Claude Tag is Claude working in your Slack workspace. You hand it work by mentioning @Claude in a message, and Claude carries it out in that thread. There’s nothing for you to install or configure; if @Claude is in your channel, you can use it (unless your admin has restricted who can invoke Claude).
This page covers:
When to tag Claude in a channel versus a DM
Where you tag Claude decides whose tools it uses and who sees the result.
- Channel for shared team work. The work happens in the open, so anything Claude does in the thread, including its checklist and results, is visible to everyone in the channel, and anyone can reply to steer the work. What Claude can reach follows the channel, set by an admin, not who you are. By default you don’t need a Claude account to tag Claude in a channel; the work bills to the organization. An admin can restrict who can invoke Claude.
- Example:
@Claude where are we on the launch checklist? Pull what's still open from this channel and #design-review.
- DM for personal tasks. A DM runs on your own claude.ai account with your own connectors. DMs are one-to-one only; group DMs aren’t supported.
- Example:
@Claude pull my afternoon meetings from my calendar and draft a one-line prep note for each.
See team channels and personal DMs for the full comparison.
Add Claude to a channel
Claude only works in channels it’s been added to. To add it, anyone in the channel can run:
Or mention @Claude in a message; Slack will prompt you to add it.
Check that Claude is working
Mention @Claude in any channel where it’s been added. In the Slack message box, send:
@Claude what can you access from this channel?
What you see when Claude first joins a channel
When a person first invites Claude to a channel, it posts a short intro on its own: it reads the channel’s history and suggests a few tasks it could pick up. The intro doesn’t post when a bot adds Claude, in org-shared channels, or in channels that already have memory.
Each reply ends with a footer showing an Open session in Claude link (the full record of that task) and which model handled the reply.
| If you see | It means | Do this |
|---|
Typing @Claude doesn’t show Claude with an APP badge in the suggestion list | The Claude app isn’t installed in your workspace | Ask your Slack admin to install the Claude app, and send them the installation guide |
| The mention sends but Claude doesn’t reply | Setup isn’t finished for this channel | Ask your Claude organization admin to enable Claude Tag for this channel, and send them the setup guide with the channel name |
Hand Claude a task
Every interaction has the same shape. You mention @Claude with a task, Claude works on it in the thread, and Claude posts the result there.
@Claude learn what you can about my role from this workspace, then tell me three tasks you could take off my plate this week.
What Claude can see
After you’ve handed Claude a task, the first question is what it has to work with. The short version: it reads the thread you tagged it in, it can search your workspace’s public channels, and anything beyond Slack depends on what your admin connected.
| What you give Claude | Can Claude read it? |
|---|
| Messages in this thread | Yes. Mentioning it mid-thread also gives it the thread’s earlier messages |
| An image or screenshot you attach | Yes |
| Other public channels in your workspace | By searching only, the same way a person searches Slack; Claude can find a message by keyword but can’t read a channel’s full history unless it’s been added there |
| Private channels and DMs | Only ones it has been added to |
| A link you paste, like a Google Doc or a webpage | Only if your admin allowed that site for this channel. If not, Claude tells you it can’t reach it. For files in your personal Drive or Google account, DM Claude instead; a DM uses your own connectors |
| A Slack canvas | No |
| A message you edited after sending | The original. Editing or deleting a message doesn’t change what Claude already received; say the correction in a new reply |
@Claude can you read the doc I just linked? gets you a yes or a “that site isn’t allowed here.”
Slack doesn’t expose personal account settings (your sidebar, notification preferences, channel membership, or DMs between you and other people) to apps. If you want help organizing channels, paste or screenshot the list and Claude can propose a scheme you apply yourself.
Which messages Claude reads
- An @-mention guarantees a response. Claude may also respond to a message that doesn’t mention it when it judges a reply is warranted; include the mention to guarantee one. It receives the thread’s root message and earlier replies for context when you mention it mid-thread; for details on the window, refer to what Claude sees when you mention it.
- Once mentioned in a thread, Claude follows the rest of that thread and may reply without another mention.
- While working on a task, Claude can search the workspace’s public channels by keyword, the same way a person searches Slack. It can’t read a channel’s full history unless it’s been added there.
To quiet Claude in a thread or remove it from a channel, see Control when Claude Tag responds.
Give Claude standing instructions
Set instructions for a channel by telling Claude there, the way you’d ask anyone on the team:
@Claude remember for this channel: keep replies short, and always include a link to the source.
