---
layout: page
title: "Slack"
description: "Instructions how to add Slack notifications to Home Assistant."
date: 2015-08-06 18:00
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
logo: slack.png
ha_category: Notifications
ha_release: pre 0.7
---


The `slack` platform allows you to deliver notifications from Home Assistant to [Slack](https://slack.com/).

If you are planning to use Slack as yourself then you need to obtain a [Slack API token](https://api.slack.com/web?sudo=1) to be able to send notifications.

It is also possible to use Slack bots as users. Just create a new bot at https://[YOUR_TEAM].slack.com/apps/build/custom-integration and use the provided token for that. You can add an icon from the frontend for Home Assistant and give the bot a meaningful name.

Don't forget to invite the bot to the room where you want to get the notifications.

To enable the slack notification in your installation, add the following to your `configuration.yaml` file:

```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry
notify:
  name: NOTIFIER_NAME
  platform: slack
  api_key: ABCDEFGHJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ
  default_channel: '#general'
```

Configuration variables:

- **name** (*Optional*): Setting the optional parameter `name` allows multiple notifiers to be created. The default value is `notify`. The notifier will bind to the service `notify.NOTIFIER_NAME`.
- **api_key** (*Required*): The slack API token to use for sending slack messages.
- **default_channel** (*Required*): The default channel to post to if no channel is explicitly specified when sending the notification message.

To use notifications, please see the [getting started with automation page](/getting-started/automation/).