How to Create Notion Tasks from Slack with Pipedream

pipedream.com > Workflows > New Workflow

Create a new Pipedream workflow

Go to pipedream.com and click 'New Workflow' in the top-right corner. Give it a name like 'Slack Reaction → Notion Task' so you can find it later. You'll land on the workflow canvas, which shows a trigger slot at the top and an empty step slot below it. Everything builds from here.

1. 1Go to pipedream.com and log in
2. 2Click 'New Workflow' in the top-right
3. 3Enter a workflow name in the title field at the top of the canvas
4. 4Click 'Add Trigger' to open the trigger selector

Workflow Canvas > Add Trigger > Slack > New Reaction Added

Configure the Slack trigger (Reaction Added)

In the trigger selector, search for 'Slack' and choose it. From the trigger list, select 'New Reaction Added'. This fires instantly via Slack's Events API every time any user reacts to any message in your workspace — you'll filter to a specific emoji in a later step. Connect your Slack account using Connected Accounts when prompted.

1. 1Type 'Slack' in the trigger search box
2. 2Click the Slack app card
3. 3Select 'New Reaction Added' from the trigger list
4. 4Click 'Connect Account' and authorize Pipedream via the Slack OAuth screen
5. 5Click 'Save and Continue'

Workflow Canvas > Trigger > Generate Test Event

Test the Slack trigger with a real reaction

Click 'Generate Test Event' in the trigger panel. Pipedream will prompt you to go into Slack and add a reaction to any message. React with 📋 on a real message in your workspace right now. Return to Pipedream — within 5–10 seconds you should see a JSON payload appear in the trigger panel showing the reaction name, the message text, the user ID, and the channel ID.

1. 1Click 'Generate Test Event' in the trigger panel
2. 2Open Slack, find any message, and add a 📋 reaction
3. 3Return to Pipedream and wait for the event to appear
4. 4Click on the event to expand the full JSON payload

Workflow Canvas > + Add Step > Filter

Add a Filter step to check the emoji name

Click the '+' button below the trigger to add a new step. Search for 'Filter' and select the built-in Pipedream Filter action. Set the condition to: 'steps.trigger.event.reaction' equals 'clipboard' (or whatever emoji name appeared in your test event). This stops the workflow dead if someone uses a different reaction, so you don't create Notion tasks for every emoji in your workspace.

1. 1Click '+' below the trigger step
2. 2Search for 'Filter' and click the Pipedream Filter action
3. 3Set the left-hand value to '{{steps.trigger.event.reaction}}'
4. 4Set the operator to 'equals'
5. 5Set the right-hand value to 'clipboard' (or your chosen emoji name)

Workflow Canvas > + Add Step > Run Node.js Code

Add a Node.js step to fetch the Slack message text

The reaction event gives you the message timestamp and channel ID, but not the actual message text. Add a new step, choose 'Run Node.js code', and use Slack's conversations.history API to retrieve the full message. You'll use your connected Slack account's OAuth token to authenticate the API call. The message text is at response.messages[0].text.

1. 1Click '+' to add a step after the Filter
2. 2Select 'Run Node.js code'
3. 3Paste the code from the Pro Tip section below into the code editor
4. 4In the 'Connected Accounts' section of the step, select your Slack account
5. 5Click 'Test' to run the step against your test event

Workflow Canvas > + Add Step > Run Node.js Code

Fetch the Slack user's display name

The reaction event gives you a Slack user ID like 'U04ABCXYZ', not a human name. Add another Node.js step that calls users.info with that user ID to resolve it to a real display name. Without this step, your Notion tasks will show raw user IDs in the 'Reported By' field, which is useless for anyone reading the board.

1. 1Click '+' to add another step after the message-fetch step
2. 2Select 'Run Node.js code'
3. 3Write a fetch to 'https://slack.com/api/users.info' with the user ID from steps.trigger.event.user
4. 4Select your Slack Connected Account to inject the token
5. 5Test and confirm the output shows a 'displayName' field with the real name

Workflow Canvas > + Add Step > Notion > Create Page

Connect your Notion account

Add a new step and search for 'Notion'. Select the 'Create Page' action. Click 'Connect Account' — this opens Notion's OAuth screen. During authorization, Notion will ask which pages or databases you want to give Pipedream access to. You must explicitly select your task database here or Pipedream won't be able to write to it. This is the most common setup mistake on Notion integrations.

1. 1Click '+' to add a new step
2. 2Search for 'Notion' and click the app card
3. 3Select 'Create Page' from the action list
4. 4Click 'Connect Account'
5. 5In Notion's OAuth screen, check the box next to your task database before clicking 'Allow Access'

Workflow Canvas > Notion Step > Create Page > Field Configuration

Configure the Notion Create Page fields

In the Notion step, set the Parent Database ID to the ID of your task database (copy it from the Notion URL — it's the 32-character string after the last slash and before the '?'). Then map each Notion database property to the corresponding Pipedream step output. You'll map task name, description, reporter, status, and the Slack message link. Set 'Status' to a static value like 'To Do' so every new task starts in the same column.

1. 1Paste your Notion database ID into the 'Parent Database ID' field
2. 2Set 'Title' to '{{steps.fetch_message.messageText}}' (truncated to 100 chars if needed)
3. 3Set 'Reported By' to '{{steps.fetch_user.displayName}}'
4. 4Set 'Source Link' to the Slack permalink from your message-fetch step
5. 5Set 'Status' to the static value 'To Do'
6. 6Set 'Created At' to '{{new Date().toISOString()}}'

Workflow Canvas > Test Workflow (top bar)

Test the full workflow end-to-end

Click 'Test Workflow' at the top of the canvas. This runs all steps in sequence using the test event you captured earlier. Watch each step turn green. Then open your Notion database and confirm the new page appeared with correct values in every field. Check that the Slack permalink actually links back to the right message.

1. 1Click 'Test Workflow' in the top toolbar
2. 2Watch each step indicator — green means success, red means it threw an error
3. 3Open your Notion database in a browser
4. 4Find the newly created page and verify all fields are populated
5. 5Click the Source Link and confirm it jumps to the right Slack message

Workflow Canvas > Deploy (top-right button)

Deploy the workflow

Click the 'Deploy' button in the top-right corner of the canvas. The workflow flips from 'Development' to 'Active' mode. From this point, Pipedream's webhook listener is live and will fire within 1–3 seconds of any 📋 reaction in your Slack workspace. Go into Slack and add a real reaction to confirm the live workflow creates a Notion task.

1. 1Click the 'Deploy' button in the top-right
2. 2Confirm the status badge changes to 'Active'
3. 3Open Slack and react to a message with 📋
4. 4Wait 5–10 seconds and refresh your Notion database

This Node.js step goes in Step 5 of your Pipedream workflow — the 'Run Node.js Code' step right after the Filter. It fetches the full Slack message text and permalink using the conversations.history API, resolves the user's display name in the same step, and includes deduplication logic using Pipedream's built-in data store so reacting twice to the same message only creates one Notion task. Paste the entire block into the code editor and select your Slack Connected Account in the step's account selector.

import { axios } from '@pipedream/platform';
export default defineComponent({
  props: {

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

export default defineComponent({
  props: {
    slack: {
      type: 'app',
      app: 'slack',
    },
  },
  async run({ steps, $ }) {
    const channelId = steps.trigger.event.item.channel;
    const messageTs = steps.trigger.event.item.ts;
    const userId = steps.trigger.event.user;
    const reactionName = steps.trigger.event.reaction;

    // Only proceed for the clipboard emoji
    if (reactionName !== 'clipboard') {
      $.flow.exit('Reaction is not clipboard — halting.');
    }

    // Deduplicate: skip if this message was already converted to a task
    const db = $.service.db;
    const dedupKey = `slack-task-${messageTs}`;
    const alreadyProcessed = await db.get(dedupKey);
    if (alreadyProcessed) {
      $.flow.exit(`Message ${messageTs} already has a Notion task — skipping duplicate.`);
    }

    // Fetch the full message text
    const historyResponse = await axios($, {
      method: 'GET',
      url: 'https://slack.com/api/conversations.history',
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${this.slack.$auth.oauth_access_token}`,
      },
      params: {
        channel: channelId,
        latest: messageTs,
        inclusive: true,
        limit: 1,
      },
    });

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

    const message = historyResponse.messages?.[0];
    if (!message) {
      throw new Error(`No message found for timestamp ${messageTs} in channel ${channelId}`);
    }

    const messageText = message.text || '(no text)';

    // Fetch the permalink
    const permalinkResponse = await axios($, {
      method: 'GET',
      url: 'https://slack.com/api/chat.getPermalink',
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${this.slack.$auth.oauth_access_token}`,
      },
      params: {
        channel: channelId,
        message_ts: messageTs,
      },
    });

    const permalink = permalinkResponse.ok ? permalinkResponse.permalink : null;

    // Resolve the user's display name
    const userResponse = await axios($, {
      method: 'GET',
      url: 'https://slack.com/api/users.info',
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${this.slack.$auth.oauth_access_token}`,
      },
      params: { user: userId },
    });

    const profile = userResponse.user?.profile || {};
    const displayName =
      profile.display_name?.trim() ||
      profile.real_name?.trim() ||
      'Unknown User';

    // Fetch the channel name for the Notion record
    const channelResponse = await axios($, {
      method: 'GET',
      url: 'https://slack.com/api/conversations.info',
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${this.slack.$auth.oauth_access_token}`,
      },
      params: { channel: channelId },
    });

    const channelName = channelResponse.ok
      ? `#${channelResponse.channel.name}`
      : 'Unknown Channel';

    // Mark this message as processed to prevent duplicates
    await db.set(dedupKey, true);

    return {
      messageText,
      permalink,
      displayName,
      channelName,
      messageTs,
      createdAt: new Date().toISOString(),
    };
  },
});