Slack Improves Developer Workflows with New Automation Features and Developer Tools

Slack announced significant updates to Workflow Builder, introducing new features that make it easier than ever for users to create time-saving automations.

Updates include plug-and-play workflow templates, improved developer tools, and additional workflow steps from popular third-party apps like PagerDuty, Asana, and Bitbucket. These enhancements are designed to make no-code automation more accessible to users across a variety of industries, allowing teams to perform routine tasks and focus on more strategic tasks.

Important Updates to Slack’s Workflow Builder

1. Plug-and-Play Workflow templates: Slack has introduced 50 new plug-and-play workflow templates that allow users to create and customize code-free automation quickly and easily. These templates simplify the process of creating workflows by providing pre-built layouts that users can modify to suit their specific needs. Examples of these templates include:
   • Onboarding New Employees: Automatically add new team members to related meetings, share important files, and send a welcome message when they join a Slack channel.
   • Managing Recurring Meetings: Collect agenda topics, track them in the Slack list, and post the agenda to the team channel on the day of the meeting.
   • Simple Incident Response: Collect incident information, create a dedicated channel with relevant team members, and log the issue into tools like Jira Cloud to track progress towards resolution.

   These templates are designed to save time and reduce the complexity of building workflows, allowing users to automate both routine tasks and complex processes with ease.

2. Starting a Workflow from Third-Party Application Actions: One of the most powerful new features is the ability to trigger workflows in Slack based on events that occur in integrated third-party tools. This integration helps consolidate project management and reduces the need to change context, which can reduce productivity. For example:
   • When a critical shutdown of a mobile app is logged in PagerDuty, workflows in Slack can be automatically activated. This workflow may include creating an incident channel, adding the appropriate team members, organizing the canvas, and sharing all relevant information from PagerDuty.

   This feature ensures that important updates and actions from external applications are easily integrated into Slack, allowing teams to respond more effectively.

3. Advanced Developer Tools for Creating Custom Workflows: Slack also introduced new developer tools that make it easier for developers to create custom workflow steps. These tools are part of Slack’s open API platform and allow developers to quickly build and deploy custom workflows. Key enhancements include:
   • Custom Step Management: Developers can create and manage custom actions from the Slack app settings page through a new, intuitive user interface.
   • Flexible Hosting Options: Custom actions can now be hosted anywhere, empowering developers to securely deliver their services to Slack.
   • Integration with existing Slack applications: Developers can improve existing custom-built Slack applications, such as bots, by adding custom steps that can be used within the Workflow Builder. This allows for deep integration between Slack apps and time-saving workflows.

   Additionally, developers can choose their favorite programming languages, such as TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, and Java, when developing custom steps using Slack’s SDK framework or Bolt.