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Slack Application in Collate

Integrate Collate with Slack to enhance data collaboration and streamline team workflows. This integration enables real-time notifications, in-Slack search and sharing of metadata assets, and message interactions—all within your existing Slack workspace.
Tip: Looking to send alerts to Slack instead? This page covers the interactive Collate AI assistant (search, ask questions, take actions from Slack). For one-way alert notifications — data quality failures, pipeline status, and similar events posted via webhook — see Slack Alerts Configuration.

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Overview

The Slack application connects your Slack workspace with Collate, enabling seamless communication and metadata access:
  • Real-Time Notifications: Receive instant alerts, mentions, and updates directly in Slack.
  • Metadata Search: Quickly search for glossaries, terms, tags, and tables within Slack.
  • Asset Sharing: Share Collate assets effortlessly with your team from Slack.
  • Enhanced Productivity: Stay informed and connected without leaving your workspace.

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Slack Runs the Full Collate AI Agent

The Collate AI assistant in Slack isn’t a limited, separate bot — it’s the native Slack Agents & AI Apps assistant, running the same agent that powers Collate AI on the web.
  • It takes action, not just answers questions: create a glossary term, update entity metadata, open a data access request, or trigger an automation directly from a Slack conversation.
  • It streams responses: answers appear incrementally as the agent generates them, with a status indicator while it works.
  • It’s channel- and file-aware: ask questions in the context of a specific channel, or attach a file for the agent to reference.
  • Every run is user-prompted: the agent responds to what you ask — it doesn’t decide on its own to check something and post proactively. Autonomous, scheduled checks are a separate automations feature, not part of Slack chat.

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Key Capabilities

  • Search Entities: Use Slack to search glossaries, terms, tags, and tables — or use /find to search across all entity types, and /asset to fetch and share a specific entity by name or fully qualified name.
  • Take Action: Create glossary terms, update entity metadata, open data access requests, or trigger automations without leaving Slack.
  • Assistant Panel: Open Collate AI from Slack’s Home tab for a dedicated chat panel with suggested prompts, conversation history, and streamed answers — in addition to @mentions and direct messages.
  • Rich Responses: Answers come back as formatted cards with rendered chart images where relevant, not just plain text and tables.
  • Interactive Actions: Share an answer to a channel, view lineage/tests/incidents inline, and give a thumbs up or down on a response.
  • File Upload as Context: Attach a file to a question for the agent to reference while answering.
  • Notifications: Get notified when someone mentions @<Bot-Name>, or when updates occur in your data workspace.
Note: Workspace limit: Collate supports one Slack workspace per Collate instance. Multi-workspace installs aren’t available yet.Cost: Slack conversations draw from the same AI credit budget as Collate AI on the web — see Billing and AI Credits for details.

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Using Collate in Slack

Once the app is installed, users need to invite it to their channel before they can interact with it.

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Step 1: Invite the App to a Channel

There are two ways to invite the Collate AI Chat app to a channel: Option A: From channel settings:
  1. Open the channel in Slack.
  2. Click the channel name at the top to open Channel Settings.
  3. Go to the Integrations tab > Add an App.
  4. Search for your Collate AI Chat app and click Add.
Option B: Via slash command: In any channel, type:
Replace @Collate AI with the name you gave your Slack app during setup.

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Step 2: Start Asking Questions

Once the app is in your channel, mention it with a natural language query:
Collate AI will respond directly in the channel with relevant metadata from your data platform.
Tip: You can also interact with the Collate AI Chat app in Direct Messages: no channel invite needed.

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Authorizations

When connected, Collate will have the following permissions in Slack:
  • View and respond to messages that mention @<Bot-Name>.
  • Access content in public channels where Collate is added.
  • Join public channels and view their basic information.
  • Access content in direct messages and group direct messages.
  • View user profiles in the workspace.
  • Send messages as @<Bot-Name>, including to channels it’s not a member of.
  • Post messages to designated Slack channels.

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Slack App Configuration

To enable Slack integration in Collate:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Applications > Add Apps. Configuration
  2. Search for Slack and install the application. Configuration

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Configuration Fields

  • Client ID: Identifies your Slack app. Required to initiate OAuth flows.
  • Client Secret: Authenticates OAuth requests made by your app.
  • Signing Secret: Verifies that incoming requests originate from Slack.
  • User Token: Authenticates Slack API requests on behalf of a user (starts with xoxp-).
  • Bot Token: Authenticates Slack API requests on behalf of the bot (starts with xoxb-).
Configuration
Tip: Store all five credentials securely. Enter them in Collate via Settings > Applications > Slack Application: do not share tokens directly.

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How to Obtain Slack Credentials

To integrate Slack with Collate, you need to generate a Bot Token, User Token, Client ID, Client Secret, and Signing Secret from your Slack workspace.

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Create a Slack App

  1. Go to the Slack API: Your Apps page.
  2. Click Create New App. Configuration
  3. Click From scratch. Configuration
  4. Enter the App Name (e.g., Collate AI) and choose your Slack workspace.
  5. Click Create App. Configuration
  6. After your app is created, you’ll be redirected to the Basic Information page under Settings. Here, you’ll find the following important credentials:
  • Client ID – Used to identify your app.
  • Client Secret – Used for authenticating requests made from your app.
  • Signing Secret – Used to verify that incoming requests (e.g., from Slack) are genuinely from Slack. Click Show next to each secret to view the values. You can regenerate them using the Regenerate button if needed. Once you have all credentials, enter them in Collate via Settings > Applications.
Make sure to store these securely, as you’ll need them to configure OAuth and validate request signatures later. Basic Information page

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Configure OAuth & Permissions

  1. In your app’s dashboard, navigate to OAuth & Permissions. Configuration
  2. Under Scopes, configure the following: Configuration

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For Bot Token Scopes:

Add these scopes:
  • app_mentions:read
  • assistant:write — required for the Collate AI assistant panel (streaming, suggested prompts)
  • channels:read
  • chat:write
  • commands — required for /find and /asset
  • files:read
  • files:write — required for chart images and file upload as context
  • groups:read
  • im:history
  • im:read
  • im:write
  • mpim:history
  • mpim:read
  • users:read
  • users:read.email

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For User Token Scopes:

Add these scopes:
  • channels:history
  • groups:history
  • im:history
  • mpim:history
Tip: Only add the scopes you need. Ensure your Slack workspace allows user token generation (may require admin privileges).

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Configure Redirect URLs

Before installing the app to your workspace, configure the redirect URLs to ensure successful OAuth authentication:
  1. In the left-hand menu, go to OAuth & Permissions.
  2. Scroll down to the Redirect URLs section.
  3. Click Add New Redirect URL and enter the redirect URL (e.g., https://&lt;your-instance-url&gt;.getcollate.io/api/slack/callback).
  4. Click Save URLs to apply the changes.
The redirect URL must exactly match the URL used in your OAuth request. This ensures Slack can return the authorization code to your backend after the user grants permissions. Configure Redirect URLs

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Configure Event Subscriptions

After setting the necessary OAuth scopes, follow the steps below to configure Event Subscriptions:
  1. In the left-hand menu under Features, click on Event Subscriptions.
  2. Toggle the Enable Events switch to On. Enable Events
  3. In the Request URL field, enter your app’s endpoint (e.g., https://&lt;your-instance-url&gt;.getcollate.io/api/slack/events).
    • Slack will send a verification request containing a challenge parameter.
    • Ensure your endpoint responds with the challenge value to confirm validation.
  4. Scroll down to the Subscribe to bot events section and click Add Bot User Event. Subscribe to bot events
  • Add the following events (ensure corresponding scopes are already granted under OAuth permissions):
    • app_home_opened – Triggered when a user clicks into your App Home (no additional scope needed).
    • app_mention – Subscribes to messages that mention your app or bot (app_mentions:read scope required).
    • message.im – Subscribes to messages in direct message channels (im:history scope required).
    • message.mpim – Subscribes to messages in multi-party direct message channels (mpim:history scope required).
    • assistant_thread_started – Triggered when a user opens the Collate AI assistant panel (assistant:write scope required).
    • assistant_thread_context_changed – Triggered when a user switches channels inside an open assistant thread (assistant:write scope required).
  1. (Optional) Under Subscribe to events on behalf of users, click Add Workspace Event and select:
    • message.im – Subscribes to messages posted in a direct message channel on behalf of users (im:history scope required).
Slack automatically adds the necessary scopes for any subscribed events if not already included. Subscribe to events on behalf of users

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Install the App to Workspace

  1. Still in OAuth & Permissions, click Install to install App to your Workspace. Configuration
  2. Authorize the permissions requested by the app.
After installation, you’ll be redirected to the OAuth screen where your tokens will be displayed.

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Copy the Tokens

  • Bot User OAuth Token: Starts with xoxb-...
  • User OAuth Token: Starts with xoxp-...
Store these tokens securely and provide them in the Slack app configuration within Collate.
Tip:
  • Never expose your tokens publicly.
  • Rotate tokens periodically.
  • Use Slack’s token rotation policy for better security.

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Test the Integration

  1. Open the Collate AI assistant panel from Slack’s Home tab, or DM the app directly.
  2. Confirm you see a greeting and a set of suggested prompts.
  3. Ask a question, for example: What tables do we have in our sales database?
  4. Confirm the response streams in with a status indicator, and that any resulting card includes a working Open in Collate link.
  5. In a channel, invite the app and mention it: @Collate AI what dashboards do we have? — confirm it responds in a thread.
  6. Try the slash commands: /find <entity name> and /asset <name or ID>.
  7. Attach a small file (for example, a CSV) to a question and confirm the assistant references it in its answer.

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Troubleshooting

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Security Considerations

  • Credential Storage: Client Secret, Signing Secret, Bot Token, and User Token are stored encrypted in Collate — never share them outside the Slack Application configuration screen.
  • Least-Privilege Scopes: Only grant the scopes listed in this guide; avoid adding broader scopes than the integration needs.
  • HTTPS Required: The Event Subscriptions request URL and OAuth redirect URL must both use HTTPS.
  • Token Rotation: Rotate the Bot Token, User Token, and Signing Secret periodically, and immediately if you suspect a leak.
  • Single Workspace Scope: Because one Collate instance connects to one Slack workspace, switching workspaces requires reconfiguring the app rather than adding a second connection.
For more information, refer to the Slack API documentation.