Before approving a diagram app for Slack Enterprise Grid, decide which workspaces can install it, what Slack data its scopes permit, which data leaves Slack, and which actions need a human review. App approval and app installation are separate controls: approving an app for the organization does not by itself install it in every workspace. The Slack app's access, the vendor's database, AI-provider processing, and exported files also have different retention and access rules.
Direct answer: Review the app's install level and scopes, who can use it and where, its message and file triggers, its external storage and deletion terms, the AI providers and their data controls, every write path, and how to export or remove records. Arialine installs per workspace, and its channel proposal setting lets reviewers accept each edit before it becomes a version.
Separate approval from installation scope
Slack Enterprise Grid gives admins several decisions that are easy to conflate:
| Decision | What it controls | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Approved or restricted | Whether a workspace can install or use the app under organization policy | Check the app's current requested scopes and any changed-scope request. Approval is not the same as installing it everywhere. |
| Workspace-level or organization-level installation | Where the installation and its access are established | Check the Access level and Installed on fields in the Enterprise Integrations dashboard. |
| Member and channel access | Who may initiate the app and which channels may add or use it, where those controls are available | Set a pilot boundary and verify the controls appear in your organization. Slack notes that some channel controls are rolling out gradually. |
Slack's Enterprise app management guide distinguishes organization-level installations from workspace installations. An organization-level install can then be added to selected workspaces or set as the default for future workspaces. By contrast, an organization app policy can approve or restrict an app so that workspaces may install it; that policy is not itself an org-wide installation. Slack's organization app policies explain the approval-policy layer.
For Arialine, its current app configuration, checked on September 29, 2026, sets settings.org_deploy_enabled to false. Slack's manifest reference defines that field as the organization-wide deployment setting. Arialine's public admin data-handling page describes its data-handling boundaries and asks admins to assess channel suitability. This article recommends beginning with one approved test channel; verify the actual install level in your Enterprise dashboard before and after that pilot. Slack also notes that restricting an app does not remove existing workspace installations; remove those separately if you are ending access.
Assign review ownership explicitly. Slack says Org Owners, Org Admins, and Integrations Admins manage apps at the organization level, while workspace owners or app managers handle workspace app requests. A useful governance split is for those admins to decide where the app is allowed, security or privacy reviewers to assess scopes and external data processing, and an architecture owner to decide whether the resulting records meet the team's documentation and approval policy.
Where enabled, Enterprise admins can also limit which members or groups may initiate an app, and which channels it can be used in. Check these settings alongside workspace membership: an app installed in a workspace is not automatically entitled to read every private channel. For Arialine, message events are received from channels where the app is present. Slack may require an app to be requested again when its developer changes scopes, so review the scope list on updates rather than treating the original approval as permanent. For apps with Slackbot MCP servers, Slack requires app approval in Enterprise Grid and Enterprise+ organizations; approval still does not mean the app is automatically installed across every workspace.
Slack Marketplace review can help admins inspect an app, but Slack says it does not endorse or certify Marketplace apps. Use the security recommendations for approving apps as a review checklist, then assess the vendor's own architecture and commitments.
Read the requested scopes as a data-access map
The following groups summarize Arialine's current bot scopes, as checked against its app configuration on September 29, 2026. Its manifest also requests the user identity scopes openid, profile, and email for sign-in; those are separate from bot access to Slack conversations. Arialine's public admin data-handling page and Privacy Policy describe the user-facing data boundary. Slack's installation screen and your organization dashboard show the exact live request, so compare both token types with the user flows you plan to permit.
| Scope group | Current scopes | Review question |
|---|---|---|
| Messages and conversations | app_mentions:read, channels:history, groups:history, im:history, mpim:history |
Which message types can it read, and where is it subscribed to receive events? Is it invited only to approved channels? |
| Channel and identity lookup | channels:read, groups:read, users:read |
Does the app need names, membership checks, and member identity to place a board and enforce access? |
| Files and other content | files:read, files:write, canvases:write, reactions:read |
Which shared Mermaid or Markdown files can it read? Which file or Canvas actions are required, and where will reactions trigger a reply? |
| Posting and entry points | chat:write, im:write, commands |
What messages, version replies, proposals, owner alerts, or slash-command responses will it post? |
| Slackbot connection | mcp:connect |
Will members connect the app's MCP tools to Slackbot, and which read or write tools will be available there? |
| Historical public search | search:read.public |
Can a member explicitly ask the app to retrieve older public-channel messages? What information may that request send to an AI provider? |
A scope describes what a token can be authorized to do; it does not prove that every possible action occurs in the product. Slack defines files:write as allowing a token to upload, edit, or delete Slack files. canvases:write allows canvas creation, editing, and removal; Slack also lists canvases.access.set and canvases.access.delete among its compatible methods. In the current product, Arialine uploads diagram artifacts, creates or updates supported Canvas content in its Markdown-to-Canvas workflow, and attempts to call canvases.access.set to grant the selected channel write access during Canvas creation. The call can fail without blocking the Canvas workflow, so verify the Canvas sharing permissions during the pilot. This identifies a currently used access operation; it does not mean the app exercises every method the scope authorizes. Review granted scope separately from operations currently used, and compare it with the live app configuration before approval. Slack's scope reference lists the data or actions unlocked by each permission. Event subscriptions are a separate part of the manifest. Arialine's current manifest subscribes to message.channels, message.groups, message.im, and file_shared, among other events; it does not subscribe to message.mpim. Review both lists alongside the product's triggers, storage, code paths, and Privacy Policy. That policy says historical search is limited to public channels and is request-scoped; private-channel and direct-message historical search is not supported. Reviewers should compare these stated behaviors with the granted scopes rather than assume that a scope or an event list alone describes the complete data flow.
Check when messages can trigger processing
Arialine can keep recent text from channels where it is present in a rolling buffer for up to 72 hours. This context is separate from a saved diagram board. Ordinary conversation does not invoke an AI provider, but an explicit request can send the relevant instruction, context, and diagram source to a configured model provider. An explicit user action or a channel-enabled automation can also start a workflow. Review the channel settings for shared-file rendering, pasted Mermaid, and invalid-source repair; do not treat “no AI on ordinary conversation” as “no message data is received or stored.”
Valid Mermaid pasted for rendering is drawn as written without a model call. Workspace owners and admins can turn off saving pasted Mermaid with /arialine privacy save off or the App Home setting. In that mode, a valid paste can still be rendered and uploaded to Slack, but it does not create a saved board or source history. The setting changes storage behavior for that input; it is not a switch that prevents all diagrams or disables every AI feature. Arialine's security and data-handling page and Privacy Policy describe the current boundary.
For AI-assisted actions, Arialine's current Privacy Policy says its configured fallback chain can use DeepSeek, OpenAI, and Google's Gemini APIs. Which provider receives a request can depend on availability and fallback. The policy does not promise a customer-selected processing region or zero provider-side retention across that chain. Provider terms and retention can differ, and exact models can change. If your policy requires a fixed processing country or no provider retention, resolve that requirement before sending real workspace content to an AI-assisted workflow. The policy also states that Slack data is not used to train models.
Map records to the system that retains them
A Slack retention rule does not cover every copy of a diagram. Record where each kind of data lives and who can retrieve or delete it:
| Record | Where it lives | Governance consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Recent discussion context | Arialine's operational database for up to 72 hours | This is not Slack retention. Confirm the allowed channels and the vendor's cleanup commitment. |
| Board source, versions, change and decision history, proposals, and channel settings | Arialine's workspace-scoped operational database | This is the editable product record; do not assume Slack export tools include it. |
| PNG and interactive HTML board files, messages, and supported Canvas ledger | The Slack workspace | Slack access, retention, export, and eDiscovery rules apply to these Slack copies. |
| AI request content | Sent to whichever configured model provider handles that request, including fallback | Review the provider's own processing terms and data location separately from Arialine's hosting. |
| Downloaded or forwarded exports | Wherever a recipient saves or forwards the file | A local copy may outlive channel membership, a Slack retention rule, or removal of the app. |
Slack retention can cover messages, files, canvases, and lists, but their exact controls depend on the plan and configuration. For example, Slack's canvas and list data guide explains that those artifacts have their own retention and export behavior; inclusion of earlier Canvas versions depends on the workspace's export eligibility. Slack's Discovery API guide describes Enterprise exports of Slack-stored messages and files, including supported canvases and lists. It does not make a vendor's separate database a Slack record. Ask the vendor how its source and version history can be retrieved or deleted.
Uninstalling Arialine stops new processing, but its current Privacy Policy says that existing board records are not automatically deleted on uninstall. Request access, a copy, or deletion by emailing hi@arialine.app; the vendor may ask you to verify the workspace and your authority. Include uninstall, deletion request, backup treatment, and the point at which deletion is confirmed in your exit test; do not equate “remove app from Slack” with “erase every vendor-side record.”
Treat editing and Slackbot as separate control paths
Arialine offers a channel-level proposal or direct edit setting. Proposal mode presents a change for someone to apply, edit, or dismiss; it is useful for review in a working thread. It is not an organization-wide approval policy or a strict owner-only gate. Current MCP write paths do not all follow the same channel edit-mode policy. If a strict approval is required, review each exposed write action and use Slackbot's per-tool controls—such as Needs approval or Blocked, where available—or do not enable that connection until the path meets your control requirement.
The current app manifest includes mcp:connect and configures Slack identity authentication. Arialine's MCP endpoint allows unsigned, non-mutating discovery requests (initialize, notifications/initialized, and tools/list); MCP tool calls require a valid Slack request signature. Slack's MCP connection guide explains Slack identity authentication and signed requests. When Slackbot is used, it can call the installed app's tools; members can review tools and choose whether an action always runs, requires confirmation, or is blocked in Slack's Slackbot app settings. Org Owners and Org Admins on supported Enterprise subscriptions can also manage MCP server access, set read/write tool defaults, and set individual-tool permissions, as described in Slack's MCP admin guide. Check both the app's Slack scopes and the specific MCP tools. A setting that governs edits requested in a channel is not evidence that a Slackbot write tool will prompt for owner approval.
On ordinary channel flows, Arialine's default edit mode is proposal, and a board owner can receive a best-effort Slack DM after another member applies a new version. The owner can mute those alerts. That notification is useful oversight, but it is not an authorization check, guaranteed alert, or formal approval record. Also check who can change channel settings: channel-level controls are available to channel members, not reserved only for organization admins. For an authoritative design decision, keep the signed-off record in the repository, ADR system, or approval workflow your organization already uses.
Test a pilot with non-sensitive data
Run these checks in a test workspace or approved pilot channel before inviting the app to production architecture, customer, or incident discussions. Save the observed settings and sample evidence with the approval record.
| Test | What to do | Evidence to keep |
|---|---|---|
| Install boundary | Approve the app, install it in one intended workspace, and inspect the org dashboard. Check who can initiate it and which channels can add it, if your plan exposes those controls. | Approved scopes, install level, workspace list, and member or channel restrictions. |
| Message boundary | Invite the app only to a test channel. Check what context is retained, then compare an ordinary message with an explicit request and any enabled file or Mermaid automation. | Channel settings, documented triggers, and observed buffer or request behavior. |
| AI path | Use synthetic content for a model-assisted create or edit. Ask which provider and fallback route received it, what can be retained, and where it may be processed. | Vendor policy version and answers to your provider, region, and retention questions. |
| Write controls | Exercise proposal and direct edits, then connect Slackbot if in scope. Test a read tool, a write tool, approval required, and a blocked tool as separate cases. | Which person or setting can approve, apply, undo, or export each action. |
| Retention and exit | Post a PNG/HTML diagram and a Canvas ledger where supported. Test Slack retention and export, remove the app, and separately submit a data-deletion request. | Which copies disappear, which remain, the data owner, and the deletion confirmation. |
| Export audience | Export a PDF with one or more versions and inspect it before posting or forwarding. Arialine's PDF export workflow can include linked source evidence and Mermaid source for the latest included version. | The permitted destination, readers, selected versions, and handling of downloaded copies. |
A PDF report can include sensitive evidence copied from the source discussion even when the diagram itself looks harmless. Export to a channel or case system whose readers are authorized for that evidence. Slack audit logs can help establish events such as app and Canvas activity, but they are not a substitute for the vendor's board history or for the content itself. Slack currently retains Enterprise audit logs for a maximum of two years; export them separately if your policy needs a longer audit record. See Slack's audit-log guidance and verify current retention in your organization.
Write a short channel policy
For an architecture-review channel, a practical policy might say: install Arialine only in the approved workspace; invite it only to channels whose discussion may be processed under the reviewed provider terms; keep credentials and personal or customer-sensitive details out of prompts and diagrams; use proposal mode for visible thread review; restrict or require approval for Slackbot write tools if those controls are available; and store accepted decisions or deployed architecture in the organization's canonical system.
This policy keeps the useful part of a Slack-based workflow—versioned diagrams with source-message context near the discussion—with board history that stays available independent of Slack's message retention. The architecture review workflow shows where that Slack workflow can help; the Slackbot MCP diagramming guide covers the separate tool-connection path.
FAQ
Does approving an app install it in every Enterprise Grid workspace?
No. Approval and installation scope are separate decisions. For apps with Slackbot MCP servers, Slack requires app approval in Enterprise Grid and Enterprise+ organizations; then check whether the app is installed at the organization or workspace level and review the installed-workspace list in the admin dashboard.
Does Slack Marketplace review mean an app is certified?
No. Slack says Marketplace review is not an endorsement or certification. Review the scopes, vendor privacy policy, data flows, and the evidence your organization requires.
Does Slack retention delete an app's copy of a diagram?
No. Slack retention governs the Slack artifacts covered by your policy. A diagram app may keep source and history in its own database under separate retention terms. Check both systems and test removal and deletion separately.
Is Arialine proposal mode a strict approval gate?
No. It provides a review step for channel edit flows, but it does not govern every mutation path, including all MCP write tools. Configure Slackbot tool approval separately when using MCP, and test the path that matters to your policy.
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