AI Voice Agent + Slack: Real-Time Search API and the Slack MCP Server

Slack's 2026 platform shipped two things that matter: a Real-Time Search API for streaming conversational context and an official MCP server. Voice agents now post, query, and orchestrate inside Slack the way humans do — without writing a custom app per channel.

What the integration unlocks

flowchart TD
  Client[MCP client · Claude Desktop] --> MCP[MCP server]
  MCP --> Tool1[Tool: Calendar]
  MCP --> Tool2[Tool: CRM]
  MCP --> Tool3[Tool: KB search]
  Tool1 --> SaaS1[(Calendly)]
  Tool2 --> SaaS2[(Salesforce)]
  Tool3 --> SaaS3[(Notion)]

When a CallSphere voice agent answers a Tier-1 support call and the customer asks a niche question, the agent's first move now is searching the company's internal Slack for prior threads on the same topic. If it finds the answer, it relays it. If it does not, it posts a structured help-request to #support-l2, tags the on-call engineer, and tells the customer "I have looped in our specialist; you will hear back within 12 minutes." The Slack thread becomes the system of record.

How the Slack API exposes it

Two main surfaces. (1) Real-Time Search API at https://slack.com/api/agents.search streams matched messages, threads, and files via Server-Sent Events. (2) The Slack MCP server at mcp.slack.com exposes search_messages, post_message, get_thread, add_reaction, create_canvas, and run_assistant tools to any MCP-compatible runtime. Standard Slack Web API endpoints (chat.postMessage, conversations.history, assistants.threads.setStatus) still work for low-level operations.

OAuth scopes: agents:search, chat:write, channels:history, assistant:write, im:history. OAuth 2.1 with PKCE is required for the MCP server.

How CallSphere implements it

CallSphere's IT Helpdesk vertical (10 specialist agents on the OpenAI Agents SDK with ChromaDB RAG) treats Slack as a peer to the ticketing system. The Triage agent searches Slack first, then Confluence, then the ticket system. Real Estate OneRoof's specialist Mortgage agent escalates broker questions to a private #mortgage-experts channel mid-call. Healthcare deployments post HIPAA-aware redacted summaries to #nursing-station for clinical handoffs. All 37 CallSphere agents share one Slack app installation per tenant with per-agent bot subtype distinguishing them in audit logs.

Explore a live demo and compare current plans to find the right fit for your business.

Build steps

1. Create a Slack app at api.slack.com/apps. Enable Socket Mode for low-friction local development; switch to a public bot endpoint for prod.
2. Add scopes: agents:search, chat:write, channels:history, assistant:write. Install to your workspace.
3. Mount the Slack MCP server in CallSphere agent config. Pass the bot user OAuth token through your secrets manager (rotated every 90 days).
4. In your voice agent system prompt, give two examples of when to call search_messages ("Customer asks about a known incident") and when to call post_message ("Need to alert L2").
5. Use the Real-Time Search API for queries the agent issues mid-call (sub-300ms first-token latency). Use chat.postMessage for writes since they are simpler than streaming.
6. Add a reactions:write scope and have the agent emoji-react to its own posts (:robot_face: for posted, :white_check_mark: for acknowledged) so humans can scan threads quickly.

Code snippet

// Search Slack mid-call from a CallSphere voice agent
const stream = await fetch("https://slack.com/api/agents.search", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${botToken}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    Accept: "text/event-stream",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    query: extracted.customerQuestion,
    max_results: 5,
    include_files: true,
    channels: ["C093SUPPORT", "C09KENGINEERING"],
  }),
});
// Stream SSE events; first match typically arrives in under 300ms.

FAQ

Is the MCP server in production? Yes, GA as of March 2026. CallSphere uses it on all four core verticals.

How does Real-Time Search differ from search.messages? RTS is streaming, scoped to the agent's permissions, and tuned for sub-second latency. The legacy search.messages endpoint is best for batch and analytics.

Can the voice agent trigger another Slack AI app? Yes, via the run_assistant MCP tool. CallSphere can hand off to OpenAI's Slack agent, Anthropic's Claude in Slack, or your own custom assistant.

Does this respect Enterprise Grid permissions? Fully. The agent inherits the bot user's permissions; users in private channels remain private.

Explore a live demo and compare current plans to find the right fit for your business.

Sources

• AI in Slack Overview - Slack Developer Docs
• How Slack's New Platform is Fueling the Agentic Era
• Slack AI Agents
• Announcing Agents and AI Innovations in Slack