MCP & Connectors

How do you connect Claude to Slack via MCP?

Last verified: July 2026 · 2 min read
QUICK ANSWER

To connect Claude to Slack via MCP, create a Slack App in your workspace API settings, configure Bot User OAuth Tokens with read/write permissions, install the app in your workspace, and set up the Slack MCP server in your Claude Desktop configuration.

Step-by-step Connection

  1. Go to Slack API Apps and click Create New App. Choose 'From scratch' and select your workspace.
  2. Navigate to OAuth & Permissions. Under Scopes, add scopes: channels:history, channels:read, chat:write, groups:read, im:history, im:read, users:read.
  3. Click Install to Workspace at the top of the page. Grant permissions and copy the Bot User OAuth Token (starts with xoxb-).
  4. Configure your local claude_desktop_config.json as follows: 
    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-yourSlackBotTokenHere"
      }
    }
  }
}
  5. Restart Claude Desktop. Invite your Slack Bot to the channel you want it to interact with (e.g. /invite @bot_name) to start querying.
Verified against: Slack MCP Server v1.0.0 ยท Slack API 2026

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