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Managed by is a channel setting that names other Slack channels whose members can write that channel’s standing instructions for Claude. The channel that carries the setting is the managed channel, and each channel it names is a managing channel. People in a managing channel ask Claude to set or update the managed channel’s instructions and confirm the change on a card, and Claude follows that text in every new conversation in the managed channel. This page is for admins who set up the pairing and for the people in a managing channel who write the instructions. Setting up Managed by takes an Owner or Admin in your Claude organization, the roles that see the Admin tab on a channel’s Configure page. A managing channel isn’t a channel manager. A channel manager is a person with a role that lets them configure one channel. A managing channel is a Slack channel, and the full workspace members in it can propose and confirm changes.

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When to use Managed by

The table compares the places standing instructions for Claude can live and who writes each. You set up Managed by one channel at a time, and someone confirms each change to a channel’s text in Slack. That suits a handful of channels. To give many channels the same text, use workspace or organization custom instructions. Members of the managed channel can still change the managed text by asking Claude. Read Limits of Managed by as a control before you rely on it to keep a channel’s instructions fixed.

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Channel requirements for Managed by

The Managed by list on the managed channel’s Configure page refuses a pairing that doesn’t meet these requirements.
  • Every channel in the pairing: Claude is a member, and the channel is an ordinary channel in the same Slack workspace as the others. Direct messages and group direct messages can’t be managed or managing channels.
  • Sharing: no channel in the pairing is shared outside its workspace. That rules out Slack Connect channels, including ones with a pending invitation, and channels shared across the workspaces of an Enterprise Grid.
  • You: you are a member of every managing channel you add.
  • Managed channel: the channel has its own channel scope on the Slack tab in admin settings. If it doesn’t appear there, add the channel.
A managed channel can have up to five managing channels. A private managed channel has extra rules, listed under Public and private channels.

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Choose the managing channels

1

Open the managed channel's Configure page

In the channel whose instructions will be managed, select the Configure link in the footer of any Claude reply, or send @Claude !configure and follow the link Claude posts. Go to the Admin tab.
2

Select channels under Managed by

Open the Managed by list and select up to five channels. The list shows channels that you and Claude are both in. It finds them through the Slack account connected to your Claude account, and it asks you to connect one if you haven’t. The selection saves when you close the list.
3

Tell the managing channel

Nothing is posted in the managing channel when you add it. Claude learns about the pairing at the start of a conversation, so ask people there to start a new thread before they make the first change, and point them to Write or update managed instructions.
To stop a channel managing another, clear it from the same list. Removing a channel works even when the pairing no longer meets the requirements.

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Write or update managed instructions

A managing channel is a Slack channel that an admin selected under Managed by on another channel’s Configure page. Any full member of the workspace who is in a managing channel can ask Claude there to change the managed channel’s instructions. Guests and people from other organizations can’t.
1

Ask Claude in the managing channel

Mention Claude, name the managed channel, and say what the instructions should be.
Claude reads the managed channel’s current text, then posts a card in the managing channel that shows every line the change adds or removes.
2

Confirm the card

Any full member of the managing channel can select Confirm. Nothing changes until someone selects it. Cancel drops the proposal.
3

Check the result

Start a new thread in the managed channel and ask Claude to repeat its admin instructions. The text you confirmed appears after your workspace’s instructions and before the channel’s own. You need to be a member of the managed channel to check.
To add long material as a reference file, give the file a short name made of lowercase letters, digits, hyphens, or underscores.
Claude posts the same kind of card, and the file exists once someone confirms it. Deleting works the same way. Ask Claude to delete the managed channel’s instructions or one reference file, then confirm the card, which quotes every line being removed. These rules apply to every card.
  • One change per card: each card carries one change to the core instructions or to one reference file, and shows the whole change
  • Long rewrites: Claude proposes a long rewrite in parts. After you confirm one part, ask for the next in a new message.
  • Text changed since Claude read it: confirming the card changes nothing. Ask Claude again so it proposes the change against the current text.

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How managed instructions load

Managed instructions are either core instructions, which Claude always reads, or reference files, which Claude opens when the core instructions call for one. Put what Claude must always follow in the core instructions. Put long material, such as a runbook or an escalation list, in a reference file, and name that file in the core instructions so Claude knows when to open it. Claude reads standing instructions in this order:
  1. Organization instructions
  2. Workspace instructions
  3. The managed channel’s core instructions
  4. The channel’s own Channel instructions
All of them outrank channel memory. Managed instructions add to the channel’s own instructions and don’t replace them. A confirmed change applies to conversations that start after it.
  • New threads: Claude reads the new text
  • Threads already running: Claude keeps the text the thread started with
  • The channel’s top level: Claude picks up the change on a later channel message

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Public and private channels

A managing channel’s members can read the managed channel’s instructions through Claude, so a private channel’s text can be managed only from other private channels. Anyone in the workspace can join a public managing channel and confirm changes there, so prefer a private managing channel for anything sensitive. When a public managed channel is made private, its managing channels are removed. An Owner or Admin who is a member of the now-private channel can add private managing channels again.

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Limits of Managed by as a control

Managed by sets which channels’ members can write a channel’s standing instructions through Claude. It isn’t an access control. The managed text is stored with the managed channel’s memory, so a member of the managed channel who asks Claude to change what it has saved there can still alter or remove the text. For instructions that channel members can’t change, use organization or workspace custom instructions. For anything Claude must not do, use access controls. If Claude can’t read managed instructions when a conversation starts, the conversation starts without them.

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Troubleshoot Managed by

Claude words a refusal differently each time, so match a row on its meaning. The table covers the refusals Claude or the Configure page gives for a pairing or a change.