For a Git Slack integration, use the vendor's own app. The GitHub app for Slack posts new issues, pull requests, merges, releases and deployments into a channel you subscribe. The GitLab for Slack app does the same for GitLab, and also lets people open and search issues from Slack. Where they stop: each channel gets what you subscribe it to and nothing more, comments stay hidden in threads, the posts are written for developers, and a bug your support person posts in Slack doesn't become an issue unless someone copies it over. AI agents read those channels, give each request an owner and follow up.
What a Git Slack integration does for a small business
If your team or your contractors build software, the work lives in GitHub or GitLab. Your team talks in Slack. When the two don't meet, you find out a fix went out because a customer tells you, and a bug your support person posted in Slack sits for a week because no developer saw it.
So connected has to mean two things. The right people see what changed in the code, in words they can act on. And requests from the rest of the business reach the developers and get an owner. The vendors' apps do the first part. The second part is still a person's job.
Ways to connect GitHub or GitLab to Slack
Most teams use the app from whichever service holds their code.
The GitHub app for Slack
- How it works
- GitHub's own app. A Slack admin adds it once from slack.github.com, then you type /github subscribe with your repository in each channel. By default it posts new and closed issues and pull requests, new commits on the main branch, releases and deployments. Reviews, comments, branches and workflow runs are off until you turn them on.
- Good for
- Teams on GitHub who want one channel per project that shows what changed.
- Where it breaks
- GitHub's own notes list the limits: one label filter per repository, comments and reviews only inside threads unless you turn on broadcast, and mentions that reach you in only the last Slack workspace you signed in to. Since March 2025 it no longer posts each step of a build, only when a workflow starts and ends.
The GitLab for Slack app
- How it works
- GitLab's own app for GitLab.com, Self-Managed and Dedicated. You install it from Settings, Integrations in a project or group. It posts pushes, merge requests, issues, pipelines, deployments and more, and the /gitlab command lets people show, open, search and close issues from Slack.
- Good for
- Teams on GitLab, and teams where people outside the code team need to open an issue.
- Where it breaks
- Each event can go to at most 10 channels, and a private channel gets nothing until the app is added to it. On Self-Managed, an admin has to turn the app on first. Commands run as each person's own GitLab account, so someone without one can't use them.
GitLab's older Slack notifications
- How it works
- A webhook setting in each GitLab project that posts events to a channel. Setups made with it still send messages.
- Good for
- Teams that already have it and only want posts, no commands.
- Where it breaks
- GitLab has marked it deprecated and plans to remove it in version 19.0, which it calls a breaking change. Its issue also says the new app doesn't yet do everything the old one did.
Arkeo agents
- How it works
- Agents read the Slack channels where GitHub or GitLab post and where your team asks for things. They turn each request or bug report into a task with an owner, chase it until it's done, and tell the person who asked when it ships.
- Good for
- Small businesses where the owner, sales or support need to know what the developers are doing, without reading code posts.
- Where it breaks
- Anything your rules keep for a person, like deciding which fix goes first, goes to the owner in one message.
How to connect GitHub to Slack, and GitLab to Slack
Short steps, true to GitHub's and GitLab's own guides. Open them for the screens.
- 1Add the GitHub app to your workspace
Go to slack.github.com and click Add to Slack. Anyone with admin rights in your Slack workspace can do this, and it only needs to be done once.
- 2Invite it and sign in
In each channel that should get updates, type /invite @github. Private channels need this step. Then each person opens a direct message with the GitHub app and connects their GitHub account.
- 3Subscribe the channel to a repository
Type /github subscribe followed by the owner and repository name. Add features like reviews or comments the same way, and remove the ones you don't want with /github unsubscribe. /github subscribe list shows what the channel gets.
- 4On GitLab, install the GitLab for Slack app
In your project or group, go to Settings, then Integrations, then GitLab for Slack app, and select Install GitLab for Slack app. Select Allow in Slack. Installing it on a group turns it on for the projects under it.
- 5Test one change
Open a test issue or pull request and check that it reaches the right channel. If nothing comes, GitLab says to check the channel name and add the app to private channels.
Where the GitHub and GitLab Slack apps stop
The apps post what happens in the code. Making sense of it, and moving work the other way, is still done by hand. A channel gets only the events you subscribed it to. On GitHub, comments and reviews stay inside the thread of each pull request unless you turn on broadcast, so the question a developer asked the owner can sit there unseen. GitHub allows one label filter per repository, and that filter doesn't apply to commits or branches.
The posts are written for developers. A business owner sees a branch name and a pull request number, not what changed for customers. Someone still has to turn that into a line for support or for the client.
Work from the rest of the business doesn't flow back by itself. When support posts a bug in a Slack channel, it stays a Slack message until someone opens an issue for it. GitLab's /gitlab issue new command helps, but only for people who have a GitLab account and know the project name.
And the posts can lag or change. GitHub's status page records a May 12, 2026 incident when its Slack messages took an average of 20 minutes to arrive. GitHub stopped posting each step of a build in March 2025. GitLab plans to remove its older Slack notifications, and says its new app doesn't yet match it.
The agents that do it
Each agent does one job from start to finish, in your own Slack. Your team talks to them there.
Ask once in Slack. Someone owns it.
- Takes requests posted in your Slack channelas they come
- Turns each one into a task with an ownerright away
- Follows up until it's doneevery day
The tickets that matter reach the right person fast.
- Reads new support ticketsevery hour
- Spots angry, urgent or repeat problemsper ticket
- Tells the right person in Slack, with the historyright away
Questions
Is my customers' information safe?
Yes. Agents work only in the Slack channels you add them to and see only what their job needs. Customer details never go into public AI. Agents connect to AI through business-grade connections audited under SOC 2.
How do I connect GitHub to Slack?
Add the GitHub app for Slack from slack.github.com, type /invite @github in a channel, then type /github subscribe with your repository name. Each person signs in to GitHub from a direct message with the app.
How do I connect GitLab to Slack?
In your GitLab project or group, go to Settings, Integrations, GitLab for Slack app, and select Install GitLab for Slack app. Then set which events go to which channels.
Can the Slack app send GitHub Actions results?
Yes, once you subscribe a channel to workflows. GitHub says it posts when a workflow starts and when it ends. It stopped posting each job's progress in March 2025.
What does it cost?
You get the price on the call, along with the hours it saves your team.
Sources
- docs.github.com: integrate github with slack
- docs.github.com: use github in slack
- github.com: slack
- github.blog: 03 deprecation of real time github actions workflow job events in slac
- githubstatus.com: dvx
- docs.gitlab.com: gitlab slack application
- docs.gitlab.com: gitlab slack app troubleshooting
- gitlab.com