Overwhelmed by Slack messages and missing important updates? This tutorial shows how to build an automated daily Slack summary workflow in Needle that aggregates key messages and delivers a digestible summary to your team.

Overview

The workflow automatically reads Slack channel messages, identifies important discussions, and generates a daily summary—helping your team stay informed without Slack fatigue.

Key Actions

1. Scheduled Daily Trigger – Runs every morning to capture previous day's activity
2. Slack Channel Reader – Fetches messages from designated channels
3. AI Message Filtering – Identifies important threads, decisions, and action items
4. Summary Generation – Creates a structured digest organized by topic and channel
5. Slack Notification – Posts the summary to a designated channel (e.g., #daily-digest)

What You'll Need

• Slack Workspace – Access to channels you want to monitor Tip: Focus on high-traffic channels like #general, #engineering, #marketing
• Summary Channel – A dedicated channel for daily digests (e.g., #daily-summary)
• Time Zone Configuration – Set when you want the summary to run (e.g., 8 AM local time)

How It Works

Every day at your configured time:

1. The workflow retrieves all messages from monitored Slack channels (last 24 hours)
2. AI analyzes messages to extract:
   • Key decisions made
   • Action items assigned
   • Important announcements
   • Active discussions
3. Content is organized into categories:
   • 📢 Announcements: Company updates and news
   • ✅ Decisions: Conclusions reached in discussions
   • 🎯 Action Items: Tasks assigned or volunteered
   • 💬 Hot Topics: Active ongoing discussions
4. A formatted markdown summary is generated (under 400 words)
5. The summary is posted to your designated Slack channel
6. Optional: Mentions specific team members if action items are assigned to them

Wrap-up

With this Needle workflow, your team gets a daily snapshot of what matters in Slack—reducing information overload and ensuring no critical updates are missed. Perfect for distributed teams, managers, and anyone who wants to stay informed without constant Slack monitoring.