| Layer | What it is | Who sets it | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connections | Credentials for the systems Claude can reach (GitHub, Drive, Datadog, your APIs) | Owner | Access bundles |
| Plugins and skills | Instructions that teach Claude how to use a tool or follow a process. A plugin bundles one or more skills. | Owner | Bundle Plugins tab or a skills repository |
| Custom instructions | Standing guidance read in every session at a scope (team conventions, output formats). Outranks channel memory. | Owner for any scope; channel members for the channel scope, from the Configure page | Per-scope instructions |
| Channel memory | Facts Claude saves while working in a channel | Anyone in the channel | By telling Claude |
Settings admins control
Access and organization-wide behavior are set atclaude.ai/admin-settings/claude-tag, per scope (a scope is a channel, a workspace, or your whole organization), so the same agent can work differently in different channels. Most controls below are Owner-only.
| Setting | What it does | More |
|---|---|---|
| Custom instructions | Standing guidance read in every session on a scope, like team conventions. Outranks channel memory. | Add custom instructions |
| Plugins | Bundles of skills that teach Claude how to use a specific tool | Attach plugins |
| Connections | Which systems it can reach from each channel | Add connections |
| Default model | Which Claude model handles sessions in a scope | Choose the model for a scope |
| Claude Tag version | Which generation answers (New, Legacy, or Off) in a scope | Migrate from the earlier Claude in Slack |
Channel connections are separate from personal connectors
An Owner configures Claude’s connections, plugins, and skills, and they apply per scope. They are separate from the connectors, skills, or MCP servers an individual user has set up in their own claude.ai or Claude Desktop account. A user’s personal connectors are not available to Claude in a channel, and the channel’s connections are not listed among that user’s personal connectors in claude.ai. To give Claude access to a tool that is not in the built-in connection list, including a custom MCP server, see add a custom connection.Change behavior from the channel
Everything in the table below is open to channel members, with no admin involved.| To change | Say something like | More |
|---|---|---|
| How Claude formats output | ”remember for this channel: post reports as a table” | Memory |
| How chatty Claude is | ”ask before posting anything longer than a screen” | Memory |
| When Claude follows a thread | ”stay quiet in this thread unless someone tags you” | Control when Claude Tag responds |
| What Claude does on a schedule | ”every morning at 9, post a digest of open threads” | Set up routines |
| What Claude remembers | ”what do you remember about this channel?” then correct it | Memory |
Choose the model for a scope
Each scope carries a Default model setting in its Advanced section, alongside the environment and guest controls. It sets the model new channel sessions in that scope start on; the options are drawn from the models available to your organization, such as Opus and Sonnet models. A scope without its own setting inherits from its parent, and a channel’s setting overrides its workspace’s. The Inherit option shows which model the scope resolves to. To keep sessions on a model you chose, set a specific model at the organization scope rather than leaving the setting unset; every scope without an override then follows it. The setting applies to new sessions; threads already underway keep the model they started with. The footer of each Claude reply in Slack names the model that handled it, so you can confirm what a scope is running. Channel members can also change the model from Slack, with no admin involved. Asking Claude in a thread switches that thread, and asking it to make a model the channel default changes what new threads in the channel start on. See choose the model Claude Tag uses.Models your organization allows
Claude Tag draws its model list from the models your organization makes available for Claude Code, set in the Claude admin console. That policy applies in two places.- Model lists in Slack. The models Claude offers when someone asks it to switch, and the model selector for direct messages, show only allowed models. Claude declines a request to switch to a model outside the list.
- Configured defaults. If your organization also enforces the policy on defaults and a workspace or channel’s Default model isn’t on the allowed list, Claude declines to start the session and posts a notice in the thread. The notice says the configured model isn’t available to your organization and asks the requester to contact an admin. Claude doesn’t start the thread on a different model, so a session never runs on a model no one chose.
Settings no one can change
- The Claude app’s name, @-handle, and avatar in Slack are the same in every workspace; there is no rename or rebrand setting.
Related resources
- What Claude Tag remembers: how channel instructions are stored, shared, and corrected
- Good habits for working with Claude Tag: phrasings that make recurring output consistent
- How agent identity works: why access is set per channel