Slack Destination Config Reference

Slack is a business messaging destination. RudderStack turns identify and track events into messages and posts them to Slack channels through incoming webhooks, from its servers.

In a Slack destination spec:

• type: slack
• definition_version: 1

Sample configuration

version: rudder/v1
kind: destination
metadata:
  name: slack-prod
spec:
  id: slack-prod
  display_name: Slack Production
  type: slack
  definition_version: 1
  enabled: true
  config:
    webhook_url: "{{ .SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}"

    incoming_webhooks_type: modern
    event_channel_settings:
      - name: Order Completed
        webhook: "{{ .SLACK_ORDERS_WEBHOOK_URL }}"
        regex: false
      - name: "^Trial (Started|Ended)$"
        webhook: "{{ .SLACK_GROWTH_WEBHOOK_URL }}"
        regex: true

    identify_template: "Identified {{name}}{{newline}}Plan: {{plan}}"
    event_template_settings:
      - name: Order Completed
        template: "{{name}} completed an order worth {{revenue}}"
        regex: false

    whitelisted_trait_settings:
      - email
      - plan
    deny_list_of_events:
      - Heartbeat

    connection_mode:
      web: cloud
      cloud: cloud
    consent_management:
      web:
        - provider: oneTrust
          consents:
            - analytics

The above example sets incoming_webhooks_type to modern, so each channel entry carries its own webhook instead of a channel name — see Channel routing. The webhook URLs are secrets, written as {{ .VAR }} references — see Secrets.

Config keys

config accepts only the keys listed below. The shared config key rules cover unknown keys, defaults, and immutability.

Slack accepts only identify and track events. RudderStack doesn’t deliver any other event type to it.

Connection

Channel routing

event_channel_settings sends track events to channels other than the one webhook_url posts to, and incoming_webhooks_type decides how. identify messages always go to webhook_url.

incoming_webhooks_type: legacy
event_channel_settings:
  - name: Order Completed
    channel: "#orders"
  - name: "^Trial (Started|Ended)$"
    channel: "#growth"
    regex: true

Message templates

Both template keys take Handlebars expressions. Write each template in quotes: an unquoted value starting with { isn’t read as a string in YAML. Rudder CLI substitutes only {{ .VAR }} references, which start with a dot, so {{name}} reaches Slack as written.

A template can use:

identify_template: "Identified {{name}}{{newline}}Plan: {{plan}}"

event_template_settings:
  - name: Order Completed
    template: "{{name}} completed an order worth {{revenue}}"

Filtering

whitelisted_trait_settings:
  - email
  - plan

Per-source keys

Both keys are objects keyed by the local source type — the tokens listed under Source types. A key naming a source type this destination doesn’t support fails validation.

connection_mode:
  web: cloud
  cloud: cloud

Source types

Slack accepts events from these source types in the mentioned connection modes:

Every source type is cloud only — RudderStack posts to Slack from its servers, never in device mode.

warehouse is the token a Reverse ETL source resolves to. Rudder CLI manages the destination’s warehouse entry — if the destination is connected to a Reverse ETL source, set connection_mode.warehouse: cloud in its spec, or apply removes it.

Rudder CLI can also declare the Reverse ETL connection itself, for the types listed under Supported destinations — see Manage Reverse ETL Connections using Rudder CLI.

The dashboard additionally offers Slack to AMP and Shopify sources. Rudder CLI doesn’t manage those connections, so amp and shopify are invalid here.

Connect a source

An event stream connection to this destination is checked against two rules at validate time.

The source’s type must be supported. A source’s type resolves to one of the tokens above before the check — a JavaScript source resolves to web, and webhook and server-side SDK sources resolve to cloud. Every type an event stream source can resolve to is supported here, so this check always passes.

The destination config must carry a connection_mode entry for that source type. This lives on the destination spec, not on the connection spec. Without it:

destination 'slack-prod' config has no 'connection_mode' entry for source type 'web'

Slack needs no additional config keys to connect a source of any type.

Secrets

webhook_url and each event_channel_settings entry’s webhook are the secret keys. Write each one you use as a {{ .VAR }} reference and supply the value at apply time:

config:
  webhook_url: "{{ .SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}"
  event_channel_settings:
    - name: Order Completed
      webhook: "{{ .SLACK_ORDERS_WEBHOOK_URL }}"

export RUDDER_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL="..."
export RUDDER_SLACK_ORDERS_WEBHOOK_URL="..."
rudder-cli apply

# or
rudder-cli apply --var-file secrets.vars.yaml

Note that:

• rudder-cli import writes only the secrets the API returns, as {{ .VAR }} references, and leaves the others out. Add any secret key it leaves out, then supply the variables before you apply — see Secrets.
• Each substituted value is validated like a literal, so a webhook URL still has to meet the webhook_url limits.

See How to Use Variable Substitution in Rudder CLI.

Changes by release

No changes since this type became available.

For changes across every destination type, see Destination Type Changes by Release.

See more

• Slack Destination for incoming webhook setup, Handlebars expressions, and message examples
• Destination Type Reference for Rudder CLI for the rules shared across destination types
• Destination YAML Reference for the spec envelope