Send a question to the user via Slack and wait for their reply.

Use this when you need user input or a decision. The user will be notified and can reply in the Slack thread. This will BLOCK until the user replies or the timeout is reached.

IMPORTANT - NON-BLOCKING USAGE: To avoid blocking, run this tool in a background agent/task. Example with Claude Code's Task tool:

Task(
    prompt="Call ask_user with question='Your question here'",
    run_in_background=True
)

This lets you continue working while waiting for the Slack reply. You'll be notified when the background task completes with the user's response.

Args: question: The question to ask the user. channel: Channel name or ID. Uses SLACK_DEFAULT_CHANNEL if not specified. context: Optional context to include (e.g., what you're working on). timeout_minutes: How long to wait for a reply (default 5 minutes, max 30).

Returns: Dict with success status and user's reply text if received.

Send a message to a Slack channel or thread.

Args: message: Message text. Supports Slack mrkdwn formatting. channel: Channel name or ID. Uses SLACK_DEFAULT_CHANNEL if not specified. thread_ts: Thread timestamp to reply in a thread. urgency: Message urgency level. 'critical' adds @here mention. mention_user: If True, @mentions the configured user (requires SLACK_USER_ID).

Returns: Dict with success status and message details.

Get replies in a Slack thread.

Use this to check for new messages in a thread you started.

Args: channel: Channel ID containing the thread. thread_ts: Timestamp of the parent message. since_ts: Only return messages after this timestamp (optional).

Returns: Dict with success status and list of replies.