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Slack integration

Note

Slack integration is currently in public preview. Grafana Labs offers limited support, and breaking changes might occur prior to the feature being made generally available.

The Slack integration connects your Slack workspace to Grafana Assistant. You can interact with Assistant directly in Slack channels, ask questions about your observability data, build queries, and get insights without leaving Slack.

What you’ll achieve

  • Connect your Slack workspace to Grafana Cloud.
  • Ask questions about metrics and logs from Slack channels.
  • Investigate incidents and find dashboards using natural language.

Before you begin

To install the Assistant app for Slack, you must:

  • have an admin role in Grafana Cloud
  • be a member of your Slack workspace

After you add the Assistant app to your Slack workspace, all users in your Grafana Cloud stack can interact with Assistant in Slack.

Install the integration

  1. In Grafana Cloud, navigate to Assistant > Settings, click the Slack tab, and click Connect with Slack.
  2. When Slack opens, verify the workspace or sign in to the correct one.
  3. Review the permissions.
    • Admins: Click Install Grafana to grant access.
    • Non-admins: Enter a reason and click Submit Request. An admin must approve the request.

Note

Currently, you can only connect one Grafana Cloud stack to one Slack workspace. Multi-stack support will be available at a later date. You cannot connect multiple Slack workspaces to a single Grafana Cloud stack.

Link your Slack account to your Grafana user to let Assistant identify you.

  1. In Slack, open a direct message with the @grafana_preview bot.
  2. Send the message setup.
  3. Click the link provided, sign in to Grafana Cloud if prompted, and click Confirm Setup.

Access and permissions

Grafana Assistant in Slack follows your linked Grafana User email’s permissions. This mean a request issue by a user will adhere to the Grafana stack permissions setup for that user.

When multiple users mention @grafana in a threaded conversation, each individual request will always use the permission that user has.

Use Assistant

After you install the integration, you can interact with Assistant in any Slack channel. Mention the Assistant bot to ask a question, and it responds in a thread to keep the conversation organized. You can also interact with the Assistant privately via direct messaging.

Query your data

Ask questions about your metrics and logs using natural language. Assistant interprets your request and returns relevant visualizations.

@grafana show me CPU usage for the last hour

Find dashboards

Locate existing dashboards relevant to your query without searching through folders.

@grafana what dashboards do we have for database monitoring?

Investigate incidents

Ask Assistant to analyze spikes or anomalies to help uncover root causes.

@grafana what’s causing the high latency?

Build query syntax

Get assistance with writing PromQL, LogQL, or TraceQL queries.

@grafana help me build a query for error rates

Manage channel settings

Configure filters that apply to every query in a specific channel.

To view the current channel settings:

@grafana settings

To set filters (for example, for a production environment):

@grafana settings set namespace=production env=prod

To reset channel settings to the defaults:

@grafana settings reset

Manage team settings

Workspace admins can set global defaults that apply to all channels in the workspace.

@grafana team settings

Permissions

The Assistant app for Slack only requests permissions that are essential to its function and integration with Slack.

Workspace and user access

Assistant requires these permissions to identify your workspace and match Grafana accounts:

PermissionDescriptionPurpose
team:readView the workspace name, email domain, and iconAssistant identifies your workspace and establishes an association
users:readView people in a workspaceAssistant finds users by email and helps match Grafana accounts to your workspace
users.profile:readView profile details about people in a workspaceAssistant fetches profile data, such as Slack handles and avatars

Public channel access

Assistant requires these permissions to interact with public channels:

PermissionDescriptionPurpose
channels:readView basic information about public channelsAssistant identifies channels to provide context-aware responses
channels:historyView messages and other content in public channels that Assistant has been added toAssistant retrieves message content and thread history for conversation context
chat:writePost messages in approved channels and conversationsAssistant posts responses to Slack
chat:write.publicSend messages to channels Assistant isn’t a member ofAssistant posts responses to Slack even when not a channel member

Private channel access

Assistant requires these permissions to interact with private channels:

PermissionDescriptionPurpose
groups:readView basic information about private channels that Assistant has been added toAssistant identifies private channels to provide context-aware responses
groups:historyList messages from private channelsAssistant retrieves message content and thread history for conversation context in private channels

Message and conversation access

Assistant requires these permissions to monitor and respond to messages:

PermissionDescriptionPurpose
reactions:readView emoji reactions and their associated content in channels and conversations that Assistant has been added toAssistant monitors message events
reactions:writeAdd and edit emoji reactionsAssistant indicates processing status, for example, hourglass while processing or checkmark when complete
im:writeStart direct messages with peopleAssistant sends direct messages to users when needed

Usage limits

Assistant is subject to usage limits from both Slack and internal policies.

Slack rate limits

Slack can rate limit Assistant when processing a high volume of requests. This typically happens during periods of frequent usage.

Slack enforces rate limits per channel and per organization.

When Assistant hits a rate limit:

  • The affected channel may experience delayed responses
  • Assistant may post a message to Slack to notify users of the limitation
  • During the limit, Assistant may skip processing some requests

After the rate limit period expires, Assistant resumes normal operation.

Internal usage limits

Assistant Slack App has internal usage limits that help ensure fair usage across all users. During the public preview, all Slack usage remains free and will not attribute to Grafana Assistant billing and limits. Slack only users are not considered active Assistant users and Slack interactions are not considered Grafana Assistant usage.