OpenClaw Slack Setup: AI Agent for Teams 2026

About This Guide: This tutorial shows how to integrate OpenClaw with Slack, transforming your workspace into an AI-powered command center. Covers Slack app creation, bot tokens, Socket Mode vs. webhook configuration, and production deployment for enterprise teams. Estimated setup time: 25–40 minutes.

For teams that live in Slack, deploying OpenClaw as a Slack AI agent is a transformational productivity upgrade. Instead of individuals running separate personal AI agents, your whole team gets access to a shared AI assistant that knows your company's context, can perform real actions in your tools (GitHub, Jira, Notion, Google Workspace), and responds intelligently to requests in any Slack channel or DM.

In 2026, OpenClaw's Slack channel support has matured significantly. It now supports Socket Mode (no public URL needed), Slash Commands for quick actions, Scheduled Messages via cron, and multi-workspace deployment for agencies or holding companies. Whether you're a solo developer using Slack for project management or an enterprise team with 500+ users, this guide covers your use case.

We'll walk through creating a Slack App, configuring permissions, connecting it to your OpenClaw instance, and setting up the skills most useful for team environments — plus how VPN07 keeps your agent's network connections fast and reliable for global teams.

Why Slack is the Best OpenClaw Channel for Teams

Team-Wide Access

Unlike personal channels (iMessage, WhatsApp), Slack allows your entire team to interact with one OpenClaw agent from shared channels. One agent, one configuration, many users — with per-user authentication if needed.

Rich Integrations

Slack's ecosystem means your OpenClaw agent can receive notifications from GitHub, Jira, PagerDuty, and hundreds of other tools — then act on them intelligently through AI-powered workflows.

Scheduled Agent Tasks

OpenClaw can send proactive Slack messages on a schedule — daily standup summaries, weekly project reports, deployment notifications — without anyone needing to ask.

Searchable Conversation History

Every interaction with your OpenClaw agent in Slack is logged in Slack's searchable history. Your entire team can see what the agent did, review its reasoning, and learn from past interactions.

Prerequisites

OpenClaw installed on a server (Linux VPS or Mac recommended for 24/7)

Slack workspace where you have admin rights (or can request a new app)

An AI provider API key (Anthropic Claude or OpenAI GPT-4)

Node.js v22+ on your server

A public URL or Cloudflare Tunnel for incoming Slack events (optional with Socket Mode)

Step 1: Create a Slack App

1 Create App on Slack API Console

Go to api.slack.com/apps and click Create New App
Choose "From scratch"
App Name: OpenClaw AI (or your preferred agent name)
Workspace: Select your team's Slack workspace
Click Create App

2 Configure Bot Permissions (OAuth Scopes)

Go to OAuth & Permissions → Bot Token Scopes and add these scopes:

chat:write — Send messages

channels:history — Read channel messages

im:read — Read DMs to bot

im:write — Send DMs from bot

app_mentions:read — Detect @mentions

channels:read — List channels

files:write — Upload files

reactions:write — Add emoji reactions

3 Enable Socket Mode (Recommended — No Public URL Needed)

Go to Socket Mode in the sidebar and toggle it on. This allows your OpenClaw instance to receive Slack events via WebSocket — no need to expose your server to the internet with a public URL.

Click Generate App-Level Token, name it openclaw-socket, add the connections:write scope, and copy the token (starts with xapp-).

4 Enable Event Subscriptions

Go to Event Subscriptions and subscribe to these Bot Events:

message.channels — Messages in channels bot belongs to

message.im — Direct messages to bot

app_mention — @mentions of the bot

5 Install App to Workspace & Get Tokens

Go to Install App → Install to Workspace. After authorization, copy both tokens:

Bot User OAuth Token: Starts with xoxb- — this is your bot token

App-Level Token: Starts with xapp- — this is for Socket Mode

Step 2: Configure OpenClaw for Slack

Install OpenClaw on your server and run the onboarding wizard, selecting Slack as your channel:

# Install OpenClaw on your server
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

# Run onboarding
openclaw onboard --install-daemon

# When prompted:
# > Select messaging channel: Slack
# > Bot User OAuth Token: xoxb-your-token-here
# > App-Level Token (Socket Mode): xapp-your-token-here
# > AI Provider: Claude / GPT-4
# > API Key: your-ai-api-key

Or manually edit the config file for more control:

{
  "channels": {
    "slack": {
      "enabled": true,
      "botToken": "xoxb-your-bot-token",
      "appToken": "xapp-your-app-level-token",
      "socketMode": true,
      "triggerOnMention": true,
      "triggerOnDM": true,
      "allowedChannels": ["#ai-assistant", "#general"],
      "adminUsers": ["U0123456789"],
      "respondWithThread": true
    }
  }
}

respondWithThread: true is Best Practice

Set respondWithThread: true to have OpenClaw reply in message threads rather than directly in the channel. This keeps channels clean — each conversation with the AI stays in its own thread, visible to the whole team but not cluttering the main feed.

Step 3: Add Your Agent to Slack Channels

In your Slack workspace, invite your OpenClaw bot to the channels where you want it active:

# In any Slack channel, type:
/invite @OpenClaw AI

# Test immediately:
@OpenClaw AI what can you do?
@OpenClaw AI summarize the last 20 messages in this channel
@OpenClaw AI check our GitHub repo for open PRs

Recommended Channel Setup for Teams

#ai-assistant— Dedicated channel for open AI chat and experimentation

#ops— Agent monitors deploys, server alerts, responds to on-call pings

#standup— Agent sends daily standup prompts and collects responses

#random— Agent participates in casual conversation (great for team morale)

Enterprise Features: Multi-User & Access Control

Per-User Authentication

For sensitive tasks, OpenClaw can require individual users to authenticate before taking actions on their behalf. Each team member DMs the agent: @OpenClaw AI /auth to set up their personal API credentials for tools like GitHub, Google Calendar, etc.

Role-Based Command Restrictions

# In config, restrict sensitive commands to admins only
{
  "slack": {
    "commandRestrictions": {
      "deploy": ["U0123456789", "U9876543210"],  // only admins
      "readFiles": ["*"],                          // everyone
      "sendEmail": ["U0123456789"]                 // only admin
    }
  }
}

Slash Commands for Quick Actions

Add custom Slash Commands in your Slack App settings to give team members one-click access to common tasks:

/standup — Post your daily standup to the standup channel

/summarize — Summarize the last N messages in current channel

/deploy staging — Trigger a staging deployment via OpenClaw

/ticket [description] — Create a Jira ticket from Slack

Production Deployment for Enterprise Teams

For enterprise-grade reliability, run OpenClaw as a systemd service on a Linux server:

# Create systemd service file
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/openclaw.service

[Unit]
Description=OpenClaw AI Agent
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=openclaw
WorkingDirectory=/home/openclaw
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/openclaw gateway
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
Environment="NODE_ENV=production"
Environment="ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key-here"
Environment="SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-your-token"
Environment="SLACK_APP_TOKEN=xapp-your-token"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# Enable and start
sudo systemctl enable openclaw
sudo systemctl start openclaw
sudo systemctl status openclaw

Critical: Network Reliability for Enterprise Teams

Enterprise teams depend on their OpenClaw Slack agent for time-sensitive tasks. A slow or unreliable connection to Anthropic's API creates visible latency in Slack — users see the "thinking..." indicator for too long. Running the server through VPN07's 1000Mbps network ensures API call latency stays under 300ms globally, making your AI agent feel instant for teams distributed across multiple timezones.

Real-World Use Cases: What Teams Actually Do with OpenClaw in Slack

🛠️ Engineering Team

• "@OpenClaw AI, what PRs need review?" — queries GitHub
• "@OpenClaw AI, why did the deploy fail?" — reads CI logs
• "@OpenClaw AI, create a ticket for this bug" — creates Jira issue
• Auto-posts deployment summaries after each release

📊 Marketing Team

• "@OpenClaw AI, draft a tweet about our new feature"
• "@OpenClaw AI, what's our blog post schedule this week?"
• Daily competitive intel briefings posted to #marketing
• Auto-generates weekly analytics reports from GA4

👥 HR & Operations

• Onboarding reminders for new employees
• "@OpenClaw AI, who has PTO this week?"
• Automated standup collection every morning
• Meeting agenda drafting from calendar context

💼 Sales Team

• "@OpenClaw AI, research this prospect company"
• Auto-summarizes CRM notes before customer calls
• Drafts follow-up emails from meeting transcripts
• Daily pipeline summary posted to #sales

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OpenClaw Slack Setup: Deploy Your AI Agent for Teams & Enterprise in 2026