March is here, and with it comes that unmistakable feeling of transition. 🌸 Winter’s grip is loosening, daylight’s stretching a little longer, and there’s a collective sense that things are picking up momentum again. Spring cleaning isn’t just for closets—it’s the perfect time to refresh your workflows, revisit that app you’ve been meaning to improve, and make room for what’s next. While nature’s busy budding and blooming ☘️, we’ve been busy too: rolling out thoughtful updates, handy new features, and developer tools that make building on Slack feel like a breath of fresh air. 🌱
Shake off the winter dust, give your projects some love, and see what March has in store.
Building Context-Aware Slack Agents with MCP Server and Real-time Search (RTS) API
We introduced two new capabilities to help developers build context-aware AI agents directly inside Slack: MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server and Real-time Search (RTS) API. MCP Server exposes Slack actions as structured tools that AI models can dynamically invoke, simplifying how agents interact with context found within Slack. RTS API enables secure, permission-aware, real-time search across Slack data, allowing agents to retrieve relevant context without exporting information externally. Together, these tools reduce integration complexity while grounding AI responses with added context from Slack. The result is more secure, scalable, and production-ready AI agents built natively on the Slack platform.
Bring Your Custom Data Into Slack Enterprise Search
Developers can now build Custom Search Connectors that bring internal and proprietary data sources—like internal systems, self-hosted services, and on-premise databases—directly into Slack’s enterprise search experience. These connectors let Slack users search that custom data right alongside messages, files, and other connected apps, all within the native search interface. Search results stay secure behind your firewall thanks to Slack’s zero-copy architecture, so sensitive information isn’t moved out of your infrastructure. Once connected, this custom data can also power AI features like AI Answers, making internal knowledge more discoverable and actionable. This opens up richer search and AI insights across your company’s full knowledge ecosystem.
No Shovel Needed – How to Sign up for a Developer Sandbox
Stop testing in production! The Slack Developer Program provides a free Developer Sandbox for safely building and testing apps against real behavior and your organization’s compliance boundaries. When provisioning a sandbox, you can also choose between an empty sandbox or a Slack template loaded with system-created users and channels to jumpstart your testing. Added bonus: admins can simplify the approval workflow by configuring automatic approval or denial rules for incoming sandbox requests, eliminating manual reviews. Learn more by reading ahead!
Fresh features to start the year 🚀
- Apps can now display thinking steps to users
There are new agent Block Kit blocks to help apps display structured tasks and plans in richer ways. These blocks make it easier to build interactive, task-centric UIs in Slack:
- 🗂️ task_card: Show a task with structured metadata.
- 🔗 url source: Embed clickable links directly inside task UI.
- 📋 plan block: Show an aggregate view of multiple tasks.
For more information, see the developer changelog.
- Slackbot Emojis (and Emoji Packs!)
We’re bringing back emoji packs and we’re starting with Slackbot! A banner will appear in the emoji picker alerting users that the Slackbot emoji pack is ready to install. Anyone with permission to install can add the pack to their workspace. Once installed, another banner will appear in the emoji picker alerting all team members that they can use Slackbot emojis in messages and reactions.
- Slackbot Shareable Prompts
Ever crafted the perfect Slackbot AI prompt and wished you could easily share it with your team? Well, now you can! Introducing Slackbot AI shareable prompts! Now you can forward your favorite prompts & Slackbot responses with colleagues in DMs, channels, and canvases. When someone clicks your shared link, they’ll see a beautiful unfurl card with a one-click way to try the prompt themselves.
Here’s how to do this for yourself, just head to the three dots menu on any message that’s asking Slackbot a question, and you’ll see a new Copy prompt link menu option. Next, click the Create and Copy Prompt Link and paste the link into a DM, channel or canvas!
🎧 Slack Dev Huddles — Episode 3 Live on LinkedIn! (featured app)
Our next livestream episode is all about unlocking the power of connectors in Workflow Builder. We’ll explore how to use third-party workflow steps to seamlessly integrate your favorite tools and extend your automations beyond a single system — no code required.
See how connecting your workflows to external apps opens up entirely new possibilities — from automatically updating records to triggering actions in other platforms the moment something changes. We’ll break down practical use cases and show you how to design workflows that work across your tech stack, not just within it.
Tune in to learn, build, and experiment with us!
📅 Next episode: March 17, 2026 • 4PM JST (UTC+09:00)
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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