Posting releases to Slack

distributionintegrations

Drumroll can post every published changelog entry to a Slack channel as a Block Kit card. Thirty-second setup, no Slack app to install or authorize - just an Incoming Webhook URL from your Slack workspace.

If you're choosing between this and a full Slack App, start here. The Incoming Webhook is faster to set up, doesn't need any app review, and covers the same end-to-end behaviour (post a message to a channel on publish). A native Slack App with Directory listing + slash commands is on the roadmap.

Step 1 - Create an Incoming Webhook in Slack

This is the part Slack makes you do.

  • Open Slack. Click your workspace name top-left → Tools & settings → Workspace settings.
  • Search "Incoming Webhooks", click Add to Slack.
  • Pick the channel that should receive release announcements (e.g. #releases, #changelog, or #general for testing).
  • Copy the Webhook URL. It looks like https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../...

That URL is the secret. Anyone with it can post to that channel as a bot. Treat it like a password - don't paste it into a screenshot or commit it to a repo.

Step 2 - Paste into Drumroll

  • Open Settings → Integrations on your workspace admin.
  • Scroll to the Slack card.
  • Paste the URL in the "Incoming Webhook URL" field.
  • Optionally add a label (e.g. #releases) - this is just for your reference; the actual channel comes from the URL.
  • Click Connect Slack.

Step 3 - Send a test message

The Slack card now shows your saved webhook (with the secret portion redacted) plus a Send test message button. Click it. You should see this land in the channel within a second:

:wave: This is a test message from Drumroll. If you can see this, your webhook is configured correctly. Real release notes will land here when you publish entries.

If the test fails, the card surfaces the actual Slack response status under "Last delivery."

Step 4 - Publish a real entry

Go to your changelog admin, write something, set status to Published, save. Within a second the Slack channel gets a card with the entry title, date, tags, a 280-character body preview, and a "Read on Drumroll" button.

How it actually behaves

  • Fires only on the first draft → published transition. If you publish and then edit the title, Slack doesn't get re-pinged. Otherwise edits would spam subscribers.
  • Publish never blocks on Slack. If Slack is down or your webhook URL is revoked, the publish still succeeds, the failure logs to our delivery audit table, and the integration card shows the failure reason on next page load.
  • One webhook per workspace in v1. When we ship the generic webhook feature, you'll be able to fan out to multiple channels or different integrations.
  • GitHub-sync'd entries don't fire Slack in v1 - manual creates/publishes only. If you want sync'd entries to also post, let us know via the feedback widget.

Disconnecting

The same card has a Disconnect button. It deletes the stored webhook URL immediately. No future events fire. To reconnect, create a fresh Incoming Webhook in Slack and paste again.