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How to Configure Slack for OpenClaw

Complete guide to Slack integration for OpenClaw: Slack app setup, Socket Mode, event subscriptions, bot permissions, and OpenClaw gateway configuration to send and receive Slack messages.

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OpenClaw can integrate with Slack to send and receive messages, react to updates, pin important notes, and automate workflows. This turns OpenClaw into a Slack bot or listener.
Follow the steps below or watch the full video tutorial.

Video Walkthrough

Video preview

Prerequisites

  • A Slack workspace (free tier works)
  • Admin access to create and install apps (or ask your workspace admin)
  • OpenClaw installed and running
  • Basic CLI familiarity (we’ll use openclaw commands)

Step 1: Create a Slack app

  1. Go to api.slack.com/apps and sign in.
  1. Click Create New App → From scratch.
  1. Name it something like OpenClaw Bot and select your workspace.
  1. Click Create App.

Step 2: Enable Socket Mode

OpenClaw typically connects to Slack using Socket Mode, which avoids needing a public webhook server.
  1. In your Slack app dashboard, open Socket Mode.
  1. Turn Enable Socket Mode ON.
  1. Go to Basic Information.
  1. Scroll to App-Level Tokens.
  1. Click Generate Token and Scopes.
  1. Enter a Token Name.
  1. Add the scope connections:write.
You’ll receive an App Token that looks like xapp-.... Save it.

Step 3: Configure bot permissions (OAuth scopes)

In your Slack app, go to OAuth & Permissions → Bot Token Scopes and add:
  • chat:write (send messages)
  • app_mentions:read (read mentions)
  • channels:read (access channels)
  • reactions:write (add emoji reactions)
  • pins:write (pin/unpin messages)
  • im:write (DM users)
  • users:read (member info)
  • im:history (respond in direct messages)
Optional:
  • files:write (attachments)
  • search:read (search messages/conten)

Step 4: Install the app to your workspace

  1. Go to OAuth & Permissions.
  1. Click Install App to Workspace.
  1. Approve the permissions.
After installation, you’ll receive a Bot User OAuth Token that looks like xoxb-.... Save it.

Step 5: Subscribe to events

In your Slack app, go to Event Subscriptions:
  1. Enable events.
  1. Under Subscribe to bot events, add the events you want the bot to receive.
Common choices:
  • app_mention
  • message.channels
  • message.groups
  • message.im
  • message.mpim
  • reaction_added
  • reaction_removed
  • pin_added
  • pin_removed
  • member_joined_channel
  • member_left_channel
  • channel_rename
Also enable App Home → Messages Tab for DMs, and check Allow users to send Slash commands and messages from the messages tab.

Step 6: Configure OpenClaw

Add the Slack tokens to your instance configuration.
  1. Go to the Agent37 dashboard.
  1. Create an instance (or open an existing one).
  1. Open Terminal.
  1. Edit your OpenClaw config (~/.openclaw/config.json—create if missing):
{
  "channels": {
    "slack": {
      "enabled": true,
      "appToken": "xapp-your-app-token",
      "botToken": "xoxb-your-bot-token"
    }
  }
}
Alternatively, set the values via CLI:
openclaw config set channels.slack.appToken "xapp-your-app-token"
openclaw config set channels.slack.botToken "xoxb-your-bot-token"

Step 7: Start the OpenClaw gateway

openclaw gateway start

Step 8: Test the integration

  1. In Slack, open a DM with the OpenClaw Bot.
  1. Send Hello.
  1. If set up correctly, the bot should reply with a pairing code.
  1. In the instance terminal, execute the below command with pairing code.
openclaw pairing approve slack <code>
Once approved, that Slack DM is authorized and the bot will respond normally.