Slack Integration

Integrate FireBackup with Slack to receive real-time notifications about backup events, restore operations, and system alerts directly in your team's Slack channels.

Overview

The Slack integration enables:

Real-time notifications for backup success and failure
Rich message formatting with Block Kit
Customizable alerts by event type, severity, and project
Interactive buttons for quick actions
Thread-based updates for related events

Quick Start

1. Create a Slack App

Go to api.slack.com/apps
Click Create New App → From scratch
Name it FireBackup and select your workspace
Navigate to Incoming Webhooks and enable them
Click Add New Webhook to Workspace
Select your notification channel
Copy the webhook URL

2. Add to FireBackup

In FireBackup, go to Settings → Webhooks
Click Add Webhook
Select Slack as the type
Paste your webhook URL
Select events to monitor
Click Save

Quick Setup

For a detailed step-by-step guide with screenshots, see the Slack Webhooks Tutorial.

Configuration Options

Basic Configuration

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	Display name for the webhook
URL	Yes	Slack webhook URL
Type	Yes	Set to `slack`
Events	Yes	Events to trigger notifications
Enabled	No	Enable/disable the webhook

Event Types

Subscribe to these events:

Event	Description
`backup.started`	Backup job initiated
`backup.completed`	Backup finished successfully
`backup.failed`	Backup encountered an error
`restore.started`	Restore operation initiated
`restore.completed`	Restore finished successfully
`restore.failed`	Restore encountered an error
`pitr.enabled`	PITR enabled for a project
`pitr.disabled`	PITR disabled for a project
`schedule.created`	New backup schedule created
`schedule.updated`	Backup schedule modified
`schedule.deleted`	Backup schedule removed
`schedule.failed`	Scheduled backup didn't run
`storage.connected`	New storage destination added
`storage.error`	Storage connectivity issue

Filters

Filter notifications by:

{
  "filters": {
    "projects": ["proj_production", "proj_staging"],
    "severity": ["error", "critical"],
    "trigger": ["scheduled"]
  }
}

Message Formats

Default Messages

FireBackup sends rich Slack messages using Block Kit:

Successful Backup:

✅ Backup Completed Successfully

Field Value
Project Production App
Type Full Backup
Size 125.4 MB
Duration 4m 32s
Storage AWS S3 (us-east-1)

[View Details] [View in Dashboard]

Field	Value
Project	Production App
Type	Full Backup
Size	125.4 MB
Duration	4m 32s
Storage	AWS S3 (us-east-1)

Failed Backup:

🔴 Backup Failed

Field Value
Project Production App
Error Authentication failed
Retry 1 of 3

Failed at 2024-01-15 10:30 UTC

[View Logs] [Retry Now]

Field	Value
Project	Production App
Error	Authentication failed
Retry	1 of 3

Custom Templates

Customize message templates via API:

curl -X PATCH https://api.firebackup.io/api/v1/webhooks/whk_abc123 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "messageTemplates": {
      "backup.completed": {
        "text": "✅ Backup completed for {{project.name}}",
        "blocks": [
          {
            "type": "section",
            "text": {
              "type": "mrkdwn",
              "text": "✅ *{{project.name}}* backup completed\n• Size: {{backup.size}}\n• Duration: {{backup.duration}}"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }'

Template Variables

Available variables for templates:

Variable	Description
`{{project.id}}`	Project ID
`{{project.name}}`	Project name
`{{backup.id}}`	Backup ID
`{{backup.type}}`	Backup type (full/incremental)
`{{backup.size}}`	Human-readable size
`{{backup.sizeBytes}}`	Size in bytes
`{{backup.duration}}`	Human-readable duration
`{{backup.durationMs}}`	Duration in milliseconds
`{{backup.status}}`	Backup status
`{{backup.url}}`	Link to backup in dashboard
`{{storage.name}}`	Storage destination name
`{{storage.type}}`	Storage type (s3/gcs/spaces)
`{{error.message}}`	Error message (for failures)
`{{error.code}}`	Error code (for failures)
`{{timestamp}}`	Event timestamp
`{{organization.name}}`	Organization name

Multiple Channels

Routing by Severity

Create separate webhooks for different channels:

# All notifications to #backups
curl -X POST https://api.firebackup.io/api/v1/webhooks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Slack - All Events",
    "url": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../xxx",
    "type": "slack",
    "events": ["*"]
  }'

# Failures only to #alerts
curl -X POST https://api.firebackup.io/api/v1/webhooks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Slack - Failures",
    "url": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../yyy",
    "type": "slack",
    "events": ["backup.failed", "restore.failed", "schedule.failed"]
  }'

Routing by Project

# Production only
curl -X POST https://api.firebackup.io/api/v1/webhooks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Slack - Production",
    "url": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../zzz",
    "type": "slack",
    "events": ["backup.completed", "backup.failed"],
    "filters": {
      "projects": ["proj_production"]
    }
  }'

Slack Workflow Integration

Using Workflow Builder

Connect FireBackup to Slack Workflow Builder for advanced automation:

Create a workflow in Slack Workflow Builder
Start with "Webhook" trigger
Define variables:
- project_name (text)
- backup_status (text)
- backup_size (text)
- error_message (text)
Add workflow steps:
- Send message to channel
- Conditional: If backup_status is "failed", mention on-call
- Create incident ticket (optional)
Configure FireBackup webhook to use workflow URL:

curl -X PATCH https://api.firebackup.io/api/v1/webhooks/whk_abc123 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://hooks.slack.com/workflows/T.../A.../xxx",
    "type": "slack_workflow",
    "payloadFormat": {
      "project_name": "{{project.name}}",
      "backup_status": "{{backup.status}}",
      "backup_size": "{{backup.size}}",
      "error_message": "{{error.message}}"
    }
  }'

Troubleshooting

Messages Not Appearing

Verify webhook URL is correct and active
Check channel permissions - bot must be in the channel
Review delivery history:

curl -X GET https://api.firebackup.io/api/v1/webhooks/whk_abc123/deliveries \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Rate Limiting

Slack limits messages to 1 per second per webhook. For high-volume scenarios:

Use multiple webhooks for different event types
Enable message batching in FireBackup settings
Consider using Slack's Events API for higher limits

Invalid Webhook URL

If Slack returns 404 or invalid_token:

Go to your Slack app settings
Regenerate the webhook URL
Update the URL in FireBackup

Security

Best Practices

Keep webhook URLs secret - treat like passwords
Use private channels for sensitive notifications
Rotate webhook URLs periodically
Monitor delivery logs for unusual activity

IP Allowlisting

FireBackup sends webhooks from these IP ranges:

35.192.0.0/12
34.96.0.0/12

Configure Slack's firewall rules if using Slack Enterprise Grid.

Slack Webhooks Tutorial - Step-by-step setup guide
Webhooks Integration - Generic webhook documentation
Webhooks API Reference - API documentation

Overview​

Quick Start​

1. Create a Slack App​

2. Add to FireBackup​

Configuration Options​

Basic Configuration​

Event Types​

Filters​

Message Formats​

Default Messages​

Custom Templates​

Template Variables​

Multiple Channels​

Routing by Severity​

Routing by Project​

Slack Workflow Integration​

Using Workflow Builder​

Troubleshooting​

Messages Not Appearing​

Rate Limiting​

Invalid Webhook URL​

Security​

Best Practices​

IP Allowlisting​

Related​