Sauna Skills

Recognition

• "slack", "post to channel", "DM", "message the team", "announce"
• Quick internal communication
• Real-time or near-real-time context

Format Selection

Use	When
Block Kit JSON	Announcements, structured updates, anything needing visual hierarchy, metrics, or actions
Plain mrkdwn	Quick replies, thread responses, simple one-liners

Default to Block Kit for any substantive message. Output valid JSON that can be pasted into Slack's Block Kit Builder or sent via API.

---

Block Kit Structure

Every Block Kit message is a JSON object with a blocks array:

{
  "blocks": [
    { "type": "header", ... },
    { "type": "section", ... },
    { "type": "divider" },
    { "type": "context", ... }
  ]
}

---

Block Types

Header

Top-level title for the message.

{
  "type": "header",
  "text": {
    "type": "plain_text",
    "text": "🚀 Release v2.4.0 Shipped",
    "emoji": true
  }
}

Section

Primary content block. Supports mrkdwn text and optional accessory (button, image, etc).

{
  "type": "section",
  "text": {
    "type": "mrkdwn",
    "text": "*What's new:*\n• Faster search indexing\n• Dark mode support\n• Bug fixes for auth flow"
  }
}

With accessory button:

{
  "type": "section",
  "text": {
    "type": "mrkdwn",
    "text": "Review the changes before merging."
  },
  "accessory": {
    "type": "button",
    "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "View PR", "emoji": true },
    "url": "https://github.com/org/repo/pull/123"
  }
}

Divider

Visual separator between sections.

{ "type": "divider" }

Context

Small metadata line (timestamps, authors, tags).

{
  "type": "context",
  "elements": [
    { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "Posted by <@U123ABC> • Dec 5, 2024" }
  ]
}

Actions

Row of interactive buttons.

{
  "type": "actions",
  "elements": [
    {
      "type": "button",
      "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "Approve", "emoji": true },
      "style": "primary",
      "action_id": "approve_action"
    },
    {
      "type": "button",
      "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "Reject", "emoji": true },
      "style": "danger",
      "action_id": "reject_action"
    }
  ]
}

Image

Standalone image block.

{
  "type": "image",
  "image_url": "https://example.com/chart.png",
  "alt_text": "Weekly metrics chart"
}

---

Templates

Announcement

{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "header",
      "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "📢 [Title]", "emoji": true }
    },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "[Main announcement body with *bold* for emphasis]" }
    },
    { "type": "divider" },
    {
      "type": "context",
      "elements": [
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "Questions? Reply in thread 👇" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Status Update with Metrics

{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "header",
      "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "📊 Weekly Metrics", "emoji": true }
    },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "fields": [
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Active Users*\n12,450 (+8%)" },
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Revenue*\n$84.2K (+12%)" },
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Churn*\n2.1% (-0.3%)" },
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*NPS*\n72 (+5)" }
      ]
    },
    { "type": "divider" },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Highlights:* Strong week driven by product launch. Retention up across all cohorts." }
    },
    {
      "type": "context",
      "elements": [
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "Week of Dec 2–8, 2024 • <https://dashboard.example.com|Full Dashboard>" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Action Prompt

{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "🙋 *Need approval:* Budget request for Q1 marketing spend ($25K)" }
    },
    {
      "type": "actions",
      "elements": [
        {
          "type": "button",
          "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "✅ Approve", "emoji": true },
          "style": "primary",
          "action_id": "approve"
        },
        {
          "type": "button",
          "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "❌ Reject", "emoji": true },
          "style": "danger",
          "action_id": "reject"
        },
        {
          "type": "button",
          "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "View Details", "emoji": true },
          "url": "https://docs.example.com/budget-q1"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Team Update

{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "header",
      "text": { "type": "plain_text", "text": "🏃 Sprint 14 Wrap-up", "emoji": true }
    },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": {
        "type": "mrkdwn",
        "text": "*Completed:*\n• User onboarding redesign\n• API rate limiting\n• Mobile push notifications\n\n*Carried over:*\n• Dashboard export feature (blocked on design)"
      }
    },
    { "type": "divider" },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Next sprint focus:* Performance optimization and Q1 planning" }
    },
    {
      "type": "context",
      "elements": [
        { "type": "mrkdwn", "text": "Sprint 14 • Nov 25 – Dec 6 • Team: Platform" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

---

mrkdwn Reference

For text within blocks, use Slack's mrkdwn syntax:

Element	Syntax
Bold	*bold*
Italic	_italic_
Strike	~strikethrough~
Code	`inline code`
Code block	```code block```
Link	<https://url.com|display text>
User mention	<@U123ABC>
Channel	<#C123ABC>
Bullet list	• item (or - item)

---

Pitfalls

• Don't mix Block Kit with plain text in the same message—use one or the other
• header only accepts plain_text, not mrkdwn
• fields in section blocks max out at 10 items, 2 columns
• Button style only accepts "primary" (green) or "danger" (red)—omit for default gray
• Test in Block Kit Builder before sending