Linking your Slack account to Scout
Once an Owner or Admin has connected Slack to your workspace, each person links their own Slack account to their own Scout seat. Only you can do this for you: nobody — not an Admin, not the Owner — can link, confirm or change it on your behalf. This article walks both routes and every state you might land in.
Opening your Slack panel
- Open Settings → Workspace → Notifications.
- In the header of the Item Updates card, choose the Slack control. Before you are linked it reads Slack with Choose your account underneath; afterwards it shows your Slack display name and Connected.
- The panel opens, headed Your Slack Account — "Choose your user from this workspace's Slack connection." It is marked Optional channel, because it is.
When you are not yet linked, the status line reads: "Link and confirm your Slack account to receive item updates."
Route one: confirming an email match
If your Slack directory email address is the same as the address on your Scout seat, Scout proposes the match for you to check.
- Read the proposal: "Match found: Ray Alvarez (ray@scoutpromotional.com)."
- Choose Review Slack match. Scout adds the caution: "Confirm only if this is your own Slack account. If this request expires, start again."
- Choose Confirm my Slack account — or Cancel to back out without linking anything.
A matching email address is a proposal, never a decision. Scout will not link accounts because two addresses look alike — a person confirms, every time.
Route two: linking with a Slack code
Use this when your Slack email address differs from your Scout address, or when no match was proposed. The panel says so: "If your email addresses differ, use a Slack code to prove both accounts."
- Pick the account you want under Your Slack user — the list shows each display name with its Slack user identifier, and starts on Select your account.
- Choose Link with a Slack code. Scout shows a command to run, with instructions: in your own Slack account, enter the command below; keep this code private; it expires after five minutes; then return here and refresh. No delivery is enabled until you confirm the verified account.
- Copy the command — it looks like
/scout linkfollowed by a long code — and enter it in Slack, as yourself. - Come back to Scout and choose Refresh. The status line now reads "Verified in Slack: …" with your name.
- Choose Review verified Slack account, then Confirm my Slack account.
If the code expires or you want a fresh one, choose Start a new link code. Entering the command in Slack proves you control that Slack account; confirming in Scout proves you control that seat. Both halves are needed, which is what makes it impossible to attach somebody else's Slack account to yours.
Turning Slack delivery on
Linking on its own sends you nothing. Once connected, the status line points you onward: "Your Slack account is connected. Choose which notifications to receive in Slack in your notification settings." Close the panel, tick the Slack column for Assigned to me and Items I follow, then Save changes.
Unlinking
Choose Unlink my Slack in the same panel. The status line becomes "Your Slack account is unlinked. No Scout data can be sent through this link." Nothing further is delivered to Slack for you; your Inbox, your email and your work are untouched. You can link again later, through the same confirmation.
The states you might see
| Status line | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Link and confirm your Slack account to receive item updates." | Not linked yet. | Use either route above. |
| "Your Slack account is connected…" | Linked and working. | Tick the Slack channels you want. |
| "Your link is confirmed, but delivery is paused until the installation and directory are current." | Your link is fine; the workspace's Slack connection is not ready. | Wait, then Refresh. If it persists, ask an Owner or Admin to check the connection. |
| "Your identity or connection changed. Delivery is stopped until you confirm a current match." | Something changed at Slack or in the connection, so Scout stopped rather than guessing. | Confirm a fresh match in this panel. |
| "Your Slack account is unlinked. No Scout data can be sent through this link." | You unlinked, or the link was revoked. | Link again if you want Slack updates. |
| "No current Slack directory is ready. Ask an administrator to connect Slack, then refresh after the directory finishes." | Slack is not connected to the workspace yet, or its directory is still being read. | Ask an Owner or Admin, then Refresh. |
Two other messages can appear: "That confirmation is no longer current. Review a fresh match to continue." — start again; and "Too many confirmation requests. Try again in an hour." — Scout rate-limits confirmations on purpose.
Good to know
- The link code is a secret for the five minutes it lives. Do not paste it into a channel, a ticket or a message to support.
- An administrator reconnecting the workspace's Slack connection creates a new authorization; you may be asked to confirm a current match again afterwards.
- Administrators cannot see your private Slack delivery history. They see the workspace installation's health, not your messages.
- Nothing about linking changes what you can see in Scout. It changes only where you are told about it — and once linked, you can act on items from Slack.