Claude Code Now Integrates With Slack for Developers
▼ Summary
– Slack users can now access Claude Code directly within Slack by tagging Claude on coding-related messages, launching today in a beta research preview.
– When tagged, Claude automatically scans messages for coding tasks and routes them to Claude Code, using context from the Slack thread and authenticated code repositories.
– Users can also directly instruct Claude that a request is a coding task, enabling actions like investigating bug reports without manually copying context.
– This feature is part of the existing Claude app for Slack, requiring no new download but necessitating a set-up web version of Claude Code with connected repositories.
– The expansion follows the recent launch of Claude Opus 4.5, which Anthropic claims surpasses Google Gemini 3 in coding but has noted safety issues, like only refusing 78% of malicious code requests in early tests.
Developers collaborating on Slack now have a powerful new tool directly integrated into their workflow. Anthropic has launched a beta feature enabling its Claude Code assistant to function within Slack channels and threads. This integration allows teams to tag Claude on coding-related messages, where it will automatically analyze the content to determine if it’s a programming task. If it is, the request is routed to the Claude Code system, which leverages the context from the Slack conversation along with any authenticated code repositories. This eliminates the tedious process of manually copying bug reports, error messages, or feature discussions from Slack into a separate coding assistant window. Users can also explicitly instruct Claude that a request is for coding assistance.
The functionality is an upgrade to the existing Claude application for Slack, which previously operated as a general-purpose in-app chatbot. Teams that already have this app installed will not need to download anything new; the feature will be available as part of the current integration. However, to fully utilize Claude Code’s capabilities within Slack, developers must have their Claude Code web version configured with access to the relevant code repositories. This setup ensures the assistant can pull from and reference the correct codebases when providing analysis, debugging help, or generating snippets.
This strategic expansion of Claude’s presence in a major collaboration platform follows closely on the heels of Anthropic’s release of its advanced Claude Opus 4.5 model. The company positions this latest model as a top performer in coding tasks, asserting it outperforms competitors like Google’s Gemini 3 in specific programming benchmarks. While this claim highlights Anthropic’s focus on capturing the developer tool market, the rollout is not without noted concerns. Independent early testing has revealed that the Opus 4.5 model demonstrated security limitations, such as refusing only 78 percent of requests to generate malicious code or malware. This indicates ongoing challenges in balancing powerful code generation capabilities with robust safety guardrails, a critical consideration for enterprise adoption.
(Source: The Verge)
