How to Archive Slack Messages to Notion with Pipedream

pipedream.com > Workflows > New Workflow

Create a new Pipedream workflow

Go to pipedream.com and sign in. Click 'Workflows' in the left sidebar, then click the blue 'New Workflow' button in the top right. You'll land on the workflow canvas with an empty trigger slot at the top. This is where you'll connect the Slack event source. Give the workflow a name like 'Slack → Notion Archiver' using the pencil icon at the top.

1. 1Click 'Workflows' in the left sidebar
2. 2Click the blue 'New Workflow' button
3. 3Click the pencil icon next to the default workflow name
4. 4Type 'Slack → Notion Archiver' and press Enter

Workflow Canvas > Add a trigger > Slack > New Reaction Added

Add the Slack trigger for emoji reactions

Click the 'Add a trigger' block. In the search bar that appears, type 'Slack' and select it. You'll see a list of Slack trigger types — choose 'New Reaction Added'. This trigger fires via Slack's Events API the moment a user reacts to any message in a channel your bot is a member of. You'll filter to a specific emoji in a later step.

1. 1Click the grey 'Add a trigger' block
2. 2Type 'Slack' in the app search bar
3. 3Select 'Slack' from the results
4. 4Choose 'New Reaction Added' from the trigger list
5. 5Click 'Connect Slack' and authorize with your workspace admin account

Workflow Canvas > + > Built-in > Filter

Filter to your archive emoji only

After the trigger, click the '+' button below the trigger block and choose 'Add a step'. Select 'Filter' (built-in Pipedream step). You'll write a condition that checks whether the reaction name equals your chosen archive emoji — use 'bookmark' for 🔖 or 'white_check_mark' for ✅. Pipedream stops the workflow here if the condition is false, so only messages reacted to with your chosen emoji proceed to Notion.

1. 1Click the '+' button below the Slack trigger step
2. 2Click 'Built-in' in the step type selector
3. 3Select 'Filter'
4. 4In the condition field, set: steps.trigger.event.reaction === 'bookmark'
5. 5Click 'Continue' to confirm the filter

Workflow Canvas > + > Node.js Code Step

Fetch the full message text via Slack API

The reaction event payload gives you the channel ID and message timestamp but not the message text itself. Add a Node.js code step to call Slack's conversations.history API and retrieve the actual message content. You'll pass the channel and timestamp from the trigger event. This step also grabs the thread replies if the message is a thread parent, giving you the full conversation context for Notion.

1. 1Click '+' below the Filter step
2. 2Select 'Run Node.js code'
3. 3Paste the fetch code into the code editor (see Pro Tip section)
4. 4Click 'Test' to confirm the step returns message text in the exports object

Workflow Canvas > + > Run Node.js code

Resolve the Slack user ID to a display name

The message payload contains a user ID like U04XYZ123, not a human-readable name. Add another Node.js code step that calls Slack's users.info endpoint with that ID and returns the user's real_name and display_name. Without this step, your Notion pages will show raw user IDs in the Author field, which makes the archive hard to read.

1. 1Click '+' below the message fetch step
2. 2Select 'Run Node.js code'
3. 3Use the Slack OAuth token from your Connected Account to call users.info
4. 4Export { real_name, display_name } from the step result

This code step handles the three Slack API calls needed before you touch Notion: fetching message text via conversations.history, fetching thread replies if a thread exists, and calling chat.getPermalink — all with proper error handling. Paste this into a single Node.js code step placed between your Filter step and the Notion steps. It uses Pipedream's built-in $ helper and your connected Slack account token via process.env.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN (set this in your workflow's environment variables).

import { axios } from "@pipedream/platform";
export default defineComponent({
  async run({ steps, $ }) {

import { axios } from "@pipedream/platform";

export default defineComponent({
  async run({ steps, $ }) {
    const token = process.env.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN;
    const channel = steps.trigger.event.item.channel;
    const messageTs = steps.trigger.event.item.ts;
    const reactingUserId = steps.trigger.event.user;

    // 1. Fetch the original message text
    const historyResp = await axios($, {
      method: "GET",
      url: "https://slack.com/api/conversations.history",
      params: {
        channel,
        latest: messageTs,
        inclusive: true,
        limit: 1,
      },
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
    });

    if (!historyResp.ok) {
      throw new Error(`conversations.history failed: ${historyResp.error}`);
    }

    const message = historyResp.messages?.[0];
    if (!message) throw new Error("Message not found in channel history");

    const rawText = message.text || "[No text content]";
    const authorId = message.user || message.bot_id || "unknown";

    // Sanitize Slack mrkdwn for Notion compatibility
    const sanitizedText = rawText
      .replace(/<@([A-Z0-9]+)>/g, "@user")
      .replace(/<#([A-Z0-9]+)\|([^>]+)>/g, "#$2")
      .replace(/<([^|>]+)\|([^>]+)>/g, "$2")
      .replace(/<([^>]+)>/g, "$1");

    // 2. Fetch thread replies if this message has a thread
    let threadReplies = [];
    if (message.thread_ts && message.reply_count > 0) {
      const repliesResp = await axios($, {
        method: "GET",
        url: "https://slack.com/api/conversations.replies",
        params: { channel, ts: message.thread_ts, limit: 100 },
        headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
      });
      if (repliesResp.ok) {
        // Skip the first item — it's the parent message repeated
        threadReplies = repliesResp.messages
          .slice(1)
          .map((r) => ({
            text: r.text?.replace(/<[^>]+>/g, "") || "",
            user: r.user || r.bot_id || "unknown",
            ts: r.ts,
          }));
      }
    }

    // 3. Fetch permalink
    const permalinkResp = await axios($, {
      method: "GET",
      url: "https://slack.com/api/chat.getPermalink",
      params: { channel, message_ts: messageTs },
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
    });

    if (!permalinkResp.ok) {
      throw new Error(`chat.getPermalink failed: ${permalinkResp.error}`);
    }

    // 4. Resolve author name
    let authorName = authorId;
    if (authorId.startsWith("U")) {
      const userResp = await axios($, {
        method: "GET",
        url: "https://slack.com/api/users.info",
        params: { user: authorId },
        headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
      });
      if (userResp.ok) {
        authorName = userResp.user.profile.display_name || userResp.user.real_name;
      }
    } else if (authorId.startsWith("B")) {
      const botResp = await axios($, {
        method: "GET",
        url: "https://slack.com/api/bots.info",
        params: { bot: authorId },
        headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
      });
      if (botResp.ok) authorName = botResp.bot.name + " (bot)";
    }

    // 5. Resolve archiving user name
    let archivedByName = reactingUserId;
    const archiverResp = await axios($, {
      method: "GET",
      url: "https://slack.com/api/users.info",
      params: { user: reactingUserId },
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
    });
    if (archiverResp.ok) {
      archivedByName = archiverResp.user.profile.display_name || archiverResp.user.real_name;
    }

    return {
      message_text: sanitizedText,
      message_text_truncated: sanitizedText.slice(0, 100),
      author_id: authorId,
      author_name: authorName,
      archived_by: archivedByName,
      channel_id: channel,
      message_ts: messageTs,
      permalink: permalinkResp.permalink,
      thread_replies: threadReplies,
      archived_at: new Date(parseFloat(steps.trigger.event.event_ts) * 1000).toISOString(),
    };
  },
});

Workflow Canvas > + > Run Node.js code

Fetch the Slack permalink for the message

Call Slack's chat.getPermalink endpoint using the channel ID and message timestamp from the trigger. This gives you a permanent URL that deep-links directly to the original message in Slack — critical for the Notion page so readers can jump back to context. Store the permalink in this step's exports so the Notion step can reference it as steps.get_permalink.permalink.

1. 1Click '+' below the user resolution step
2. 2Select 'Run Node.js code'
3. 3Call chat.getPermalink with channel and message_ts from the trigger event
4. 4Export { permalink } from the step

Workflow Canvas > + > Notion > Create Page

Connect your Notion account

Click '+' below the permalink step and search for 'Notion'. Select the 'Create Page' action. Click 'Connect Notion' and complete the OAuth flow — Notion will ask which pages and databases your integration can access. You must explicitly grant access to the specific database you want to archive into. If you skip granting access to the right database, Notion's API returns a 404 even though the database exists.

1. 1Click '+' and search for 'Notion'
2. 2Select 'Notion' from the app list
3. 3Choose 'Create Page' as the action
4. 4Click 'Connect Notion account'
5. 5In the Notion OAuth dialog, check the box next to your 'Archived Decisions' database before clicking Allow

Workflow Canvas > Notion Create Page > Configure

Configure the Notion page fields

In the 'Create Page' action, set the Parent Database ID to your archive database's ID (found in the Notion URL after the workspace name and before the '?v=' parameter). Map each Notion database property to the corresponding Pipedream step export. Set the page title to the first 100 characters of the message text, the Author property to the resolved display name, Channel to the channel name, and the Slack Link URL property to the permalink.

1. 1Paste your Notion database ID into the 'Parent Database ID' field
2. 2Set 'Title' to: {{steps.fetch_message.message_text.slice(0, 100)}}
3. 3Set 'Author' property to: {{steps.resolve_user.real_name}}
4. 4Set 'Slack Link' URL property to: {{steps.get_permalink.permalink}}
5. 5Set 'Archived At' date property to: {{new Date(steps.trigger.event.event_ts * 1000).toISOString()}}

Workflow Canvas > + > Notion > Append Block Children

Add the full message as Notion page body

The Notion 'Create Page' action creates the page record but leaves the body empty. Add a second Notion step — 'Append Block Children' — immediately after. Use the page ID output from the previous step (steps.create_page.$return_value.id) as the Block ID. Add a paragraph block containing the full message text and, if thread replies exist, append each reply as a separate quote block. This makes the Notion page readable without having to go back to Slack.

1. 1Click '+' below the Create Page step
2. 2Search for 'Notion' and select 'Append Block Children'
3. 3Set Block ID to: {{steps.create_notion_page.$return_value.id}}
4. 4Add a paragraph block with content: {{steps.fetch_message.message_text}}
5. 5Add a loop over steps.fetch_message.thread_replies to append each reply as a quote block

pipedream.com > Workflows > [Your Workflow] > Event History

Test end-to-end with a real Slack message

In Slack, go to a channel your bot is in and react to any message with your archive emoji. Return to Pipedream and click the workflow's 'Event History' tab — you should see a new execution appear within 5-10 seconds. Click the execution to expand each step and confirm green checkmarks on the Filter, all code steps, and both Notion steps. Then open Notion and verify the page was created in the correct database with all fields populated.

1. 1React to a Slack message with your archive emoji (e.g. 🔖)
2. 2Click the 'Event History' tab in your Pipedream workflow
3. 3Click the newest execution entry to expand the step-by-step results
4. 4Confirm all steps show green checkmarks
5. 5Open Notion and verify the new page exists in your archive database

Workflow Canvas > Deploy > Settings > Notifications

Deploy and set error alerting

Click the grey 'Deploy' button in the top right to activate the workflow. Pipedream will now process every matching Slack reaction event in production. Go to Settings > Notifications inside the workflow and enable email alerts on workflow errors — this way you'll know immediately if a Slack API rate limit or Notion auth failure causes a run to fail silently. Set the notification threshold to 1 error (not the default 10) for a workflow this small.

1. 1Click the 'Deploy' button in the top right corner
2. 2Confirm the deployment dialog
3. 3Click 'Settings' in the left panel of the workflow
4. 4Toggle on 'Email on error'
5. 5Set error threshold to 1 and save