Retrieving messages from Slack over MCP allows a shared read-only bot account accessible from the web browser and CLI. Setup is automated so users can just ask Claude to read them and do something.

Sharing Slack with Claude:

- Using the "normal" way, it shares too much, including privates messages.

- Using your own token, it doesn't work with Claude.AI or Cowork and requires you to go to slack.com to generate an application, tokens and more.

- Using a shared token, now you need context to tell Claude to retrieve it. It still doesn't work for non-Claude Code workflows. Rotation may break currently running workflows.