Slack alert

Slack alert posts a message to a Slack channel for every document that reaches it. The message is a template: you write the text once, and placeholders fill in with the document’s extracted values and its Validate verdicts. It lives in the Alerts section of the Studio palette and is in Beta. It is a terminal node. Put it at the end of a branch, usually the true branch of an If/Else, so it fires only on the documents you want to hear about. It needs the Slack connector. Connect your workspace once per organization: Slack integration.

The node

{
  "id": "slack_1",
  "type": "slack_alert",
  "channel_id": "C0123ABC",
  "channel_name": "#finance",
  "message_template": "Invoice from ${field.vendor_name}: ${field.total} ${field.currency}. Totals check: ${validation.totals-add-up.status}",
  "severity": "warning"
}

import os
from anyformat.sdk import Client
from anyformat.workflow import (
    WorkflowDefinition, Edge,
    ParseNode, ExtractNode, ExtractionSchema, Schema,
    ValidateNode, ValidationRule, ArithmeticCheck,
)
from anyformat.workflow.nodes import SlackAlertNode

client = Client(api_key=os.environ["ANYFORMAT_API_KEY"])

workflow = client.create_workflow(WorkflowDefinition(
    name="Invoices to Slack",
    nodes=[
        ParseNode(id="parse_1", type="parse"),
        ExtractNode(id="extract_1", type="extract", extraction_schema=ExtractionSchema(fields=[
            Schema.string("vendor_name", "Vendor name."),
            Schema.float("subtotal", "Subtotal before tax."),
            Schema.float("tax", "Tax amount."),
            Schema.float("total", "Grand total."),
            Schema.string("currency", "ISO currency code."),
        ])),
        ValidateNode(id="validate_1", type="validate", rules=[
            ValidationRule(id="totals-add-up", kind="deterministic",
                check=ArithmeticCheck(type="arithmetic", operands=["subtotal", "tax"], equals="total", tolerance=0.01)),
        ]),
        SlackAlertNode(id="slack_1", type="slack_alert", channel_id="C0123ABC", channel_name="#finance",
            message_template="Invoice from ${field.vendor_name}: ${field.total} ${field.currency}. "
                             "Totals check: ${validation.totals-add-up.status}",
            severity="warning"),
    ],
    edges=[
        Edge(source="parse_1", target="extract_1"),
        Edge(source="extract_1", target="validate_1"),
        Edge(source="validate_1", target="slack_1"),
    ],
))

// The TypeScript builder has no slackAlert() method yet.
// Send the API JSON on this page to POST /v3/workflows/, or pass the same
// graph to af.updateWorkflow(workflowId, definition) on an existing workflow.

The Python builder (client.workflow(...).parse().extract(...)) has no slack_alert() verb. Build a WorkflowDefinition from the node classes instead, as above, and pass it to create_workflow. The TypeScript builder has no method either; send the JSON. channel_id is the Slack channel id (C…), which is stable across renames. Get it from the Studio channel picker, or from Slack: open the channel details, and the id is at the bottom. channel_name is the display name shown in the app and in logs; it is not re-resolved on every send.

In Studio

Click the Slack alert node on the canvas to open its panel. It has a Slack Channel picker that lists your public channels, a Message editor where / or the field picker inserts an extracted field as a chip, a Severity choice (Info, Warning, Critical), and a Preview of the rendered message with a Send test button that posts it to the chosen channel. If nobody has connected Slack for your organization yet, the panel shows a Connect Slack prompt instead. That is what a workspace sees until the connector is set up:

The Slack alert panel before Slack is connected

Options

Field	Type	Default	What it does
`channel_id`	string	required	Slack channel id, for example `C0123ABC`. anyformat joins the channel the first time it posts there. Public channels only.
`channel_name`	string	required	Display name of the channel at save time, for example `#finance`. Shown in the app; never used to route.
`message_template`	string	required	The message body. Plain text with the placeholders below.
`severity`	`info` \| `warning` \| `critical`	`info`	Colour of the bar on the Slack card: blue, amber, red. Presentation only. It changes neither routing nor whether the alert fires; gate that with an If/Else.

The schema the API accepts is generated from the same source: Slack alert node schema.

Placeholders

Placeholder	Renders as
`${field.<name>}`	The extracted value of that field. Name the field as you did on the Extract node; Studio writes the field’s persistent id instead, and both resolve.
`${validation.<rule_id>.status}`	The verdict of the upstream Validate rule: `pass`, `fail`, or `inconclusive`.
`${validation.<rule_id>.detail}`	The rule’s one-line explanation.
`${validation.<rule_id>.severity}`	The rule’s severity: `error` or `warning`.

A validation placeholder needs a Validate node upstream that carries the rule. A placeholder that resolves to nothing, because the field was renamed, deleted, or not extracted for this document, or the rule did not run, renders as <missing: …> in the delivered message. Nothing is dropped silently.

What it returns

A message in the channel, and nothing in the run results. Each message carries:

The rendered template, with the severity colour on the card.
An Open document button that opens the file in Studio at the workflow version the alert fired against.

The alert fires after the node before it finishes for the document. Behind an If/Else, it fires only when the document took that branch. Deliveries are capped per organization at 60 per minute and 500 per hour; alerts over the cap are dropped for that window, not queued. Details and troubleshooting: Slack integration.

Connects to

Direction	Nodes
Fed by	Extract, Validate, If/Else (either branch)
Feeds	nothing. Slack alert is a terminal node.

Parse, Classify, and Split cannot feed it: they carry no extracted fields for the template to fill. The API rejects those edges.

Billing

Free. Slack alert runs no model and bills no credits. Test messages from Studio are free too. Full price list: How credits work.

Examples

Invoice processing: post every invoice over 10,000 to #finance with the If/Else on that page in front of this node.
Contract analysis: alert legal when a contract’s key clause fails an AI validation rule, with ${validation.<rule_id>.detail} in the message.

Get started

Nodes

Workflows

Schema & fields

Documents

Outputs & integrations

Health

Billing

The node

In Studio

Options

Placeholders

What it returns

Connects to

Billing

Examples

​The node

​In Studio

​Options

​Placeholders

​What it returns

​Connects to

​Billing

​Examples

The node

In Studio

Options

Placeholders

What it returns

Connects to

Billing

Examples