Post to Slack or send email

Ask your coding agent#

Let the invoice exceptions agent post each new supplier query to #finance-exceptions in Slack.

Let the invoice exceptions agent email the finance manager when it registers a supplier query, from exceptions@acme.com.

What gets built#

Slack: a Slack app in your own workspace, and a connection with one write operation, post_message. The app asks for one scope, chat:write, so the bot posts only in channels it has been invited to and reads no messages at all.

Email: an HTTP API connection to Postmark that holds your Server API token, with get_server, a read that proves the token, and send_email, a write.

Both sends are writes, so they follow your org's approval rules. If your org already has a Slack or Postmark connection, your coding agent offers to reuse it and asks for no keys.

What you decide#

• Slack: the bot's name and the channel. You create and install the app in Slack, since only you can, and some workspaces need an admin to approve a new app. Your coding agent tells you what to paste where, and does the Mindset side.
• Email: the sender address at your own domain, verified in Postmark under Sender Signatures. The secret is the server's Server API token, not the Account API token.
• Buttons in a Slack message: only when a script must wait for a person's answer, below.

Approvals with buttons in Slack#

A script's $ask step posts a message with buttons and waits for a click (see Make it follow steps and Security and approval). The same Slack app carries it, with two more things a Slack admin sets up:

1. The right secret. The connection holds the app's App ID and Signing Secret, from Basic Information → App Credentials, and its Bot User OAuth Token (it starts xoxb-), from OAuth & Permissions once the app is installed. Take the Signing Secret, not the Client Secret beside it.
2. Interactivity. On the connection's Settings tab, under Let a person answer in Slack, copy the Request URL. In the Slack app, switch Interactivity on, paste the URL and save. Slack checks the address on save, so it must be a deployed environment Slack can reach.

Then invite the bot to the channel with /invite @Approvals. Skipping that is the most common first failure. The card on Settings shows whether both secrets are captured: without the bot token nothing posts, and without the signing secret nobody's click comes back. A message with no buttons means post_message was registered without its blocks parameter.

Done when#

You saw a real test message from the bot in the channel you chose, or received a real test email from the verified sender, and the agent holds post_message or send_email. A published connection alone isn't done.

In your repo#

The Slack or Postmark connection is a file in agents/connections/ like any other, with no token in it. A person enters the token on a capture page, once per environment. See Keep your agents in your code.

In the Studio#

Both are ordinary connections under Connections. Check that post_message or send_email is enabled on the connection's Operations tab, approve it there if it's waiting, then add it on the agent's Resources tab.