Sending messages to your team's Slack workspace

Use an Internal Slack channel to send Knock workflow messages to channels and people in your team's Slack workspace.

Knock's Internal Slack channel gives your team a managed way to send workflow messages to your own Slack workspace. Connect the Knock Slack extension once, then choose a Slack channel or person as the destination for each workflow step.

You don't need to create a Slack app, manage bot tokens, or store Slack channel_data on your workflow recipients.

Before you begin

To create an Internal Slack channel, you need a Knock role with permission to manage both channels and extensions. After it is created, team members with permission to edit workflows can use it in workflow steps.

The Knock Slack app can send to:

Public channels in your workspace.
Private channels where the Knock Slack app is a member. Invite @Knock to a private channel before selecting it.
Active people in your workspace via direct message.

Create an Internal Slack channel

Choose Internal Slack

In the Knock dashboard, open Settings > Channels and sources and click Create channel. Select Chat, then choose Slack with the Internal badge.

Connect your Slack workspace

If your project is already connected to Slack through the Knock Slack extension with the required permissions, Knock uses that connection to create the Internal Slack channel.

If Slack is not connected, or if the existing connection needs additional permissions, Knock opens the Slack authorization flow. Choose your workspace and approve the requested permissions. After you return to Knock, the Internal Slack channel is created automatically.

Confirm the connection

The channel configuration shows the Slack workspace managed by the Knock Slack extension. Its credentials apply across your Knock environments and cannot be edited from the channel configuration.

You can create one Internal Slack channel per Knock project. The same channel can be reused across any number of workflows.

Add Internal Slack to a workflow

Add a channel step

Open a workflow and add a channel step using your Internal Slack channel.

Choose where to send the message

Use the Send to field to search the connected workspace. Choose a destination from either the Channels or People tab.

The destination is stored on this workflow step. Other steps using the same Internal Slack channel can send somewhere else.

Design and commit the message

Write the Slack message using Knock's markdown or Block Kit editor, then commit the workflow. You do not need to configure a recipient connection in the template settings; Knock supplies the Slack destination and credentials for you.

Trigger the workflow

Trigger a workflow that uses Internal Slack the same way you trigger any other Knock workflow. A recipient is still required for the workflow run, but that recipient does not need Slack channel data.

The workflow recipient still provides the recipient variables used in Liquid templates, step conditions, and the rest of the workflow. The destination selected in Send to only changes where that Internal Slack step is delivered.

How recipient preferences work

Internal Slack sends bypass the workflow recipient's notification preferences because the message is going to a team destination, not to a Slack connection owned by that recipient. Channel and step conditions still evaluate normally against the workflow recipient.

Each Internal Slack step sends exactly one message to its selected destination. In workflow runs and message details, Delivered to shows the Slack channel or person that received the message while the message's recipient remains the workflow recipient.

Manage or reconnect Slack

The Knock Slack extension owns the workspace connection and credentials used by the Internal Slack channel. Manage the connection from Settings > Extensions, not from the channel's provider settings.

If the extension is disconnected or needs to be authorized again, Knock preserves the Internal Slack channel and its workflow references but skips affected Slack steps until the workspace is reconnected. The workflow run log identifies the disconnected Slack connection as the reason. Open Settings > Extensions and reconnect Slack to resume delivery.

When to use a different Slack setup

Use an Internal Slack channel when you want Knock to message your own team's workspace through the Knock Slack app.

If you are building a customer-facing Slack integration, use your own Slack app and SlackKit. If you need to supply a custom bot token, incoming webhook, or Liquid-based destination, use a customer-configured Slack channel with a recipient connection override.