Sync to Slack

Variable History can notify people of variable commits by sending messages to a Slack channel. Follow the steps to enable this feature:

Set up Slack

We need to first create a Slack App and grant it permissions to upload files and send messages:

1. Create a Slack App

1. Visit https://api.slack.com/apps (opens in a new tab), Click "Create an App" to generate a new Slack App.
2. Select "From scratch", give your app a name (e.g. "Variable Bot") and pick a workspace you have admin access to.
3. Click "Create App" and the browser will navigate to the app's settings page.

2. Configure permissions and get a bot token

1. Click OAuth & Permissions on the left sidebar.
2. Go to Scopes > Bot Token Scopes and add the following scopes:
   • files:write
   • files:read
   • chat:write
3. Go to OAuth Tokens and click Install to {Your workspace}.
4. Allow installation and you will get a Bot User OAuth token.

3. Add the app to a channel

1. Go back to your Slack workspace and the app should already be in the Apps list.
2. Right click the app, click View app details to open the detail dialog.
3. Click Add this app to a channel and select a channel to send messages to.

Set up Variable History

1. Go to Settings > Synchronization and click Add Sync Task.
2. Select Slack to add a new Slack sync task.
3. Fill in the channel ID, bot token and a file name. Save the sync task. (To get a channel ID, right click a channel, select View channel details can scroll down to the bottom of the detail modal.)

You're all set! When you commit changes, the plugin will send commit information and a compiled CSS file to the Slack channel.