CommunicationArchived

Slack

Read channels, post messages, manage threads, and search conversations across your Slack workspace.

Overview

A Slack MCP server lets an AI assistant read channel history, post messages, reply in threads, add reactions, and look up users in your workspace. A typical use: "read the last two days of #support and summarise the recurring complaints", and the assistant pulls the real messages itself. The original reference server (@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack) was archived in 2025 and is no longer maintained. Today the realistic paths are Claude's built-in Slack connector (no setup beyond signing in, available on paid Claude plans) or a maintained community server such as korotovsky/slack-mcp-server.

Access depends on the route you pick. The connector uses OAuth, so it sees only what your own Slack account can see and you can disconnect it anytime. Self-hosted servers use a Slack app token whose scopes (like channels:read or chat:write) you choose when creating the app.

Instructions

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-slack

Prefer the built-in connector if you use ClaudeIn Claude's Settings under Connectors, connect Slack and sign in with OAuth. This is the maintained, lowest-friction option: no tokens to manage, and access mirrors what your own Slack account can already see.
Self-hosted: create a Slack app and tokenAt api.slack.com/apps, create an app for your workspace and grant bot scopes such as channels:history, channels:read, chat:write, and users:read. Install it to the workspace and copy the bot token (starts with xoxb-).
Add the server to your clientIn Claude Desktop's config, add an mcpServers entry running the community server via npx, with your token in env (the community server uses SLACK_MCP_XOXP_TOKEN or similar; the archived reference used SLACK_BOT_TOKEN and SLACK_TEAM_ID). Restart the app afterwards.
Run a read-only first testAsk: "List the channels you can see" then "Summarise the last 20 messages in #general." If channels are missing, the bot has not been invited to them. Type /invite @yourapp inside the channel in Slack.

Starter recipes

Real tasks you can ask an agent once this server is connected.

Morning channel digest

Ask for a summary of everything posted in #announcements and #support since yesterday evening, grouped by topic, with anything that mentions you or needs a decision flagged at the top.

Try

Draft and post an update

Have the assistant draft a project status message in your tone, show it to you for approval, then post it to #team-updates as a thread starter once you say yes.

Try

Find a past decision

Ask it to search channel history for the conversation where the team chose a launch date or vendor, and return the relevant messages with who said what and when.

Try

Install

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-slack

Archived: no longer maintained, no security updates (archive notice).

Runs on your computer. Your AI client starts it with npx when it needs it.

From the project README · checked 2 Oct 2026

Owner

modelcontextprotocol

github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers

Downloads

3.1M

npm · all time since Nov 2024 · as of 2 Oct 2026

Checked 2 Oct 2026

License

MIT

Archived reference server

Access

Access is limited to what the OAuth grant or Slack app scopes allow. A bot only sees channels it has been invited to. Reading history is separate from posting (chat:write), so you can run it read-only by simply not granting write scopes.

Slack

Starter recipes

Morning channel digest

Draft and post an update

Find a past decision

One AI recipe you can use.Every Monday.

One AI recipe you can use.
Every Monday.