Your average Slack bot -- an automated assistant you can tag in a Slack conversation -- works like this: You tag the bot. It responds. That's it. Artificial intelligence company Anthropic, which owns the AI chatbot and assistant Claude, wants to deepen that Slack conversation with a new feature called Claude Tag. The idea is that Claude can now build context by drawing on relevant information from Slack channels in a way it couldn't before.

Anthropic announced in a press release on Tuesday that it will rename the existing Claude app in Slack to Claude Tag on Aug. 3.

When you add Claude Tag to your Slack workspace, it joins as its own user. You can grant it access to selected channels and connect it to whichever tools, data and even codebases you want it to access.

When tagged, Claude will complete a task in stages before posting a response in a Slack thread.

Anyone in your Slack workspace or Claude organization can use Claude Tag, but if you have a Claude Enterprise plan, you can grant or restrict access to Claude Tag based on roles. 

Unlike other Slack bots, Claude Tag will learn everything from the public Slack channels it can access. It can pick up a conversation where the last person who tagged it left off.

With ambient behavior enabled, Claude Tag can remind users about tasks or discussion threads across Slack channels. It can also schedule future tasks for itself and work on these projects. 

You can chat with Claude Tag in a private direct message, or open a right-side panel to access it at any time. In both the panel and direct messages, Claude Tag can do whatever you've enabled it to do, including search the web. 

Prices and privacy

The feature is already available in beta for companies subscribed to Claude's Team and Enterprise plans.

When you tag Claude Tag in a direct message, its usage is billed to your Claude account. If you tag it in a channel, it's billed to your organization. 

Primary owners or owners can control Claude Tag's usage, as the app's limits are based on consumption rather than the number of users. Once a spending limit is reached, Claude Tag begins declining work. 

A representative for Anthropic didn't immediately respond to a request for pricing information.

Claude Tag remembers channel history, but company admins can review and delete what is retained. Slack conversations with Claude Tag follow each organization's Slack retention policies, and these conversations are separate from your Claude history. 

If you disconnect Claude Tag from Slack, your conversations are deleted after 30 days.