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Slack alerts in 5 minutes

Connect a Slack workspace, route incidents to a channel, and verify delivery with a test alert.

What you will build

By the end of this tutorial you will have:

  • A Slack Incoming Webhook connected to your workspace
  • One or more monitors sending alerts to a Slack channel
  • A verified test alert that confirms the integration works

Time: approximately 5 minutes
Prerequisites: a HOWLOPS account, a Slack workspace where you can install apps

Step 1 — Create an Incoming Webhook in Slack

  1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps and click Create New App.
  2. Choose From scratch. Give it a name (e.g. HOWLOPS Alerts) and select your workspace. Click Create App.
  3. In the left sidebar, click Incoming Webhooks.
  4. Toggle Activate Incoming Webhooks to On.
  5. Click Add New Webhook to Workspace.
  6. Select the Slack channel where alerts should appear (e.g. #incidents or #alerts).
  7. Click Allow.
  8. Copy the Webhook URL — it starts with https://hooks.slack.com/services/...

Step 2 — Add the Slack channel in HOWLOPS

  1. In your HOWLOPS workspace, go to Integrations in the sidebar.
  2. Click + Add Channel and choose Slack.
  3. Paste the Webhook URL you copied.
  4. Give the channel a name (e.g. ops-slack).
  5. Click Save.

Step 3 — Send a test alert

  1. In the channel list, find ops-slack and click Send Test Alert.
  2. Switch to Slack — you should see a test message in your chosen channel within a few seconds.

If the message does not arrive:

  • Verify the Webhook URL was copied in full with no trailing spaces.
  • Check that the Slack app is still installed in the workspace (Slack → Manage Apps).
  • Confirm the target channel exists and the webhook has permission to post to it.

Step 4 — Assign the channel to a monitor

  1. Go to Monitors and open the monitor you want to alert on.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. In the Notifications section, select ops-slack from the dropdown.
  4. Click Save.

The monitor will now send alerts and recovery notifications to your Slack channel.

Step 5 — (Optional) Route only critical alerts

If you want only certain monitors to page Slack while others remain email-only:

  • Assign the Slack channel only to monitors that warrant it.
  • For high-traffic services where you want to reduce noise, set the alert threshold to 2 or 3 consecutive failures before alerting.

What an alert looks like in Slack

When a monitor goes down, Slack receives a message similar to:

[DOWN] Production API
URL: https://api.example.com/health
Error: HTTP 503 - Service Unavailable
Time: 2026-05-13 10:00:00 UTC
View incident: /incidents/...

A recovery message is sent automatically when the monitor comes back up.

Next steps

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