Platform Newsletter - December 2024
Published December 12, 2025
As the year comes to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on 2024 with you. In Spain, where I’m from, it’s tradition to write to the Three Wise Men for the holidays. So, I thought I’d format this newsletter like a letter to Santa (or your preferred gift-bringer)!
First, a heartfelt thank-you.
Thank you for being an integral part of this newsletter. Your engagement—reading, sharing feedback, contributing your ideas, booking office hours, and collaborating with us at events—has made this community truly special.
This year, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you, hearing about your projects, and learning how you’re building on the Slack platform. You’ve inspired me, and I’m excited to keep the momentum going in 2025!
My wishes for you in the new year:
🎁 Keep building! Share your expertise and help this vibrant Slack developer community grow.
🎁 Let’s collaborate more. We’re here to help, whether you want to share feedback, brainstorm ideas, or just chat about your next project.
🎁 Automate smarter. Use Slack’s tools to make your workday more productive and free up time for the things that bring you joy.
Looking Back at 2024
This year was nothing short of amazing:
- We met at so many events—TDX, Dreamforce, Dreamin’ events, and conferences around the globe.
- We launched the Slack Developer Hub at slack.dev, bringing together all the resources you need to start or grow your journey on the platform.
- Thousands of you joined the Developer Program, using sandboxes to test automations and apps. We even integrated these sandboxes with Trailhead for seamless learning.
- AI stole the spotlight, from partner marketplace apps to custom workflows with generative AI.
And there’s more, but you’ve been with us every step of the way. Let’s agree—it’s been a fun ride!
Wishing you happy holidays filled with joy, rest, and inspiration for 2025.
See you in January!
When lunch gets critical: How Slack turns meals into incident mastery
At Slack, training for incident response isn’t just practical—it’s deliciously creative. Enter the "Incident Lunch," a hands-on exercise where participants navigate real-world challenges using Slack's incident response practices, all while solving a pressing issue: how to get lunch under constraints and time pressure. From role-playing and chaos cards to cross-team participation, this low-cost, high-impact training approach equips staff to handle the unexpected with confidence and fun. Ready to turn lunchtime into a learning opportunity? Training for incident response at Slack comes with a twist: a hands-on "Incident Lunch" exercise where teams tackle challenges (and lunch constraints) together. It’s low-cost, high-impact, and deliciously creative. Could this inspire your next team-building activity?
AI meets engineering: How Slack saves 10,000+ dev hours annually
Generative AI is reshaping software development at Slack, with innovative tools saving over 10,000 developer hours yearly. By integrating an AI-powered bot into escalation channels, engineers get real-time support through intelligent post classification, context-aware answers, and customizable workflows. From leveraging Amazon Bedrock for knowledge management to reducing hallucinations in AI responses, this approach balances cutting-edge tech with Slack's commitment to security, data protection, and customization. Dive into how these tools enhance productivity and redefine the developer experience!
Astra gets a tune-up: Dynamic chunks save space and costs
Slack’s Astra log search engine processes a staggering 6 million log messages per second, generating over 10GB of data every second. Initially built with fixed-size chunks for simplicity, this design led to inefficiencies like underutilized cache space and oversized chunks. To tackle these issues, the team redesigned Astra with dynamic chunk sizes, reducing wasted space and optimizing storage costs. Discover how Slack transformed a key component of Astra to handle massive-scale data more efficiently while cutting infrastructure expenses.
Even Santa uses assistants 🎅
Santa’s got elves, but you’ve got the Assistant class in Bolt! Build your own assistant app in Slack and make work feel like magic, with this tutorial.
Exciting updates ahead!
- API documentation update: The Slack Documentation team is gearing up for an exciting overhaul! We’ll be revamping our API documentation—both front-end and back-end—to enhance your development experience. While changes won’t occur until Spring 2025, we’ll keep you posted with updates. Be sure to check the API changelog to learn more about this project. Change takes time, and we’re here every step of the way!
- Dynamic Inputs for Custom Steps: This new capability empowers builders to create smarter, more efficient workflows by allowing form fields to dynamically change based on user input. It’s a huge step forward in building more flexible and user-friendly Slack apps! What is ‘Dynamic Inputs’? Dynamic Inputs enable you to tailor form options on the fly based on earlier selections. For example:
If user selects Field A = “X”, the subsequent options could be “A, B, C” in Field B
If user selects Field A = “Y”, you display options “D, E, F” in Field B
Why is it useful?
Simplified Workflows: Say goodbye to building multiple steps for each possible variation. Dynamic Inputs make your forms adaptable to each user’s needs.
Reusability: One form can now do it all, saving time and reducing complexity.
Legacy Workflow Migration: Dynamic Inputs address a common request from power users migrating from older workflows, making it easier to transition without losing flexibility.
- New major version of the Slack GitHub Action The Slack GitHub Action is used in GitHub workflows to send data into Slack. As well as adding support for all Slack HTTP API methods, this release also added support for using WFB 2.0 automations with webhook triggers as a technique for sending data into Slack.
- Agentforce in Slack: Discover the transformative power of Agentforce when integrated into Slack. Revolutionize teamwork at your organization by leveraging Agentforce to streamline collaboration, enhance productivity, and drive efficiency.
- New admin controls for managing Developer Sandboxes: We’ve introduced several new admin controls to make managing developer sandboxes easier and more efficient:
User access restrictions: Org admins can now limit who joins sandboxes using an allowlist of email domains.
Slack Connect controls: Manage Slack Connect settings so sandboxes only connect with others within the same organization.
Automatic resolution policies: Set default approval rules for sandbox requests, reducing manual admin effort.
These changes aim to give admins more control and flexibility while ensuring a secure and streamlined experience for sandbox environments. Detailed documentation will be available soon on the API site.
We’re always blown away by what our community creates—and we want to highlight you next! Whether it’s a handy tool, a step-by-step guide, or an insightful article, if you’re proud of it, we want to hear all about it.
📬 Send us a message at technewsletter@slack-corp.com and share what you’ve been working on.
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