Issue with Slack Event Subscriptions Verification via Triggered Automation (HTTP 403 / Query Parameter Authentication)

[tkodama]

Hi Qlik Community,

I am attempting to integrate Qlik Cloud Automation with Slack Event Subscriptions to handle @mention queries using Qlik Answers.

However, I am stuck at the Slack Event Subscriptions url_verification step and unable to achieve Verified status.

Setup Overview:

1. Trigger: Triggered Automation (Start block set to Webhook/Triggered).

2. Verification Logic:

   • Condition block checks if Start > body > challenge is not empty.

   • YES branch: Routes directly to an Output block returning Start > body > challenge, immediately followed by a Stop block.

3. Authentication:

   • Slack Event Subscriptions does not allow sending custom HTTP headers (such as -H "X-Execution-Token: <TOKEN>").

   • Therefore, I am appending the token as a query parameter in Slack's Request URL: https://<tenant>[.qlikcloud.com/api/v1/automations/](https://.qlikcloud.com/api/v1/automations/)<automation-id>/actions/execute?X-Execution-Token=<TOKEN>

What Works:

• Sending a POST request via curl with the token in the HTTP Header works perfectly and returns the challenge string: curl -X POST "<URL>" -H "X-Execution-Token: <TOKEN>" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{\"type\": \"url_verification\", \"challenge\": \"test_123\"}"

The Problem:

• When testing with query parameter authentication (which Slack relies on), the request fails with an HTTP 403 Forbidden error: {"errors":[{"code":"HTTP-403","title":"No permission.","detail":"You don't have sufficient permissions to access this resource."}]}

• We confirmed this 403 Forbidden response using Google Apps Script / UrlFetchApp when sending the token via query parameter (?X-Execution-Token=<TOKEN>).

Questions:

1. Does Qlik Cloud Automation support executing Triggered Automations when the X-Execution-Token is passed via URL query parameters (?X-Execution-Token=...) instead of HTTP Headers?

2. Is there a specific setting or URL format required to allow Slack Event Subscriptions to authenticate successfully without custom HTTP headers?

Any advice or workarounds would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Dave_Channon]

Hi @tkodama 

Query param authentication was removed this year to reduce the risk of log exposure of credentials, so unfortunately is no longer available - see https://community.qlik.com/t5/Support-Updates/Qlik-Automate-Execution-tokens-will-become-header-para...for more information.

For your use case, are you trying to '@' answers from slack and have it respond in the provided user's context?

[tkodama]

Hi, thank you for clarifying!

Understood regarding the removal of query parameter authentication.

Yes, my goal is to let users @mention our bot in Slack, send the query to Qlik Answers, and post the answer back into the Slack thread.

Since Slack's Event Subscriptions specifications do not allow adding custom HTTP headers to outgoing requests, this would mean that connecting Slack directly to Qlik Automation (via URL parameters) is currently impossible.

Does this mean that it is indeed impossible to invoke Qlik Answers directly from a Slack @mention using Qlik Cloud Automation alone?

Must we always use a middleware (such as Google Apps Script, AWS Lambda, or an API gateway) to inject the X-Execution-Token header, or is there another recommended native integration method for Slack and Qlik Answers?

Thanks again for your help!