Create a Slack external content connector

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated June 24, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read

    • Create an external content connector to retrieve searchable content from public channels in your Slack source system.

    Before you begin

    A source system administrator must have already configured your Slack source system to allow access by the Slack external content connector. For details on configuring these settings in the source system, see Configure Slack for external content indexing.

    Role required: admin

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > External Content Connectors > External Content Admin Home.
    2. If prompted, select Switch scope to switch to the External Content Connectors Admin scope.
      You need to be in this scope to create or edit external content connectors.
    3. In the Connectors section, select New.
    4. On the Choose source page, select the Slack tile, then select Next.
    5. On the Connector details page, fill in the required connection settings.
      Connection setting Description
      Connector name Unique name for this Slack external content connector.
      Client ID

      Client ID for the Slack API application that allows the external content connector to access your Slack workspace.

      If you don't know the client ID for the application, ask your Slack administrator for it.
      Client secret

      Client secret for the Slack API application that allows the external content connector to access your Slack workspace.

      If you don't know the client secret for the application, ask your Slack administrator for it.
      URL URL where your Slack workspace is accessible. This is usually https://slack.com.
      I am aware that this connector crawls documents from public channels only and that those documents are accessible by every user that has access to my configured AI Search experience.

      Option confirming your understanding that the Slack external content connector does not crawl user and group access permissions and only retrieves content from messages and documents in public channels.
    6. Select Save and validate.
      Note:
      If validation fails, an error message appears. Double-check your connection settings to ensure they're correct.

    Result

    Your new Slack external content connector appears in the Connectors section.

    What to do next

    You can optionally define crawl settings for your new Slack external content connector. Using these settings, you can limit the set of public channels you want the connector to crawl, or define the file extensions for documents you want the connector's crawls to include or exclude. To learn how to configure the connector's crawl settings, see Configure crawl settings for the Slack external content connector.

    If you want the connector to crawl everything in the source system, and don't want to apply file-extension inclusion or exclusion filters, you can skip definition of crawl settings and go straight on to define a crawl schedule for your new connector or run one-time crawls for it. For details on defining a crawl schedule, see Define a crawl schedule for an external content connector. To learn about running one-time crawls, see Run a one-time full or partial document crawl for an external content connector.

    You can create search sources for the connector's indexed source and link them to your search profiles. To view the connector's indexed source, navigate to All > AI Search > AI Search Index > Indexed Sources. For information about creating search sources and linking them to search profiles, see Search sources in AI Search.