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Version: HER WAKA 2026

Summarise your Slack channels

Your AI tool is connected to Slack. Now let's put it to work — ask it to read a channel and give you a summary you can actually use.

Get your first summary​

Open your terminal and start Gemini CLI:

gemini

Now say (with Wispr Flow) or paste this prompt. Replace #channel-name with the name of a real channel in your workspace.

Say this or copy this prompt — replace #channel-name
Read the recent messages in the Slack channel #channel-name and give me a summary. Include the main topics discussed, any decisions that were made, action items, and unanswered questions. Keep it to 10 bullet points.

Gemini CLI will use the Slack MCP tools to fetch the messages and return a structured summary.

Gemini asks for permission? If Gemini CLI asks to approve a tool call, type y and press Enter. This is normal — it is asking your permission before accessing Slack.

You should see a summary that looks something like this:

Summary of #general (last 7 days):

  • The team discussed the upcoming workshop schedule for April
  • Sarah shared a link to the new resource guide
  • A decision was made to move the Friday meeting to Thursday
  • Action item: Everyone needs to submit their feedback by Wednesday
  • Open question: Who is leading the networking session?

That's it — you just caught up on an entire channel in seconds.

Try different summary styles​

The first summary is a great start. But depending on your situation, you might want a different format. Try these prompts.

Quick catch-up:

Say this or copy this prompt — replace #channel-name
Summarise #channel-name like a colleague filling me in over coffee. Keep it to 5 sentences.

Meeting notes:

Say this or copy this prompt — replace #channel-name
Summarise #channel-name as formal meeting notes I could share with my manager. Include dates, decisions, and action items.

Key highlights only:

Say this or copy this prompt — replace #channel-name
Read #channel-name and extract only the important stuff — announcements, deadlines, decisions. Ignore small talk.

The key skill here is prompt writing. Notice how each prompt tells the AI exactly what format you want, what to include, and what to leave out. The more specific your instructions, the more useful the summary.

Go further​

Once you are comfortable with basic summaries, try these creative prompts. They work with both paths — the voice-friendly versions below are shown for Path B, but you can paste them into Claude Desktop too.

Say this or copy this prompt — replace channel names
Compare what's been happening in #general, #announcements, and #project-updates this week.
Say this or copy this prompt — replace #channel-name
Find any unanswered questions in #channel-name.
Say this or copy this prompt — replace #channel-name
Who has been most active in #channel-name this week?
Say this or copy this prompt — replace #channel-name
Were any links shared in #channel-name? List them all.

This is the magic of natural language. You do not need to memorise commands — just describe what you want. If the AI is not sure what you mean, it will ask you to clarify.

Ask follow-up questions​

The AI remembers the messages it just read. You can ask follow-up questions without fetching the messages again.

Say this or copy this prompt
Were there any messages about [topic]?
Say this or copy this prompt
Were there any links shared? List them all.
Say this or copy this prompt
Who was the most active person in the conversation?
Say this or copy this prompt
Summarise only messages from the last 24 hours.
Say this or copy this prompt
What was the overall mood or tone of the conversation?

This is where AI really shines. Instead of scrolling through hundreds of messages looking for one piece of information, you can just ask. "Did anyone mention the budget?" is much faster than reading every message yourself.

Save your summary​

Want to keep a copy of your summary? Here's how.

Say or type:

Say this or copy this prompt
Save that summary to a file called summary.txt in the current folder.

The summary is now saved as a text file on your computer.

What just happened?​

Let's recap what you did:

  1. Connected an AI tool to your Slack workspace
  2. Fetched messages from a channel — the AI handled this automatically
  3. Summarised the conversation in a structured, useful format
  4. Customised the summary style to match your needs
  5. Asked follow-up questions to find specific information

The key insight: AI is excellent at reading large amounts of text and extracting what matters. A task that would take you 20 minutes of scrolling took the AI about 10 seconds.

Troubleshooting​

Claude says it cannot access Slack

Go to Customize → Connectors and check that Slack shows as connected. If it shows an error, remove the connector and add it again. Make sure you authorise the correct workspace.

Gemini says it has no Slack tools

Check your ~/.gemini/settings.json file for typos. Common issues: missing commas, curly quotes instead of straight quotes, or wrong bot token. After fixing, exit Gemini CLI (/quit) and restart it.

My voice input has errors

Wispr Flow may occasionally mishear technical terms or channel names. You can review and correct the text in Gemini CLI before pressing Enter. If voice input is causing too many errors, switch to typing or pasting prompts instead.

The summary is too vague or generic

The channel might not have enough messages. Try a busier channel with more activity. You can also be more specific in your prompt — for example, "Summarise only messages from the last 3 days" or "Focus on messages about the upcoming event."

The summary includes irrelevant messages

Add filtering instructions to your prompt. For example: "Ignore messages from bots", "Only include messages related to [project name]", or "Skip casual greetings and small talk."

The AI only summarises a few messages

By default, the AI may only fetch the most recent messages. Ask it to go further back: "Summarise all messages from #channel-name in the last 7 days" or "Read the last 100 messages from #channel-name and summarise them."

Nice work — you've built a real productivity workflow. Head to Keep going for ideas on what to try next.