Building with Slack’s platform allows you to connect your workspace with the tools, data sources, and processes that make your organization run smoothly.
What can you build?
Apps can either be internal — you design and build them just for your company to use — or external — you build and distribute something other companies can use in their workspaces. Read on for a few example use cases, an overview of the features and tools, and where to get started.
Example use cases
The best apps for your workspace will depend on the tools and processes that matter to your team. To get inspired, you might ask yourself the following questions:
Do any tools generate alerts or notifications that require the attention of a group of people? You can automatically send alerts to a Slack channel to notify the right people all at once.
Do you switch between programs all day long to find the information you’re looking for? You can build a custom app that pulls data into your workspace to tie related data together and initiate complex cross-system workflows — with the added benefit of using Slack’s built-in search.
You can customize the way end users interact with your app using our suite of building blocks. Below, you’ll find examples of the features you can build into your app and tools we provide to make developing and managing your app as simple as possible.
Features
Tools
Functions Functions are preset blocks of code that take certain actions. People can add functions you build to workflows they create with Workflow Builder.*
Workflows Workflows are comprised of functions executed in a specific order. Apps can include pre-built workflows for anyone in your workspace to use.
Triggers Triggers determine how (for example, with the click of a button or automatically based on a schedule) and where (in Slack or in another service) a workflow starts.
Slack CLI Use the Slack CLI (command line interface) to build the framework for a new app with a TypeScript SDK, then easily deploy your app to Slack’s infrastructure.
App manifests Use an app manifest to quickly set up, develop and manage your app.
App deployment and data storage Deploy your app and store its data on Slack’s infrastructure to keep all of the components in one place and automatically comply with our security and compliance standards.
