Slack administration: Manage Workflow Builder access and features

Who can use this feature?
  • Workspace Owners/Admins and Org Owners/Admins
  • Available on paid plans

Workflow Builder offers a set of tools to automate routine processes in Slack. By default, all members (but not guests) can access Workflow Builder to create workflows.

What to expect

Tip: Owners and admins can view all published workflows in their workspace or organization and add themselves as workflow managers from the workflow dashboard.


Manage access to Workflow Builder

Pro and Business+ plans

Enterprise Grid plan

By default, all members can create both standard and premium workflows. You can restrict each type of workflow to Owners and Admins only, or allow access to certain people.

  1. From your desktop, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Workspace settings.
  3. Click the Permissions tab at the top of the page.
  4. Next to Publish standard workflows only or Publish all workflows, including premium, click Expand.
  5. Choose who can create workflows. If you select Any owner or admin, you can check the box next to Certain people and groups to grant access to specific members or user groups.
  6. Click Save.  

If you remove someone's access to Workflow Builder, they will still be able to manage workflows they created before losing access. 

By default, all members of an Enterprise Grid org can create workflows. Org Owners and Admins can choose to disable Workflow Builder for their org, or set an org policy to choose which members can create both standard and premium workflows

Enable or disable Workflow Builder

  1. From your desktop, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Organization settings.
  3. From the left sidebar, click  Settings. Then select Organization settings.
  4. Next to Workflow Builder, select Enable or Disable. Then, click Enable or Disable to confirm.

Any workflows created before Workflow Builder was disabled will remain active and available for anyone to use. To prevent people from using a workflow, add yourself as a workflow manager and remove the workflow, or ask an existing workflow manager to unpublish or delete it.

Set an org policy for workflow creation

When Workflow Builder is enabled, Org Owners and Admins can set an org policy to manage who can create only standard workflows and who can create standard and premium workflows:

  1. From your desktop, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Organization settings.
  3. From the left sidebar, click  Settings. Then select Organization policies.
  4. Click the Permissions tab. 
  5. Next to Publish standard workflows only or Publish all workflows, including premium, click Add Policy
  6. Choose who can create workflows. If you select Any owner or admin or Org Owners and Admins, you can check the boxes next to Include all Regular Members of specific workspaces or Include certain people to grant permissions to workspaces or specific people.
  7. Click Save Policy, then click Create Policy to confirm.


Manage access to legacy Workflow Builder

You'll continue to have access to the legacy Workflow Builder only if any of your legacy workflows could not be migrated to the latest version of Workflow Builder. In September 2024, all legacy workflows will stop running, the workflow creation permissions will determine only standard and premium workflow creation, and the legacy Workflow Builder will no longer be accessible.

Pro and Business+ plans

Enterprise Grid plan

The permission you set for All workflows, including premium will also determine who can create workflows with the legacy Workflow Builder.

  1. From your desktop, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Workspace settings.
  3. Click the Permissions tab at the top of the page.
  4. Next to Publish all workflows, including premium, click Expand.
  5. Choose who can create workflows. If you select Any owner or admin, you can check the box next to Also include specific users and groups to grant access to specific members or user groups.
  6. Click Save.  

If you set an org policy for premium workflow creation, Workspace Owners and Admins will no longer be able to adjust Workflow Builder settings from workspaces they manage.

Instead, the policies you set at the org level for standard and premium workflow creation will determine who can create standard, premium, and legacy workflows.

If you choose not to set an org policy for premium workflow creation, everyone except guests will be able to create premium workflows, and legacy workflow creation will be determined by the permission Workspace Owners or Admins set at the workspace level. 


Manage additional workflow features

Owners and admins can also manage the following Workflow Builder features in their workspace or org’s settings and permissions:


Workflow Builder settings

Pro and Business+ plans

Enterprise Grid plan

Follow the steps below to manage the setting for Premium workflow usage notifications.

  1. From your desktop, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Workspace settings
  3. Next to Premium workflow usage notifications, click Expand, then check or uncheck the box. 
  4. Click Save

Follow the steps below to manage the organization setting for Premium workflow usage notifications and Default visibility for third-party steps.

  1. From your desktop, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Organization settings
  3. From the left sidebar, click  Settings. Then select Organization settings
  4. Click the Permissions tab. 
  5. Next to the Workflow Builder setting you'd like to manage, click Edit
  6. Follow the prompts, then click Save


Workflow Builder permissions

Pro and Business+ plans

Enterprise Grid plan

Follow the steps below to manage permissions for Workflow usage for Slack connect, Default visibility for third-party steps, Start workflows with webhooks, and Download workflow form data.

  1. From your desktop, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Workspace settings
  3. Click the Permissions tab at the top of the page. 
  4. Click Expand next to the feature you'd like to manage access to. Then check or uncheck the box. 
  5. Click Save

Set an org policy to manage permissions for Start Workflows with Webhooks, and Workflow Form Response Downloads.

  1. From your desktop, click your workspace name in the sidebar.
  2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Organization settings
  3. From the left sidebar, click  Settings. Then select Organization policies
  4. Click the Permissions tab. 
  5. Next to the policy you'd like to set, click Add Policy
  6. Follow the prompts and select Save Policy. Click Create Policy to confirm. 

Note: In the new version of Workflow Builder, managing access to steps from third-party apps has changed.