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Automatic Notifications

Once configured, nf-slack automatically sends notifications for workflow events. No code changes needed!

Default Behavior

By default, nf-slack sends notifications for three workflow events:

  • 🚀 Workflow Start - When your pipeline begins execution
  • ✅ Workflow Complete - When your pipeline finishes successfully
  • ❌ Workflow Error - When your pipeline encounters an error

Default notifications

Notification Content

Workflow Start

When a workflow starts, the notification includes:

  • Run name
  • Session ID
  • Command line used to launch the workflow
  • Work directory path
  • Timestamp

Workflow start notification

Workflow Complete

When a workflow completes successfully, the notification includes:

  • Run name
  • Duration (total execution time)
  • Task counts (succeeded, cached, failed)
  • Resource usage summary
  • Timestamp

Workflow Error

When a workflow fails, the notification includes:

  • Run name
  • Error message
  • Failed process name
  • Command line
  • Work directory
  • Timestamp

Controlling Notifications

Enable/Disable All Notifications

slack {
    enabled = true  // Set to false to disable all notifications
    bot {
        token = System.getenv('SLACK_BOT_TOKEN')
        channel = 'general'
    }
}

Enable/Disable Specific Events

Control which events trigger notifications:

slack {
    bot {
        token = System.getenv('SLACK_BOT_TOKEN')
        channel = 'general'
    }

    onStart.enabled = false     // Don't notify on start
    onComplete.enabled = true   // Notify on completion
    onError.enabled = true      // Notify on errors
}

Selective notifications

Threading

When using a Bot User, you can enable Threading to keep your Slack channels organized.

With threading enabled:

  1. The Workflow Start notification creates a new parent message.
  2. Workflow Complete and Workflow Error notifications are posted as replies to that thread.
  3. Any Custom Messages sent from the workflow are also threaded.

This significantly reduces noise in your channels, especially when running multiple pipelines simultaneously.

Note: Threading requires a Bot Token and must be enabled in your configuration. See Configuration for details.

Common Notification Patterns

Errors Only

Only get notified when something goes wrong:

slack {
    bot {
        token = System.getenv('SLACK_BOT_TOKEN')
        channel = 'general'
    }

    onStart.enabled = false
    onComplete.enabled = false
    onError.enabled = true
}

Start and Error Only

Get notified when pipelines start and if they fail:

slack {
    bot {
        token = System.getenv('SLACK_BOT_TOKEN')
        channel = 'general'
    }

    onStart.enabled = true
    onComplete.enabled = false
    onError.enabled = true
}

Development Mode (Quiet)

Disable all automatic notifications during development:

slack {
    bot {
        token = System.getenv('SLACK_BOT_TOKEN')
        channel = 'general'
    }

    onStart.enabled = false
    onComplete.enabled = false
    onError.enabled = false
}

Custom Messages

Even with automatic notifications disabled, you can still send custom messages from your workflow.

Notification Format

All automatic messages use Slack's attachment format with Block Kit elements:

  • Workflow Start: Blue color (#3AA3E3)
  • Workflow Complete: Green color (#2EB887)
  • Workflow Error: Red color (#A30301)

Each message includes:

  • Workflow name as the author
  • Nextflow icon
  • Timestamp footer
  • Configurable bot username and icon (see Configuration)

Advanced Configuration

For advanced customization options, see:

Next Steps