openclaw-slack-blockkit-bridge

OpenClaw plugin for sending native Slack Block Kit cards and handling interactive button clicks.

Send interactive cards to Slack and handle button clicks — all driven by your OpenClaw agent.

Built-in templates (approval, task-progress, pick-one) work out of the box:

<img src="assets/approval-card.png" width="400" alt="Approval card" />

Custom Block Kit layouts let you build rich cards with images, structured content, and multiple actions:

<img src="assets/custom-card.png" width="480" alt="Custom card with images" />

Installation

openclaw plugins install openclaw-slack-blockkit-bridge

Requirements

• OpenClaw v2026.4.2+
• A Slack bot token with chat:write and chat:write.public scopes

Configuration

Add to your ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under plugins.entries:

"slack-blockkit-bridge": {
  "enabled": true,
  "config": {
    "backend": "direct-slack-api",
    "deliveryMode": "live",
    "tokenFile": "/path/to/slack-bot.token",
    "allowChannels": ["YOUR_CHANNEL_ID"]
  }
}

Agent exec permissions

When an agent calls gateway methods via the CLI, add openclaw to its exec allowlist in ~/.openclaw/exec-approvals.json:

{
  "defaults": {},
  "agents": {
    "main": {
      "security": "allowlist",
      "ask": "off",
      "allowlist": [
        { "host": "gateway", "bin": "/usr/local/bin/openclaw" }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace /usr/local/bin/openclaw with the path from which openclaw. Changes take effect immediately — no gateway restart needed.

Note: If openclaw doctor --fix rewrites the defaults block, re-check that defaults stays empty ({}). A non-empty defaults.security overrides per-agent settings in OpenClaw 4.2.

Quick Start

Send an approval card (replace YOUR_CHANNEL_ID with a Slack channel ID):

openclaw gateway call slack-blockkit-bridge.send-template --json --params '{
  "kind": "approval",
  "channel": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID",
  "title": "Deploy to production?"
}'

Post into an existing thread:

openclaw gateway call slack-blockkit-bridge.send-template --json --params '{
  "kind": "approval",
  "channel": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID",
  "threadTs": "1234567890.123456",
  "title": "Deploy to production?"
}'

From an agent, use the native gateway_call(method, params) tool if available, or call via exec:

openclaw gateway call slack-blockkit-bridge.health --json

Gateway methods

Templates

send-template params

Template kinds

approval — Approve / Reject buttons

openclaw gateway call slack-blockkit-bridge.send-template --json --params '{
  "kind": "approval",
  "channel": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID",
  "title": "Merge this PR?",
  "body": "Branch: feature/new-ui"
}'

task-progress — Start / Done buttons

openclaw gateway call slack-blockkit-bridge.send-template --json --params '{
  "kind": "task-progress",
  "channel": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID",
  "title": "Start the data export now?"
}'

pick-one — Custom option buttons (min 2)

openclaw gateway call slack-blockkit-bridge.send-template --json --params '{
  "kind": "pick-one",
  "channel": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID",
  "title": "Which environment?",
  "options": [
    { "value": "staging", "label": "Staging", "style": "primary" },
    { "value": "prod", "label": "Production", "style": "danger" }
  ]
}'

Post-action render modes

• replace (default): card is replaced with ✅ Handled: {label} after a button click
• preserve: original card stays visible, the chosen button is marked, a result block is appended

Custom cards (send)

For full Block Kit control, use send directly. All interactive button action_id values must start with wbk::

openclaw gateway call slack-blockkit-bridge.send --json --params '{
  "channel": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID",
  "text": "Review request",
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "Review request\nApprove or reject?" }
    },
    {
      "type": "actions",
      "elements": [
        { "type": "button", "action_id": "wbk:review:approve", "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "Approve" }, "style": "primary" },
        { "type": "button", "action_id": "wbk:review:reject", "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "Reject" }, "style": "danger" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "actions": [
    { "actionId": "wbk:review:approve", "actionName": "approve" },
    { "actionId": "wbk:review:reject", "actionName": "reject" }
  ]
}'

Interaction resolution

The runtime exposes a resolveInteraction?(...) seam that lets callers customize post-click behavior without modifying the plugin:

• override reply text for a specific action
• suppress or replace the default handled-card update
• supply custom blocks, metadata, or state patches
• choose post-action render mode per card

App-specific logic (quiz grading, routing, etc.) belongs in the caller's resolver, not in this plugin.

Local development

npm run build   # compile src/*/.ts → dist/
npm test        # build test fixtures + run tests
npm pack        # build and pack for distribution

Troubleshooting

exec denied: host=gateway security=deny

Cause (OpenClaw 4.2): openclaw doctor --fix writes "security": "deny" into the defaults block of ~/.openclaw/exec-approvals.json. In 4.2, defaults.security takes priority over per-agent settings, blocking all exec calls.

Fix:

• Clear the defaults block:

   "defaults": {}

• Set each agent's security explicitly to prevent them from inheriting the permissive default:

   "agents": {
     "main": { "security": "allowlist", "ask": "off", "allowlist": [...] },
     "other-agent": { "security": "deny" }
   }

• Confirm openclaw full path is in the allowlist (which openclaw).

No gateway restart needed — the file is hot-reloaded.