The work you agreed to in Slack, in your own record.

Trace for Slack is part of the Trace Mac app, so the connection starts there rather than here. There is no “Add to Slack” button on this page on purpose: the sign-in has to begin on your machine for it to be secure.

• Download Trace and open it. macOS 14 or later.
• Open /config from the project list, and find Read a Slack channel.
• Press Connect Slack.Your browser opens Slack’s approval screen. Approve it, and the tab hands you back to Trace.
• Pick your channels. Open a project and run /slack-connect to choose which channels feed it.

• React 📌 to any message to file it into Trace as a proposed task, in whichever project you bound that channel to. Nothing is written to your board until you accept it.
• React 🔎 or ❓ to ask Trace about that message. The answer comes back as a direct message.
• Message Trace directlyto ask what’s on your plate, add or complete a task, or start work — and get the result back in the same conversation, including a recording of what was done.

Trace never posts, reacts or replies in a channel. Every reply it sends is a direct message to you and nobody else. It is not added to any channel and never appears in a channel’s member list — nobody you work with will see that you are using it.

Trace reads Slack as you, using your own authorization. It can only see channels you are already a member of, and only the ones you explicitly picked inside Trace. It cannot see anything you can’t.

Reactions count only when you added them. A colleague reacting to a message is their bookmark, not your record, and Trace ignores it.

Everything read is stored on your own Mac. No message, reaction or token passes through a Trace server — the privacy page spells out the one narrow exception and why it can’t read anything.

Many companies require an administrator to approve any Slack app. If yours does, the first person to connect Trace will be asked to request approval instead of granting it, and an admin has to allow it once for the workspace. Everyone after that approves it just for themselves.

The permissions Trace asks for are deliberately narrow, which makes that a short conversation: it reads only the channels one named person is already in, it cannot add itself anywhere, and it can only message that same person back.

Something not working? Support covers the common cases, or write to support@justrytrace.app.