Documentation Grafana Cloud Security and account management Connect your Slack workspace

Connect your Slack workspace to Grafana Cloud

Grafana Cloud gives engineers one place to understand what’s happening across their systems and resolve issues faster. When you connect your Slack workspace to Grafana Cloud, teams can interact with observability data, alerts, incident workflows, and AI-assisted insights without leaving Slack.

What is the Grafana Cloud app for Slack?

The Grafana Cloud app for Slack is a workspace application that integrates with your Grafana Cloud account to provide capabilities including Incident Response and Management (IRM), Grafana Assistant, dashboard previews, and more.

How much does the Grafana Cloud app for Slack cost?

The app is available on all Grafana Cloud plans, including the free tier. Installing or using the app doesn’t incur extra charges:

• Mentioning @Grafana in Slack to use the Grafana Assistant doesn’t count as active Assistant usage.
• If you’re an existing Grafana IRM user, there’s no additional cost to use the incident response and on-call features through Slack.

For more information about Grafana Cloud pricing, refer to the pricing page.

Key features and benefits

Integrating your Slack workspace brings observability and incident response into your team’s collaboration hub. Instead of switching between tools and contexts, your team can monitor systems, respond to alerts, manage incidents, and troubleshoot issues, all from the same Slack channels where you already communicate.

The Grafana Cloud app for Slack transforms how your team interacts with observability data and incident workflows:

• Stay informed in real time: Receive critical alerts and notifications directly in Slack channels, ensuring your team sees important events as they happen
• Ask questions in natural language: Use @Grafana to ask the Grafana Assistant to fetch dashboards, investigate issues, and surface insights based on your query
• Respond faster with slash commands and reactions: Use /grafana commands and emoji reactions to interact with Grafana IRM to manage incidents, escalate issues, and take actions
• Streamline on-call operations: Automatically receive shift change notifications and updates about on-call responsibilities
• Automate incident workflows: Automatically create dedicated Slack channels for each incident, so responders can focus and maintain a clear record of response activities
• Collaborate on incidents: Declare incidents, assign roles, track timelines, coordinate response efforts, and keep stakeholders informed in one place
• Rich previews for Grafana links: Share Grafana dashboard and panel links in Slack to display rendered previews, helping your team quickly visualize and discuss observability data

Before you begin

Before installing the Grafana Cloud app for Slack, ensure you have the following:

• An Admin role in your Grafana Cloud organization
• A Slack workspace Admin or Owner role
• Appropriate permissions in Grafana Cloud to install integrations

For more information, refer to Grafana Cloud user roles and permissions.

You don’t need to be an IRM user to install or use the Grafana Cloud app for Slack. However, IRM-specific features such as managing incidents and on-call workflows require Grafana IRM to be enabled on your stack and the appropriate IRM role and permissions in Grafana Cloud.

Install the Grafana Cloud app for Slack

The Grafana Cloud app for Slack is installed and managed from Grafana Cloud, enabling Slack notifications and collaboration features across your workflows.

For detailed information about required permissions, refer to the Permissions and scopes section.

Follow these steps to install the app:

1. Sign in to Grafana Cloud.
2. In Grafana Cloud, open the main menu and navigate to Alerts & IRM > IRM > Integrations.
3. Click the Apps tab and select Slack.
4. Click Install integration.
5. After being redirected to the Slack connection page, verify the Slack workspace is correct or Add another workspace.
6. If needed, provide your Slack workspace URL and sign in with your Slack credentials.
7. Follow the Slack prompts to review permissions and specify a default channel.
8. Click Allow to give Grafana Cloud permission to access your Slack workspace.
9. After installation, you’re redirected to the Grafana configuration screen where you can review settings, select a Slack channel for incident announcements, and specify a default notification channel.

The Grafana Cloud app for Slack is now available in your workspace. You can explore available /grafana slash commands or start interacting with Grafana Assistant by mentioning @Grafana in your Slack messages.

Reinstall the Grafana Cloud app for Slack

If you’re an existing user of the Grafana IRM app for Slack or participated in the Grafana Assistant Slack private preview, you must reinstall the integration to use the new Grafana Cloud app for Slack. New users don’t need to reinstall.

Reinstalling refreshes OAuth tokens and updates permissions without removing your existing configuration. Your Slack-related settings are preserved, including announcement channels, user connections, and schedules.

To reinstall the integration:

1. In Grafana Cloud, open the main menu and navigate to Alerts & IRM > IRM > Integrations.
2. Click the Apps tab and select Slack.
3. Click Reinstall.
4. After being redirected to the Slack connection page, verify your Slack workspace and review the permissions.
5. Follow the Slack prompts to authorize the updated permissions.
6. Click Install to complete the reinstallation.
7. You’re redirected back to the integrations page in Grafana Cloud.

Interact with the Grafana Assistant from Slack

You can use natural language to interact with the Grafana Assistant in Slack. The Assistant uses AI to understand your questions, synthesize telemetry data, and provide actionable insights.

Using AI is optional. AI is only used when you interact with the Grafana Assistant by mentioning @Grafana. You can use the Slack app without AI to manage incidents and on-call workflows (with appropriate IRM permissions) and use /grafana slash commands.

To communicate with the Assistant, mention @Grafana in any channel or direct message where the app is installed.

The Assistant can handle queries ranging from simple status checks to complex investigations.

Example:

text Copy

@Grafana Do we have any dashboards related to X?

This query searches for and links to relevant Grafana dashboards.

For more information about using Grafana Assistant from Slack, refer to Grafana Assistant Slack documentation.

Manage on-call and incident response from Slack

The Grafana Cloud app for Slack provides on-call management and incident response capabilities that keep your team coordinated and responsive.

After you connect your Slack workspace and link your Slack user profile to your Grafana Cloud account, you can configure and use these features.

Alert management and on-call notifications

Keep your team informed with automated alert notifications and on-call management:

• Alert notifications: Receive alerts in designated Slack channels so your team can take immediate action
• Escalation chains: Configure automated escalation workflows that route alerts to the right people or channels in Slack based on severity and timing
• User notification preferences: Set up personal notification rules so team members receive alerts via Slack mentions according to their preferences
• On-call shift management: Automatically receive notifications about shift changes, upcoming on-call responsibilities, and schedule updates

For configuration details, refer to the following IRM Slack documentation sections:

• Configure escalation chains with Slack notifications
• Configure user notification rules with Slack mentions
• Configure on-call shift notifications

Incident collaboration and management

When incidents occur, the Grafana Cloud app for Slack helps your team coordinate response efforts:

• Declare incidents: Create new incidents from Slack using slash commands
• Incident channels: Automatically create dedicated Slack channels for each incident, keeping all communication and context in one place
• Timeline tracking: Use emoji reactions to add messages to incident timelines, creating a clear record of response activities
• Role assignment: Assign incident roles (commander, lead, responder) and track who’s responsible for what
• Status updates: Post status updates and announcements to keep stakeholders informed throughout the incident lifecycle
• Incident announcements: Configure automatic announcements to specific channels when incidents are declared, filtered by type, severity, or labels

For configuration details, refer to the following IRM Slack documentation sections:

• Configure incident Slack channels
• Configure incident announcements
• Interact with incidents from Slack via slash commands

Take action using slash commands

The /grafana commands allow you to respond to alert groups and collaborate on incidents directly from Slack.

To use /grafana commands, you must be an IRM user with a linked Slack account and necessary permissions. To learn more, refer to Connect your Slack user to Grafana IRM.

The following commands can be used in any Slack channel:

For a detailed list of slash commands, refer to the Available commands for Slack section of the Grafana IRM documentation.

Rich previews for Grafana links

When you share Grafana dashboard or panel links in Slack, the Grafana Cloud app automatically unfurls them to display rich previews with rendered images. These previews help your team visualize and discuss observability data directly in Slack without switching context.

Rich previews appear automatically when you paste a supported Grafana link into a Slack channel where the Grafana Cloud app is installed. The following link types are supported:

• Dashboard links: Displays a rendered preview of the dashboard
• Panel links: Displays a rendered preview of a specific panel

Organization administrators can enable or disable rich previews for their Slack workspace. To learn more, refer to Enable or disable rich link previews.

Permissions and scopes

The Grafana Cloud app for Slack only requests permissions essential to its function. For more information on permission scopes, refer to the Slack documentation.

By granting access to the app, you authorize the following permissions in your Slack workspace:

Workspace and user access

Public channel access

Private channel access

Message and conversation access

Direct message access

Rate limiting

Slack enforces rate limits per channel and per organization. Grafana Cloud can be rate limited by Slack when posting a high volume of messages, typically during periods of high alert activity.

When rate limits are encountered:

• The affected integration is blocked from posting or updating messages for 5 minutes
• A message is posted to Slack to notify users of the block
• During the block, Grafana Cloud skips any message updates for that integration
• After 5 minutes, the integration is unblocked and can resume posting to Slack

Each alert source is tracked and rate-limited independently. If an alert source exceeds Slack’s rate limits, it enters its own 5-minute blocked period while other sources continue posting.

After 5 minutes, the affected alert source is unblocked and can resume posting. If it continues to exceed limits, it’s blocked again.

For example, if updates to alert groups are rate-limited, you’ll see a message similar to the following:

text Copy

Update Alert Groups in Slack, for integration xxxx, is temporarily rate-limited (due to a Slack rate-limit). Meanwhile, you can still find new Alert Groups in the Alert Groups UI.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with the Grafana Cloud app for Slack, try the following steps:

App not responding or commands not working

• Verify that the app is installed in your Slack workspace and that you have granted all required permissions
• Ensure your Slack user account is connected to your Grafana Cloud account
• Check that you have the necessary permissions in Grafana Cloud to use the features you’re trying to access
• Try disconnecting and reconnecting your Slack account from your Grafana Cloud profile

For more information about connecting your Slack profile, refer to the Grafana IRM integration for Slack documentation.

Not receiving notifications

• Verify that notification channels are properly configured in your Grafana Cloud settings
• Check that the Slack app has been added to the channels where you expect to receive notifications
• Ensure your Slack user account is linked to your Grafana Cloud account
• Review your notification preferences in Grafana Cloud

Rich previews not appearing for Grafana links

If rich previews aren’t rendering for Grafana dashboard and panel links:

• Verify the Grafana Cloud app is a member of the Slack channel where you’re sharing links
• Check that rich previews are enabled in your Slack integration settings by navigating to Alerts & IRM > IRM > Integrations > Apps > Slack
• Ensure the user who shared the link has permission to view the dashboard or panel in Grafana
• Confirm the link type is supported—dashboard and panel links are supported

To learn more, refer to Enable or disable rich link previews.

Installation issues

If you’re unable to install the app:

• Verify that you have Admin permissions in both Grafana Cloud and your Slack workspace
• Ensure you’re using a supported browser and that pop-up blockers are disabled
• Try clearing your browser cache and cookies, then attempt the installation again
• Contact Grafana Cloud Support if issues persist