Slack Automation, Approvals & Workflow Integration
Run Slack on autopilot. Keep the veto.
167 actions9 triggers
Messages fire, reminders get created, and channels get reconfigured before you've read what triggered them. Rills proposes every Slack action; you approve before anything ships.
Interactive. No signup. 14 days free · approvals always free.
Most automation fires first, asks later. Rills shows you the change before it ships.
Every consequential communication action from Slack arrives on your phone first. Approve in seconds. Decline without explaining yourself. Workflows wait, paused at zero cost, until you decide.
Queue 3
Create 8 follow-up reminders for unanswered DM threads?
8 threads · no reply in past 72h
Same pattern as last Monday's follow-up run
3 threads involve active client accounts
Free to wait. Free to think.
Approvals and logic don't cost a credit. Pause a workflow for three hours or three weeks. The price is the same: zero. You only pay when something real happens: an AI call, an outbound action.
Approve from your phone in five seconds.
Swipe right when you're sure. Decline when you're not. Between meetings, mid-coffee, on the train. No dashboard to babysit, no inbox triage, and no surprise send you find out about after it's already out the door.
Routine cases graduate themselves.
Every approval feeds a confidence score for that exact workflow shape. The obvious cases (the ones you've green-lit fifty times) start running on their own. The judgment calls still come to you.
About Slack automation
Slack automation feels safe until something posts to the wrong channel at the wrong moment, or a reminder fires to a client before you knew it was going out.
When Slack runs unsupervised
One misconfigured trigger and messages go out to everyone, presence gets set incorrectly, or a channel gets unarchived at the worst possible time.
- SLACK_CHANNEL_MESSAGE_RECEIVED: A bot reads an inbound message and sends a reply that contradicts what your team already told the client.
- SLACK_DIRECT_MESSAGE_RECEIVED: An automated response fires into a DM thread where a sensitive negotiation is already in progress.
- SLACK_REACTION_ADDED: A reaction on a status message triggers a downstream action that posts a public update you hadn't signed off on.
- SLACK_RECEIVE_BOT_MESSAGE: A bot-to-bot handoff creates a reminder or opens a DM before anyone has verified the context is correct.
- SLACK_CHANNEL_CREATED: A new channel gets created and populated with participants before the name or purpose has been confirmed.
What Rills does inside Slack
Rills watches for the communication events that matter, then queues proposed actions like creating a reminder, setting a conversation topic, or sending an ephemeral message for your review before anything hits a channel or inbox.
The message still goes out; you just see it before it does.
When Slack events should and shouldn't act on their own
Not every trigger carries the same risk. Some Slack events are routine enough to graduate toward autonomous handling over time; others should always wait for your call.
- SLACK_CHANNEL_CREATED: Routine enough to automate once you've confirmed the naming and membership pattern a few times.
- SLACK_MESSAGE_REACTION_ADDED: Can be routine for internal emoji-based status signals, but needs a human when it drives any customer-facing communication.
- SLACK_RECEIVE_BOT_MESSAGE: Almost always needs a human; bot-sourced messages carry assumptions that are hard to verify without reading the thread.
- SLACK_DIRECT_MESSAGE_RECEIVED: Always wait for your approval when the proposed response involves pricing, commitments, or anything a client will screenshot.
- SLACK_REACTION_REMOVED: Low stakes on its own, but if it unwinds a workflow that already sent something, a human needs to confirm the reversal first.
What wakes Rills up in Slack
When these events fire, Rills proposes the next move and waits for your call.
SLACK CHANNEL MESSAGE RECEIVED
Fires when a message is posted in a Slack channel, including public, private, and multi-party conversations—but excludes direct messages. This is ideal for monitoring all team channel activity.
SLACK DIRECT MESSAGE RECEIVED
Fires when a user receives a direct message in Slack. Catches messages across all DM conversations with a single trigger.
SLACK MESSAGE REACTION ADDED
Fires when someone adds an emoji reaction to a message in Slack. You can optionally filter by specific channels or emoji types.
What Rills can do in Slack
2 of 167 actions across reads, writes, and updates.
- 01
Create channel
Creates a new public or private channel in your Slack workspace to organize team conversations around specific topics, projects, or departments.
- 02
Fetch conversation history
Retrieves a chronological list of messages from a Slack channel, allowing you to access conversation history with filtering by date range and pagination options.
Common questions about Slack automation
How do I automate Slack messages without AI sending things I didn't approve?
Rills intercepts the proposed action before anything ships. When a trigger fires, like a new channel message or a direct message received, Rills drafts the response or action and holds it for your approval. Nothing goes out until you say so.
Can I approve Slack automation actions from my phone?
Yes. Every proposed Slack action, whether it's opening a DM, setting a conversation topic, or creating a reminder, queues up in your mobile approval inbox. You review and approve from your phone before it fires. No dashboard required.
How do I set up a Slack reminder workflow that waits for my approval?
Connect Slack to Rills and define the trigger, such as a message received in a specific channel. Rills will propose the reminder creation and hold it in your approval queue. You decide whether it goes through. The workflow logic is free; you only pay when the action actually runs.
Can I automate Slack channel responses when a bot message comes in?
Yes. The SLACK_RECEIVE_BOT_MESSAGE trigger can kick off a proposed reply or follow-up action. Rills queues the proposal for your review before anything is sent. If the same bot message pattern repeats and you keep approving it, Rills learns and can graduate that decision to autonomous over time.
How is Rills different from Zapier for Slack automation?
Zapier fires and forgets. Once a Zap runs, the action ships without asking you. Rills holds every proposed Slack action for your approval until you trust it enough to go autonomous. You keep the veto. Approvals and workflow logic are free on Rills; you only pay for real actions taken.
Why use Rills instead of Make for Slack workflows?
Make builds flows that execute automatically. If something goes wrong, you find out after it already happened. Rills puts a human checkpoint between the trigger and the action. A message fires, Rills proposes what to do, and you approve before it ships. You are not watching a dashboard; the queue comes to your phone.
Does Rills support Slack event triggers like new messages and reactions?
Yes. Rills supports triggers including new channel messages, direct messages, reactions added or removed, and bot messages. Each event can start a proposed workflow. Rills holds the proposed action for your review rather than executing it immediately, so you catch the ones that would have gone wrong.
How much does Rills cost for Slack automation?
Approvals and workflow logic are free. You only pay when Rills takes a real action, like making an AI call or hitting an external service on your behalf. Reviewing a proposed Slack action from your phone, deciding to approve or reject it, and setting up the workflow rules costs nothing.
Pair Slack with your stack
Cross-tool workflows that propose actions and wait for your approval.
- SlackCalendlyTurn Slack messages into Calendly bookings without touching the app
- CalendlySlackTurn every Calendly event into the right Slack channel, automatically and with your approval
- SlackFellowTurn Slack messages and reactions into Fellow action items, automatically.
- FellowSlackTurn Fellow action items into Slack channels before anything falls through the cracks
- SlackGmailTurn Slack messages into Gmail drafts and emails, with your approval before anything sends
- GmailSlackTurn every important Gmail event into the right Slack action, reviewed before it runs