Connect Slack
Put hiring updates in the channels your team already reads, and pull up a role without leaving Slack.
Your team already talks about hiring in Slack. Connect First and the updates turn up right there too: hiring managers see movement on their own roles without needing a First login, and anyone can ask how a role is going without opening another tab.
You’ll need two things: permission to manage your organisation in First, and permission to add apps to your Slack workspace. If you don’t have the second, whoever runs your Slack workspace can add it for you.
- In First, go to Settings, then Integrations.
- Find Slack and select Add to Slack.
- Slack asks you to approve what First can do. Approve it, and you are returned to First.
One Slack workspace connects to one organisation in First. If you’re told the workspace is already connected elsewhere, it’s linked to another organisation, and needs disconnecting there first.
Nothing is posted anywhere until you link a channel to a role, so connecting the workspace on its own is safe and quiet.
To link one, open the role in First and copy the address from your browser. Then go to the Slack channel you want updates in, type /first-link, and paste the address after it. A role id works just as well if you have one to hand.
Most teams give a busy role its own channel and link that, rather than sending everything to one general channel where it gets ignored.
/invite before you link it. Slack only lets an app post in channels it’s been added to, so being installed for the workspace isn’t enough on its own for private channels.| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/first-link <role id or role URL> | Links this channel to a role. Updates for that role start showing up here. |
/first-summary | Posts a snapshot of the linked role's pipeline, so nobody has to open First just to see how it's going. |
/first-unlink | Stops updates in this channel. The role itself is untouched. |
/first help | Lists the commands, in case nobody can remember them. |
Once a channel is linked, First posts when:
| When | What you see |
|---|---|
| A candidate moves stage | Posted whenever someone moves through your pipeline, showing where they came from and where they went. |
| Someone is hired | The update everyone actually wants to see. |
| A note is added | Keeps the conversation about a candidate in one place, rather than split between First and Slack. |
These are updates about your hiring, not messages to candidates. Nothing here emails anyone, and nothing changes what a candidate sees. To set up notifications to candidates themselves, do that on the role.
Reconnecting keeps your linked channels. Slack removes an app from channels when it reinstalls, though, so invite First back into any private ones afterwards.
Disconnecting stops every channel receiving updates until you connect again. Your roles, candidates and links are untouched.
If First was connected a while ago, reconnect it once so Slackbot can answer questions about your hiring in Slack. Everything else keeps working while you do this. See Connect your agent with MCP for how to set that up.
Updates not showing up?
Check the channel is linked with /first-summary, and that First is in the channel if it is private. If it still looks wrong, email support@first.cx and say which channel and role. You can also connect an AI assistant if you want to ask about hiring in your own words.