Slack Setup Guide
Add your AI assistant to your Slack workspace as a fully functional bot. You will create a Slack App, configure the right permissions, install it to your workspace, and connect it to your FixedCostAgents assistant. Your AI assistant will be able to respond to direct messages and mentions in channels.
What you'll need
- Admin access to a Slack workspace
- A FixedCostAgents account (Premium or Pro tier)
Step-by-step instructions
Create a new Slack App
Go to api.slack.com/apps and click “Create New App”.
Choose “From scratch”. Give the app a name (e.g., your AI assistant's name, like “Rose”) and select the workspace you want to install it to.
Configure bot permissions (OAuth Scopes)
In your app's settings, go to OAuth & Permissions in the left sidebar.
Scroll down to “Bot Token Scopes” and add these scopes:
chat:writeSend messages as the botapp_mentions:readRead messages that mention the botim:historyRead direct message historyim:readView direct messagesim:writeSend direct messagesInstall the app to your workspace
Scroll back to the top of the OAuth & Permissions page and click “Install to Workspace”.
Slack will ask you to authorize the permissions. Click “Allow”.
Copy the Bot User OAuth Token
After installation, you will see a Bot User OAuth Token on the same page. It starts with xoxb-.
Copy this token. You will paste it into the FixedCostAgents portal.
Enable Socket Mode and create an app-level token
Go to Socket Mode in the left sidebar and toggle “Enable Socket Mode” on. Slack will prompt you to create an app-level token — give it a name (e.g. “assistant-connection”) and the connections:write scope, then click Generate.
Copy this xapp- token. With Socket Mode, your AI assistant connects OUT to Slack — there are no webhook URLs to configure and nothing to expose to the internet.
xoxb-...) lets your AI assistant act in your workspace. The app-level token (xapp-...) opens the Socket Mode connection that delivers messages to it. Both are entered in the FixedCostAgents portal.Add credentials to the FixedCostAgents portal
Log into your FixedCostAgents portal and navigate to:
My Assistants → [your AI assistant] → Integrations (the plug icon)
In the Slack section, enter:
- Bot token — the
xoxb-token from Step 4 - App-level token — the
xapp-token from Step 5
Click Apply changes. The portal verifies both tokens with Slack before saving (including that Socket Mode is actually enabled), then restarts your assistant to pick up the new channel — usually under 2 minutes, with progress shown on the page.
Subscribe to bot events
Back in the Slack App settings, go to Event Subscriptions in the left sidebar. Toggle it On. With Socket Mode enabled there is no Request URL to fill in — events are delivered over your assistant's own connection.
Under “Subscribe to bot events”, add:
message.imDirect messages to the botapp_mentionMessages that @mention the botClick “Save Changes”.
Test the connection
In Slack, find your bot in the direct messages sidebar (or search for it). Send a message like “Hi, what can you do?”
Your AI assistant should respond within a few seconds. You can also @mention the bot in any channel it has been invited to.
Common issues
- The bot must be invited to a channel before it can see messages there. Type
/invite @YourBotNamein the channel. - In channels, the bot only responds to @mentions (not all messages). Send
@YourBotName your message here.
- Make sure your AI assistant is running (check status in the portal dashboard) and that the restart after Apply changes has finished.
- Confirm Socket Mode is toggled ON in the Slack app settings and the app-level token carries the
connections:writescope — the portal checks this at connect time, but a token regenerated later can drift. - If you regenerated either token in Slack, use Replace credentials on the Integrations page — stored tokens are never shown, so re-entering them is the way to be sure.
What to do next
Follow the First Week checklist — start building a working relationship with your AI assistant through Slack DMs.
Connect a mobile platform (Telegram or Telegram) so you can reach your AI assistant from your phone.
Set up email integration so your AI assistant can send and monitor emails.
Your Slack credentials are encrypted at rest and stored securely, and are never displayed back once saved. Messages arrive over an authenticated Socket Mode connection your assistant opens to Slack — nothing is exposed to the public internet. Your AI assistant only responds to authorized users.
Stuck? Reach out at support@fixedcostagents.com or join our Discord community.
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