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Slack Integration for Runbooks

Harness Incident Response supports two methods of Slack integration: Organization-level and Connector-based. This guide covers both approaches and their use cases.

Overview​

Slack integration enables your runbooks to:

  • Send automated notifications
  • Create incident-specific channels
  • Manage threaded discussions
  • Coordinate response teams
  • Track incident updates

Organization-Level Integration​

Setup​

  1. Navigate to Settings → Organization
  2. Select Slack Settings
  3. Click Connect Slack
  4. Follow the OAuth flow to authorize Harness

Features​

  • Global Slack workspace access
  • Unified authentication
  • Centralized channel management
  • Cross-project notifications

Permissions Required​

  • Slack Workspace Admin access
  • Harness Organization Admin role
  • Slack bot permissions:
    • channels:manage
    • chat:write
    • groups:write
    • im:write

Connector-Based Integration​

Setup​

  1. Navigate to Settings → Connectors
  2. Click + New Connector
  3. Select Slack
  4. Configure workspace access
  5. Set channel permissions

Features​

  • Project-specific access
  • Custom bot settings
  • Granular permissions
  • Independent configurations

Permissions Required​

  • Slack Workspace Member
  • Harness Project Admin role
  • Selected channel access

Using Slack in Runbooks​

Channel Creation​

- Action Type: Slack
  Operation: Create Channel
  Name: "incident-[incident.id]"
  Description: "Channel for incident [incident.id]"
  AddUsers: ["@oncall", "@sre-team"]

Notifications​

- Action Type: Slack
  Operation: Send Message
  Channel: "#[incident.channel]"
  Message: "🚨 [incident.severity] incident detected in [incident.service]"
  Blocks:
    - Type: section
      Text: "*Impact*: [incident.description]"

Thread Management​

- Action Type: Slack
  Operation: Create Thread
  Channel: "#[incident.channel]"
  Message: "Updates for incident [incident.id]"
  ThreadUpdates: true

Best Practices​

Channel Naming​

  • Use consistent prefixes
  • Include incident IDs
  • Keep names descriptive
  • Follow workspace conventions

Message Structure​

  • Use clear formatting
  • Include severity indicators
  • Link to relevant dashboards
  • Mention appropriate teams

Permissions​

  • Use least privilege access
  • Regularly audit permissions
  • Document access requirements
  • Monitor usage patterns

Common Use Cases​

Incident Coordination​

  1. Create incident channel
  2. Notify stakeholders
  3. Share initial assessment
  4. Track response actions

Status Updates​

  1. Send periodic updates
  2. Track resolution progress
  3. Share metrics and graphs
  4. Document action items

Post-Incident​

  1. Archive incident channel
  2. Share incident summary
  3. Schedule retrospective
  4. Document lessons learned

Troubleshooting​

Common Issues​

  1. Authentication Failures

    • Verify OAuth tokens
    • Check permission scopes
    • Confirm workspace access

  2. Channel Creation Errors

    • Check naming conventions
    • Verify channel limits
    • Confirm bot permissions

  3. Message Failures

    • Validate channel existence
    • Check message formatting
    • Verify rate limits

Next Steps​