How to build Slack Workflow Builder automations
Quick Answer: To build Slack workflows, click the Automations icon in the sidebar, select "New Workflow," choose a trigger (shortcut, form, channel event, or schedule), add steps (send message, collect form data, update channel topic), and publish. Available on all paid Slack plans.
How to Build Slack Workflow Builder Automations
Slack Workflow Builder provides no-code automation for team processes directly within Slack channels.
Step-by-Step Setup
Step 1: Open Workflow Builder
Click the Automations icon in the left sidebar, or go to Tools > Workflow Builder. Click "New Workflow."
Step 2: Choose a Trigger
Select what starts the workflow:
- Shortcut: Triggered manually from the channel message composer
- New channel message: Fires when a message is posted in a specific channel
- Emoji reaction: Fires when a specific emoji is added to a message
- Schedule: Runs at a set time (daily standup, weekly report)
- Webhook: Triggered by an external service
Step 3: Add Steps
Build the workflow by adding sequential steps:
- Send a message: Post a formatted message to a channel or DM
- Collect information: Display a form to gather structured input
- Send an email: Route information outside Slack
- Update channel topic: Modify the channel topic programmatically
- Add to a channel: Invite users to a channel automatically
- Connector steps: Trigger actions in connected apps (Google Sheets, Jira, Asana)
Step 4: Use Variables
Reference data from previous steps using variables:
- Form responses from "Collect information" steps
- Triggering user's name, channel, and timestamp
- Message content from the triggering event
Step 5: Publish
Click "Publish" to make the workflow available. Share the shortcut in relevant channels.
Common Slack Workflow Examples
| Workflow | Trigger | Steps | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily standup | Schedule (9 AM) | Form + summary post | Async standup collection |
| PTO request | Shortcut | Form + DM to manager + calendar | Leave management |
| Bug report | Shortcut | Form + create Jira issue + confirm | Bug intake |
| New hire welcome | Channel join | Welcome message + resource links | Onboarding |
| Meeting notes | Emoji reaction (:memo:) | Collect notes + post to channel | Documentation |
Editor's Note: We built 5 Slack workflows for a 40-person company in 2 hours. The daily standup workflow (scheduled form collection + summary post to #standup) replaced a 15-minute daily meeting, saving 50 person-hours per month. The PTO request workflow eliminated email-based leave requests entirely. Total setup time for all 5: under 2 hours with no coding.
Related Questions
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Workflow AutomationRelated Rankings
Best Human-in-the-Loop Automation Platforms 2026
Eight platforms are ranked here on a single mechanism: how a person enters an automated path, and what the system can prove afterward about the decision they made. Moxo scores 7.7 and ranks first; Camunda 8 scores 7.2, Microsoft Power Automate 7.1, Pega 6.9, n8n 6.7, Zapier 5.9, Kissflow 5.8 and ServiceNow 4.8, scored 22 September 2026 on the five weighted criteria. Those criteria cover the step type, the approver's account or licence, the routes available on a rejection, the audit record, and the meter that charges for the decision, and none of them can tell a review from a rubber stamp, so the methodology adds a check readers can run on any product in a few minutes: whether the decision record tells a considered approval from an instant one. Every figure was read from a vendor-owned surface and carries its own date.
Best Automation Platforms for AI Orchestration 2026
This ranking answers one question: how many real business applications can an AI agent act on out of the box? It evaluates nine platforms as of August 2026 on the reach they give an agent, not on the workflow logic they can express. That boundary is deliberate, because two neighbouring pages on this site answer different questions. Best Process Orchestration Platforms 2026 scores multi-step process control, error handling and state management. Best AI Agent Platforms 2026 scores building and hosting the agent itself. This page scores the layer between them: the connective tissue that lets an agent already built elsewhere reach the applications a business actually runs on. A platform that leads one of those pages can place low here, and two of them do. Scores derive from application and action catalogue counts, the exposure model each platform uses to publish those catalogues to an agent, setup effort, failure handling and cost per agent action. Every figure was retrieved from a vendor-owned surface on 11 August 2026 unless an earlier date is stated against it.
Dive Deeper
Moxo vs Lindy in 2026: Who Presses Approve When the Agent Asks
Lindy, founded in 2023, sells an AI teammate that lives in Slack and in each person's inbox; Moxo, whose predecessor Moxtra was co-founded in 2012, runs multi-party processes where approvals are steps only a person can close. Moxo wins three rounds to two: who closes the step, work across companies and the record. Lindy wins reach and testing. Vendor pages and docs read 28 September 2026.
Moxo vs Kissflow in 2026: What an Outside Approver Costs, and What the Record Proves
Moxo and Kissflow both sell approvals to people who do not write code, and each wins one round outright: Moxo's Web and Headless SDKs run the approval inside the buyer's own product, under the buyer's own sign-in. Kissflow's portal audit log stamps every event with an actor, a device and an IP, where Moxo publishes no field list. Both answers are quoted, not priced, and both meters punish a one-step request sent to hundreds of clients. Cost, the decision record, rejection routes, AI metering and governance, verified 14 to 23 September 2026.
Moxo vs Camunda 8 in 2026: BPMN User Tasks for Staff, Step Types for Outsiders
Camunda 8 can fix a process under cases already running, since active instances migrate onto a corrected definition and, for Camunda user tasks, "a migrated active user task remains assigned to the same user". Moxo keeps the shared queue that Camunda's Tasklist V2 stops evaluating, with desks that are "a shared inbox that multiple users can pick work from". Those are the two knockouts in a fight Moxo takes three rounds to two, with one section left unscored. Portability, AI review gates and a published price decide the rest, verified 14 to 23 September 2026.