Home Assistant Slack Integration: Notifications, Files and Status, Tested

To send Home Assistant notifications to Slack, create a Slack app with a bot token, add the Slack integration in Settings > Devices & services, and call the notify.slack action with a message. The integration needs more bot scopes than "chat:write" if you want file uploads: without groups:read, every file upload failed in our test. On 8 November 2026 we ran Home Assistant 2026.11.0 (the official container) against a test Slack workspace, sent text, Block Kit and a file, and set a Slack status from an automation. Below is the setup, the YAML, what arrived, and the errors from the log.

Step 1: make the Slack app

Create an app at api.slack.com/apps, install it to your workspace, and copy the Bot User OAuth Token (xoxb-...). These are the bot scopes each part of the integration used in our run:

Invite the bot to each channel you post to with /invite @your-app. Slack bot tokens explains how scopes are added; a new scope only applies after you reinstall the app.

Step 2: add the integration

In Home Assistant, go to Settings > Devices & services > Add integration > Slack. The form asks for four things: the API key (the bot token), a default channel, and an optional icon and username. We entered sg-1108-lab, :house: and Home Assistant.

A wrong token is caught here. With xoxb-not-a-real-token the form came back with the error invalid_auth, and no entry was made. With the real token, the entry was created and an action named notify.slack appeared.

Step 3: send a notification

This is the action call we made from Developer tools > Actions (the same YAML works in an automation):

action: notify.slack
data:
  message: "Washing machine finished :white_check_mark:"

It posted at once under the name "Home Assistant" with the house icon from the setup form. To send to another channel, add target. To send a Block Kit layout, put the blocks under data:

action: notify.slack
data:
  message: "Garage door left open"
  data:
    blocks:
      - type: section
        text:
          type: mrkdwn
          text: ":warning: *Garage door* has been open for 10 minutes"
      - type: context
        elements:
          - type: mrkdwn
            text: "Sent by Home Assistant 2026.11.0"

With blocks, message becomes the notification text, and the blocks are what people see in the channel. Our Block Kit Builder guide helps you draft the layout first.

Step 4: send a file (and the scope trap)

The integration uploads a local file or a URL. Local files must be in a folder listed under allowlist_external_dirs:

homeassistant:
  allowlist_external_dirs:
    - /config/www

action: notify.slack
data:
  message: "Front door camera snapshot"
  title: "snapshot.png"
  data:
    file:
      path: /config/www/snapshot.png

Our first try returned success (HTTP 200 from the action call), and nothing reached Slack. The log said:

2026-11-08 09:54:19.021+00:00 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.slack.notify] Error getting channel ID: SlackApiError("The request to the Slack API failed. (url: https://slack.com/api/conversations.list, status: 200)\nThe server responded with: {'ok': False, 'error': 'missing_scope', 'needed': 'groups:read', 'provided': 'chat:write,chat:write.customize,channels:join,app_mentions:read,files:write,im:write,commands,channels:history,channels:read,files:read,im:history,users:read,incoming-webhook'}")
2026-11-08 09:54:19.024+00:00 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.slack.notify] No valid channel IDs resolved for targets: ['sg-1108-lab']

For files, the integration looks up the channel ID by listing public and private channels, even when you give a plain channel name, so the token needs groups:read as well as channels:read. We added groups:read, reinstalled the app (the bot token stayed the same), and the same call uploaded the file, with "Successfully uploaded file to channel" in the log. The upload shows under the bot's own name, not "Home Assistant", because the file upload call does not take a custom username or icon.

When the bot is not in the channel

We sent a message with target: ["#all-slack"], a channel the bot had not joined. The action still returned success, and the log said:

2026-11-08 09:54:27.672+00:00 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.slack.notify] There was a Slack API error while sending to all-slack: SlackApiError("The request to the Slack API failed. (url: https://slack.com/api/chat.postMessage, status: 200)\nThe server responded with: {'ok': False, 'error': 'not_in_channel'}")

Home Assistant logs Slack errors and moves on, so an automation that relies on a Slack alert will not stop or retry. Check Settings > System > Logs for homeassistant.components.slack after you add a new target.

Set your Slack status from Home Assistant

The integration only posts as a bot; it cannot change your own status. A rest_command that calls Slack's users.profile.set with a user token (xoxp-, user scope users.profile:write) can. This is the configuration we ran:

input_boolean:
  at_home:
    name: At home

rest_command:
  slack_status_home:
    url: https://slack.com/api/users.profile.set
    method: POST
    headers:
      Authorization: !secret slack_user_token
    content_type: "application/json; charset=utf-8"
    payload: '{"profile": {"status_text": "Home", "status_emoji": ":house:", "status_expiration": 0}}'
  slack_status_clear:
    url: https://slack.com/api/users.profile.set
    method: POST
    headers:
      Authorization: !secret slack_user_token
    content_type: "application/json; charset=utf-8"
    payload: '{"profile": {"status_text": "", "status_emoji": ""}}'

automation:
  - alias: "Slack status follows At home"
    triggers:
      - trigger: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.at_home
    actions:
      - choose:
          - conditions: "{{ trigger.to_state.state == 'on' }}"
            sequence:
              - action: rest_command.slack_status_home
        default:
          - action: rest_command.slack_status_clear

In secrets.yaml, slack_user_token is the whole header value, "Bearer xoxp-...". When we turned input_boolean.at_home on, Slack answered ok: true and the member's status was "Home" with the house emoji 0.3 seconds later; you can see the house next to the name in the screenshot above. Turning it off cleared the status. Swap the input boolean for a person or zone entity to follow your phone's location. For a list of status texts, see our Slack status ideas tool.

FAQ

Can Home Assistant read Slack messages?

No. The integration posts messages and files and reads Do Not Disturb for its sensor. It has no trigger for incoming Slack messages. Tools like Node-RED's Slack nodes can receive mentions over Socket Mode and call Home Assistant from there.

Why do my messages show the app name and not "Home Assistant"?

Text messages used the username and icon from the setup form in our run, with chat:write.customize on the token. File uploads always showed the bot's name, because the integration's upload call sends no username or icon.