Slack unveils Slack Code, a platform where teams and AI agents collaborate.

      On Thursday, Slack introduced a new coding product. Slack Code features project-specific channels that allow teams and AI agents to collaboratively write, review, and deploy software within the chat application, eliminating the need to switch to a separate browser tab.

      The functionality is straightforward. By tagging a coding agent within any conversation, a dedicated code channel is created. All members in that channel can monitor the progress through various tabs, including one for discussion, one for the plan, one for code differences, and another for a live output preview. Once tasks are completed, the channel archives itself, but the record remains as an audit log.

      According to Slack’s announcement, users can “audit code diffs, see live previews of the agent’s output, provide feedback, and approve work prior to release.” The diff view is a familiar format: old lines are struck through and new lines are shown alongside. The distinction is that the entire channel can view the diffs instead of just a single reviewer using a separate tool.

      Slack Code is available as of today on any Slack plan, as reported by Jess Weatherbed from The Verge. Access to each partner agent requires a separate purchase, which is where the revenue is generated.

      Benioff indicated this development back in May. This release was anticipated rather than unexpected. TNW reported that Salesforce anticipated investing $300 million in Anthropic tokens during the year. The same article mentioned that Marc Benioff intended to integrate coding into Slack. Now, three months later, it has materialized.

      On Wednesday evening, Benioff shared a demo video on X, as noted by Gizmodo's Webb Wright. Salesforce acquired Slack in 2020 and has spent this year transforming the app into the main interface for its agent strategy, beginning with Slackbot in the spring.

      ChatGPT is now a founding partner in this venture. The list of partners is noteworthy, as Slack Code launches with agents from Anthropic, Cognition, GitHub, Vercel, and OpenAI, positioning ChatGPT alongside Claude as a founding partner of Salesforce's primary collaboration tool.

      This relationship comes with a complicated backdrop. Salesforce employees were already perplexed about the company's promotion of Anthropic within Slack back in June because Agentforce targets the same funding. Instead of reducing partnerships, Salesforce has chosen to introduce more external agents.

      In June, Anthropic introduced Claude Tag in Slack, and its product lead characterized the current launch as a logical extension of that initiative. “Much of the engineering work starts as a conversation in Slack with Claude Tag,” stated Cat Wu, head of Claude product at Anthropic. “Slack Code provides teams a dedicated channel where the personnel, context, and Claude collaborate from the outset.”

      GitHub presented it as a division of labor, with Mario Rodriguez, the company's chief product officer, stating, “Humans set the direction, agents complete the loop.”

      High-stakes tasks require human approval. Before any code merges into production, the agents compile their work for a qualified individual to approve within the channel. Gianna Dimick, a spokesperson for the company, told Gizmodo, “Slack Code requires human sign-off on high-stakes actions such as merging code into production.” All this operates within Slack’s established enterprise security framework.

      This requirement exists for a reason. There have been instances where coding agents eradicated codebases during live sessions, as highlighted by Gizmodo. Agents in code channels are subjected to Slack’s permissions and administrative controls, so IT does not have to create new identities.

      Anyone within a channel can pause, redirect, or halt an agent's tasks at any time. A new Agents tab displays all agents and sessions throughout the app, flagging blocked threads and providing a similar abort option.

      The pitch emphasizes enabling non-engineers to contribute to the process. Slack markets its capability as much for accessibility as for speed. Its example begins with a product manager noticing a bug report; the manager tags an agent, and a fix is reviewed and merged without requiring an engineer's initial involvement.

      “In the Code channel, the entire team collaborates with the agent on the build,” stated Katie Steigman, Slack’s vice president of product, in the demo video. “Everyone is kept in the loop, eliminating the need for additional meetings.”

      Rob Seaman, executive vice president and general manager of Slack, articulated the value perspective: “AI creates value only when it integrates into a team’s workflow, rather than as something people do in isolation in another tab.”

      Software engineering is seen as the starting point, with the potential for expansion. Slack has indicated that the code channel APIs will be accessible to the broader developer community. This could facilitate the participation of custom agents in areas like marketing campaigns or legal document reviews.

      A distinct “Add to Slack” process enables teams to effortlessly integrate agents developed on platforms such as Lovable, n8n, LangChain, and Superhuman with just a few clicks. Slack has streamlined the OAuth handshake and the underlying manifest setup.

      The workspace is