tools
# or
bun add slack-tools

Quick Start

import { generateText } from "ai";
import { createSlackTools } from "slack-tools";

const tools = createSlackTools(process.env.SLACK_USER_TOKEN);

const { text } = await generateText({
  model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5",
  tools,
  prompt: "Search for messages about the Q1 roadmap in #general",
});

The model string uses the Vercel AI Gateway, which provides access to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and other providers through a single API.

API Reference

createSlackTools

Returns all available Slack tools, ready to pass to generateText, streamText, or any AI SDK agent.

import { createSlackTools } from "slack-tools";

const tools = createSlackTools(process.env.SLACK_USER_TOKEN);

Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | slackToken | string | Yes | A Slack user OAuth token (xoxp-...) with the required scopes. | | options | CreateSlackToolsOptions | No | Configuration options (see below). |

Options

| Name | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | needsApproval | boolean \| SlackToolName[] | undefined | Controls which tools require human approval before execution. Pass true to require approval for all tools, or an array of tool names for selective approval. |

// Require approval for all tools
const tools = createSlackTools(process.env.SLACK_USER_TOKEN, {
  needsApproval: true,
});

// Require approval only for write operations
const tools = createSlackTools(process.env.SLACK_USER_TOKEN, {
  needsApproval: [
    "slack_send_message",
    "slack_schedule_message",
    "slack_create_canvas",
  ],
});

Returns

An object containing the following tools:

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | slack_send_message | Send a message to a channel or user. | | slack_schedule_message | Schedule a message for future delivery. | | slack_create_canvas | Create a new Slack Canvas document. | | slack_search_public | Search messages in public channels. | | slack_search_public_and_private | Search messages across all channels (public, private, DMs). | | slack_search_channels | Find channels by name, topic, or purpose. | | slack_search_users | Find users by name, email, or title. | | slack_read_channel | Read message history from a channel. | | slack_read_thread | Read a thread (parent message and replies). | | slack_read_user_profile | Get detailed profile information for a user. |

Each tool includes inputSchema, outputSchema, execute, and toModelOutput.

Required Scopes

Your Slack app needs the following user token scopes:

chat:write, canvases:read, canvases:write, channels:history, groups:history, im:history, mpim:history, search:read.public, search:read.private, search:read.mpim, search:read.im, search:read.files, search:read.users, users:read, users:read.email

Comparison with Slack MCP

This package was built by running each tool against the Slack MCP server and comparing responses side-by-side. The goal was to match the MCP's behavior as closely as the public Slack API allows.

| Tool | slack-tools | Slack MCP | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | Send message | ✅ | ✅ | Equivalent output | | Schedule message | ✅ | ✅ | Equivalent output | | Create canvas | ✅ | ✅ | Equivalent output | | Search public messages | ✅ | ✅ | MCP includes message context and reply counts via internal APIs | | Search all messages | ✅ | ✅ | Same as above | | Search channels | ✅ | ✅ | MCP includes channel permalinks | | Search users | ✅ | ✅ | Equivalent output including profile permalinks | | Read channel | ✅ | ✅ | Equivalent output | | Read thread | ✅ | ✅ | Equivalent output | | Read user profile | ✅ | ✅ | Equivalent output | | Read canvas | ❌ | ✅ | Slack's public API does not support reading canvas content | | Send message draft | ❌ | ✅ | chat.draft is not available in the public Slack Web API |

The MCP returns all results as stringified text inside content[0].text. This package returns typed objects from execute and provides toModelOutput for model-friendly text formatting, making it easy to programmatically compose follow-up actions from tool results.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Support

For issues and questions:

• Check the AI SDK documentation
• Review the Slack Web API documentation
• Open an issue in this repository

License

MIT