Send a Slack alert when a Salesforce deal changes stage using an agent skill

Prerequisites

Claude Code or another agent that supports the Agent Skills standard
Salesforce connected app or session token with API access to Opportunities
Slack bot with chat:write permission added to the target channel

Environment Variables

# Salesforce instance URL (e.g. https://yourorg.my.salesforce.com)

SALESFORCE_INSTANCE_URL=your_value_here

# Salesforce access token with API access to Opportunity records

SALESFORCE_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_value_here

# Slack bot token with chat:write permission

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=your_value_here

# Target Slack channel ID for deal stage alerts

SLACK_CHANNEL_ID=your_value_here

Overview

This approach creates an agent skill that queries Salesforce for recently modified opportunities, checks for stage changes, and posts alerts to Slack. Unlike flow-based approaches, this runs on-demand or on a schedule — ideal for a periodic check rather than real-time alerts.

Stage change detection

This script finds opportunities modified in the last hour, which may include changes other than stage transitions. Salesforce doesn't expose field-level change history via SOQL on standard objects without using OpportunityFieldHistory. For exact stage change detection, query OpportunityFieldHistory instead.

Step 1: Create the skill

Create .claude/skills/sf-deal-stage-alerts/SKILL.md:

---
name: sf-deal-stage-alerts
description: Check for recent Salesforce opportunity stage changes and post alerts to Slack
disable-model-invocation: true
allowed-tools: Bash(python *)
---
 
Check for Salesforce opportunities that changed stage in the last hour and post alerts to Slack.
 
Run: `python $SKILL_DIR/scripts/check_stages.py`

The key settings:

disable-model-invocation: true — the skill has external side effects (posting to Slack), so it only runs when you explicitly invoke it with /sf-deal-stage-alerts
allowed-tools: Bash(python *) — restricts execution to Python scripts only, preventing unintended shell commands

Step 2: Write the script

Create .claude/skills/sf-deal-stage-alerts/scripts/check_stages.py:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os, sys, requests
 
INSTANCE_URL = os.environ.get("SALESFORCE_INSTANCE_URL")
ACCESS_TOKEN = os.environ.get("SALESFORCE_ACCESS_TOKEN")
SLACK_TOKEN = os.environ.get("SLACK_BOT_TOKEN")
SLACK_CHANNEL = os.environ.get("SLACK_CHANNEL_ID")
 
if not all([INSTANCE_URL, ACCESS_TOKEN, SLACK_TOKEN, SLACK_CHANNEL]):
    print("ERROR: Set SALESFORCE_INSTANCE_URL, SALESFORCE_ACCESS_TOKEN, SLACK_BOT_TOKEN, SLACK_CHANNEL_ID")
    sys.exit(1)
 
SF_HEADERS = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
}
 
# Query recently modified opportunities
soql = (
    "SELECT Id, Name, Amount, StageName, LastModifiedDate "
    "FROM Opportunity "
    "WHERE LastModifiedDate > LAST_N_HOURS:1 AND StageName != null"
)
resp = requests.get(
    f"{INSTANCE_URL}/services/data/v59.0/query",
    headers=SF_HEADERS,
    params={"q": soql},
)
resp.raise_for_status()
records = resp.json().get("records", [])
 
if not records:
    print("No opportunities modified in the last hour")
    sys.exit(0)
 
# Post to Slack
from slack_sdk import WebClient
slack = WebClient(token=SLACK_TOKEN)
 
for opp in records:
    amount = float(opp.get("Amount") or 0)
    opp_url = f"{INSTANCE_URL}/{opp['Id']}"
 
    slack.chat_postMessage(
        channel=SLACK_CHANNEL,
        text=f"Deal updated: {opp['Name']}",
        blocks=[
            {"type": "section", "text": {"type": "mrkdwn",
                "text": f"🔄 *Deal Stage Changed*\n*{opp['Name']}* is in *{opp['StageName']}*\nAmount: ${amount:,.0f}"}},
            {"type": "context", "elements": [{"type": "mrkdwn",
                "text": f"<{opp_url}|View in Salesforce>"}]}
        ]
    )
 
print(f"Posted {len(records)} deal alerts to Slack")

Troubleshooting

What the script does

Validates environment — checks that SALESFORCE_INSTANCE_URL, SALESFORCE_ACCESS_TOKEN, SLACK_BOT_TOKEN, and SLACK_CHANNEL_ID are set, exits with a clear error if any are missing
Queries Salesforce — runs a SOQL query via the REST API (/services/data/v59.0/query) to find Opportunities modified in the last hour that have a stage set
Formats each alert — builds a Block Kit message per opportunity with the deal name, current stage, amount, and a deep link to the Salesforce record
Posts to Slack — sends one chat_postMessage per opportunity via the Slack SDK and logs the total number of alerts posted

Step 3: Run it

/sf-deal-stage-alerts

Step 4: Schedule (optional)

For hourly checks, schedule via Cowork or cron:

# crontab — run every hour
0 * * * * cd /path/to/project && python .claude/skills/sf-deal-stage-alerts/scripts/check_stages.py

When to use this approach

You want periodic digest-style alerts, not real-time
You don't want to maintain Salesforce flows or Connected Apps for n8n
You want to run checks on demand during pipeline reviews

Cost

No Claude API calls — this skill uses direct API calls only
Salesforce and Slack API usage is included in their respective plans