Slack

This page contains the setup guide and reference information for the Slack source connector.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, have the following ready:

• Administrator access to an active Slack Workspace
• Slack App OAuth (preferred) or API Key

Setup guide

Step 1: Set up Slack

The following instructions guide you through creating a Slack app. Airbyte can only replicate messages from channels that the app has been added to.

:::info If you are using a legacy Slack API Key, you can skip this section. :::

:::warning OAuth-only rate limit note: When authenticating via OAuth, the Slack source applies a stricter API budget for the Channel Messages and Threads streams (effectively one request per minute). To avoid slowing down other Slack streams, we recommend creating a separate connection for these two streams. See the Rate limiting section for details.

If you authenticate using a legacy Slack API token, this OAuth-specific limit does not apply. :::

To create a Slack App, read this tutorial on how to create an app, or follow these instructions.

1. Go to your Apps
2. Click Create New App. Select From Scratch.
3. Choose a name for your app and select the name of your Slack workspace. Click Create App.
4. In the navigation menu, select OAuth & Permissions.
5. Navigate to Scopes. In Bot Token Scopes, select the following scopes:

 channels:history
 channels:join
 channels:read
 files:read
 groups:read
 links:read
 reactions:read
 remote_files:read
 team:read
 usergroups:read
 users:read
 users.profile:read

6. At the top of the "OAuth & Permissions" page, click Install to Workspace. This will generate a Bot User OAuth Token. Copy this for later if you are using the API token for authentication.
7. Go to your Slack instance. For any public channel, go to Info, More, and select Add Apps.
8. Search for your newly created app. (If you are using the desktop version of Slack, you may need to restart Slack for it to pick up the new App). Add the App to all channels you want to sync data from.

:::note If you are using an API key to authenticate to Slack, a refresh token is not required, as acccess tokens never expire. You can learn more about refresh tokens here. :::

Step 2: Set up the Slack connector in Airbyte

For Airbyte Cloud:

1. In the navigation bar, click Sources.
2. Click New source.
3. Find and click Slack.
4. Click Authenticate your Slack account. Log in and authorize Airbyte to access your Slack account. <FieldAnchor field="join_channels">
5. Toggle join_channels, if you want to join all public channels or to sync data only from channels the bot is already in. If not set, you'll need to manually add the bot to all the channels from which you'd like to sync messages. </FieldAnchor>

For Airbyte Open Source:

1. In the navigation bar, click Sources.
2. Click New source.
3. Find and click Slack.
4. Click Sign in via Slack (OAuth). Enter the Access Token, Client ID, and Client Secret. Alternatively, enter the API Token from Step 1.
5. Toggle join_channels, if you want to join all public channels or to sync data only from channels the bot is already in. If not set, you'll need to manually add the bot to all the channels from which you'd like to sync messages.
6. Start Date: Any data before this date will not be extracted.
7. Threads Lookback window (Days). This corresponds to the number of days in the past from which you want to sync data.
8. (Optional) Channel filter the list of channel names (without leading '#' char) that limits the channels from which you'd like to sync. If no channels are specified, Airbyte will replicate data from all channels.
9. (Optional) Include_private_channels Toggle on to sync data from private channels. You will need to manually add the bot to private channels even if join_channels is toggled on.
10. Click Set up source. You must add the App created in Step 1 to the channels with the data that you want to sync.

Supported sync modes

The Slack source connector supports the following sync modes:

Supported Streams

For most of the streams, the Slack source connector uses the Conversations API under the hood.

• Channels (Conversations)
• Channel Members (Conversation Members)
• Messages (Conversation History) It will only replicate messages from non-archive, public and private channels that the Slack App is a member of.
• Users
• Threads (Conversation Replies)

Performance considerations

The connector is restricted by Slack rate limits.

We highly recommend only syncing required channels. This can be done by specifying the channel_filter in the Slack configuration setings.

If you expect to sync a large amount of data (like historical data) you can try to increase the number of workers, default is 1. This could cause to being rate limited by Slack, so you should monitor the logs for rate limit errors.

Data type map

Limitations & Troubleshooting

Connector limitations

Rate limiting

Slack has rate limit restrictions.

Rate Limits for Channel Messages and Threads streams:

OAuth authentication: For apps authenticated via OAuth, the connector enforces a stricter budget on:

• conversations.replies
• conversations.history

These two streams are effectively limited to one request per minute. Consider creating a separate connection for them so other streams (Users, Channels, Channel Members, etc.) are not slowed down.

Legacy API token authentication: When using a legacy Slack API token, this OAuth-specific one-per-minute policy does not apply; only Slack’s general rate limits apply.

Troubleshooting

• Check out common troubleshooting issues for the Slack source connector on our Airbyte Forum here.

Changelog