# Troubleshooting (/docs/guides/slack/troubleshooting)



Slack capture is designed to fail loudly and safely: forged requests are rejected, retries
never duplicate work, and a broken setup refuses to start rather than limping along. Here
are the failure modes that actually exist, and what to do about each.

## "RyTask isn't connected to this Slack workspace yet" [#rytask-isnt-connected-to-this-slack-workspace-yet]

Typing `/task` gets you this quiet reply when there is no active connection for your Slack
workspace — either it was never connected, or an admin has since disconnected it. The fix
is in the message: an admin connects (or reconnects) in **Settings → Integrations**.

## Slash commands fail and nothing is ever created [#slash-commands-fail-and-nothing-is-ever-created]

Every request from Slack is verified before any work happens: RyTask recomputes Slack's
signature over the raw request body using `SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET` and rejects anything that
doesn't match — or whose timestamp is more than five minutes old — with a `401`. Forged or
replayed requests never create anything.

The flip side: if the signing secret on your server doesn't match the Slack app (a typo, or
the secret was rotated in Slack), **every** webhook is rejected the same way. If `/task`
consistently errors in Slack and the API logs show `401`s on the Slack routes, re-copy the
Signing Secret from the Slack app's *Basic Information* page into `SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET`
and restart.

## A task was created, but it has no reporter [#a-task-was-created-but-it-has-no-reporter]

The captor's Slack account isn't linked to a RyTask account, so the item couldn't be
attributed — the capture confirmation will have said so. The item itself is fine. An admin
can link the person under **Settings → Integrations → Slack users**; see
[user mapping](/docs/guides/slack/user-mapping).

## Slack said "On it — capturing…" but no item appeared [#slack-said-on-it--capturing-but-no-item-appeared]

The acknowledgement comes from the API; the actual creation runs on the **background
worker**. If items stop appearing, the worker is the place to look:

```bash
docker compose logs worker
```

A common, self-explaining case is no default project: the follow-up message in Slack says
RyTask has no default project for capture yet, and an admin needs to pick one in
**Settings → Integrations**. If there's no follow-up message at all, check that the worker
container is running and healthy.

## Capture keeps working after disconnecting [#capture-keeps-working-after-disconnecting]

It shouldn't, and it doesn't. Disconnecting in **Settings → Integrations** revokes the
connection immediately: the next `/task` gets the "isn't connected" reply, and any capture
jobs already queued at that moment notice the revoked connection and quietly do nothing —
no orphaned items appear after the fact.

## The API won't start after configuring Slack [#the-api-wont-start-after-configuring-slack]

When Slack is configured (client ID, client secret, and signing secret all set), RyTask
requires a valid token-encryption key and otherwise refuses to boot, with one of:

```
Refusing to start: SLACK_TOKEN_ENC_KEY is required when Slack is configured.
Generate one with `openssl rand -base64 32`.
```

```
Refusing to start: SLACK_TOKEN_ENC_KEY must be a base64-encoded 32-byte key (got N bytes).
Generate one with `openssl rand -base64 32`.
```

This is deliberate — the Slack bot token is encrypted at rest, and starting without a
proper key would mean storing it badly. Generate a key with `openssl rand -base64 32`, set
`SLACK_TOKEN_ENC_KEY`, and start again. See the
[environment variables reference](/docs/reference/environment-variables).