Scopes
Scopes are the permissions your Slack app requests in order to act. Each scope grants access to a specific set of actions or data, such as reading messages in a channel, posting messages, or viewing a user's profile. An app has no access by default. It can only do what its scopes allow.
Scopes are granted to your app's tokens when a user installs your app. Two types of scopes cover most situations:
- Bot scopes grant permissions to your app's bot user, which acts with its own identity. Most apps use bot scopes.
- User scopes let your app act on behalf of the user who installed or authorized it, accessing only what that user can.
You choose the scopes your app needs when configuring it, then request them during installation through the OAuth flow. Request only the scopes your app actually needs. Asking for more permissions than necessary can cause users or admins to reject the installation. You can always add scopes later, though granting new scopes to an existing token requires the user to reauthorize your app.
The full list of available scopes is below. Each entry notes the token types it applies to and the API methods it unlocks.