Troubleshoot Claude Tag in channels and DMs changedclaude-tag/users/troubleshooting

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# Troubleshoot Claude Tag in channels and DMs

> Fixes for common Claude Tag problems in Slack. See no reply after a reaction, queued or failed sessions, lost work, missing connections, blocked links and websites, and DM or account errors.

export const BetaNote = () => <Info>Claude Tag is in public beta. Features and behavior described here may change before general availability.</Info>;

<BetaNote />

When something goes wrong mid-conversation, the cause is usually one of a small set. Each entry below has the same three parts: what you see, what it means, and how to resolve it. For setup and credential errors, see the [admin troubleshooting page](/docs/claude-tag/admins/troubleshooting).

Many fixes end with something to send your admin. On this page that means whoever manages your organization's Claude account at claude.ai, and it's often not the same person as your Slack administrator. If you don't know who that is, ask whoever set Claude up in your workspace.

## No response or silence

### Mentioning @Claude does nothing at all

**What you see**

`@Claude` gets no reaction and no reply.

**What it means**

Total silence has several possible causes, from the app not being installed to the channel being turned off, and the checks below separate them.

**How to resolve**

Work through these in order. Each step says what success looks like and where to go if it fails.

1. **Is the Claude app installed in this workspace?** Start typing `@Claude` in any channel. **Works**: Slack autocompletes to a Claude app with an app badge; if more than one Claude app appears, check with your admin which one to use. **Fails**: nothing autocompletes, or only a person named Claude appears. The app isn't installed; this needs your admin (send them the [setup overview](/docs/claude-tag/admins/setup-overview)).
2. **Is Claude in this channel?** Type `/invite @Claude` in the channel's message box, not in a thread reply. Slack rejects `/invite` inside threads ("/invite is not supported in threads. Sorry!"). **Works**: Slack posts "Claude was added to #channel" (or "is already in this channel"). Mention it again. **Fails**: Slack says you can't add apps to this channel (a Slack Connect or guest-restricted channel); try an internal channel instead.
3. **Is Claude Tag turned on for this channel?** Mention it again now that it's invited. **Works**: it reacts and replies. **Fails**: it replies "Claude is disabled in this channel" (the channel is set to **Off**), or it replies but behaves like the earlier Claude in Slack, with no channel memory and pull requests opening under your name rather than Claude's (the channel is set to **Legacy**). Either way this needs your admin (send them [Migrate from the earlier Claude in Slack](/docs/claude-tag/admins/restrict-access#migrate-from-the-earlier-claude-in-slack)).

If `@Claude` still gets no reaction and no reply after all three, send your admin [the admin entries for a silent workspace](/docs/claude-tag/admins/troubleshooting#nothing-responds). If the silence covers every channel across an Enterprise Grid, the fix needs a Slack organization admin rather than your Claude admin, so send the link to them.

### Claude replies to me but not to a teammate

**What you see**

Claude answers your mentions in a channel, and a teammate's mentions in the same channel get silence or a refusal.

**What it means**

Mentioning Claude in a channel doesn't require the sender to have a Claude account or seat, so by default anyone in the workspace can use it. Your organization can restrict that with the [member access setting](/docs/claude-tag/admins/restrict-access#members), in which case members outside the restriction are declined.

**How to resolve**

Have the teammate mention `@Claude` themselves and report the exact text of any reply; the reply is the diagnosis.

* No reaction and no reply at all: unusual when it works for you in the same channel; send your admin the exact channel and person.
* A message about guests: see [the guest entry below](#claude-doesn%E2%80%99t-respond-in-channels-that-include-guests).
* A message about permissions or access: your organization restricts who can use Claude; send your admin [the member access setting](/docs/claude-tag/admins/restrict-access#members).

### Claude reacted or started thinking, then never replied

**What you see**

Claude added a reaction to your message, or an "is thinking…" line appeared under it, but no reply arrived.

**What it means**

A reaction or an "is thinking…" line without a reply usually means Claude is still working, not that your message was dropped.

**How to resolve**

1. @-mention Claude in the same thread to ask for a status check.
2. If it has replied before in the thread, open the session from the link in its last message to watch live progress. Long tasks often show steady movement there while the Slack thread looks idle.
3. If the silence has stretched well past what the task should need, send [`@Claude !restart`](/docs/claude-tag/users/commands#restart-a-stuck-or-wrong-context-session) in the thread; it archives the session and starts a fresh one that still reads the thread. Starting a new thread and restating the request also works.

<Warning>Restarting abandons whatever the session was midway through, and there's no way to resume it. A silent session may still be working through a long task, so treat `!restart` as a last resort.</Warning>

### Claude says my session is queued or failed to start

**What you see**

Claude posts in the thread:

> Still waiting for available capacity — your request is queued and will start automatically. Replies in this thread are picked up automatically.

Or, if the session never started:

> Session failed to start: the session container never connected — please try again

**What it means**

The first message means compute capacity is temporarily busy; the session starts on its own once capacity frees up. The second means the session didn't start at all, which is transient.

**How to resolve**

* For the capacity message, wait a few minutes; no action is needed. To add context while waiting, @-mention Claude in the same thread rather than starting a new one. A new thread only queues a second session behind the first.
* For the failed-start message, mention Claude in the same thread to retry. If the retry worked, the session starts and Claude begins the task.

### Claude didn't react to a message I edited

**What you see**

You edited a sent message to add `@Claude`, and nothing happened.

**What it means**

Editing a sent message to add a mention doesn't trigger a response; Claude only picks up mentions from new messages.

**How to resolve**

Send a new message with the mention included.

### Claude never responds in a channel shared with another company

**What you see**

Mentions in a channel shared with another company get no reaction and no reply, ever.

**What it means**

Claude doesn't operate in Slack Connect channels, the ones shared with another company. This holds regardless of admin settings; mentions there are dropped without a reply. See [externally shared channels](/docs/claude-tag/admins/restrict-access#externally-shared-channels).

A channel shared across workspaces inside your Enterprise Grid isn't silent; what happens there depends on how those workspaces connect to Claude. When every workspace in the channel belongs to your one Claude organization, Claude answers, but with only your organization's default access and settings, so a repository or an instruction set up for that channel doesn't apply. A notice in the thread points this out from time to time. When the workspaces are connected to different Claude organizations, you see "This channel is shared among several Claude workspaces, so Claude cannot respond here" instead of an answer.

Where guest access is restricted, you may first see "This channel is shared across multiple workspaces, and Claude can't verify whether it includes guests, so Claude can't respond here." If you ask Claude from another conversation to act in one of these channels, such as posting a message there, you see a reply that ends "Claude isn't available in channels shared across your Enterprise Grid".

Each of these messages means the channel spans more than one workspace. The [admin entries on these messages](/docs/claude-tag/admins/troubleshooting#this-channel-is-shared-across-multiple-workspaces) explain what causes each one and what an admin can change.

**How to resolve**

Move the conversation to an internal channel that belongs to a single workspace, or to a DM, and mention Claude there.

### Couldn't check this channel just now

**What you see**

Claude replies in the channel:

> Couldn't check this channel just now. Please try again in a moment.

**What it means**

When your organization restricts Claude in channels that include guests (the default), Claude checks each channel for guests before replying. That check briefly failed, so Claude declined this reply rather than guess.

**How to resolve**

Mention Claude again; the check usually passes on retry. If the same channel hits this repeatedly, send your admin [the admin entry on this message](/docs/claude-tag/admins/troubleshooting#couldn%E2%80%99t-check-this-channel-just-now).

### Claude doesn't respond in channels that include guests

**What you see**

Claude replies in the channel:

> Claude doesn't respond in channels that include guests. You can remove the guests from this channel (Channel details -> Members -> filter by "guests"), or a claude.ai organization owner can allow it here.

**What it means**

The channel includes at least one Slack guest account, and your organization restricts Claude in channels that include guests (the default).

**How to resolve**

Any of these fixes works:

* Remove the guests from the channel. In Slack, open **Channel details** → **Members** and filter by "guests"; guests show a **guest** badge on their Slack profile.
* Move the conversation to a channel with no guests.
* Ask a claude.ai organization owner to allow Claude to respond in channels that include guests, and send them [the guest access setting](/docs/claude-tag/admins/restrict-access#restrict-guest-channels). If you don't know who your organization's owners are, ask whoever set Claude up in your workspace.

The guest access setting restores replies, not workspace search. Claude can't search the workspace from a channel that includes guests, even when it's allowed to respond there. Removing the guests or moving the conversation to a channel with no guests restores search as well.

If the fix worked, a mention in the channel gets a reply.

## Too many or wrong responses

### Claude gave me a confident but wrong answer

**What you see**

Claude answered with certainty, and the answer is wrong or incomplete.

**What it means**

Claude can be wrong, including when it sounds certain. The most common wrong answer in Slack is an incomplete one, where Claude queried one source or one date range and reported the result as if it were the whole picture.

**How to resolve**

Before you share or act on a result, check the source links it posted, and ask it to show its work ("which channels did you search?" or "show me the query you ran"). If the answer is wrong, say so in the same thread with the correct answer; correcting it there is also how you steer the next attempt.

For numbers and facts that matter, the [definition-of-done habit](/docs/claude-tag/users/good-habits#give-every-task-a-definition-of-done) helps. Make "include the source for every figure" or "show me the query" part of the ask.

### Claude replies to every message in a thread

**What you see**

Claude answers messages in the thread that weren't addressed to it.

**What it means**

Once Claude is mentioned in a thread, it follows the whole conversation there and may reply to messages that weren't addressed to it.

**How to resolve**

Reply in the thread with an instruction such as "only respond when I @-mention you"; Claude follows that instruction for the rest of the thread.

### I want to take back something I sent

**What you see**

You edited or deleted a message, and Claude still acts on the original.

**What it means**

Claude has already read the original. An edit reaches it as a new update in the thread, so it may or may not act on the change, and it never undoes work already in progress. A deleted reply doesn't reach Claude at all.

**How to resolve**

Say so in a new reply ("ignore that, do X instead"), or start a fresh thread for a clean session.

### This conversation is too long for me to process

**What you see**

Claude posts in the thread:

> This conversation is too long for me to process and I couldn't finish this turn — please start a new thread to continue.

In a DM it ends with "Click *New Chat* in the top right to start a fresh session" instead.

**What it means**

The thread has grown past what one session can hold, and it stays too long forever; retrying there can't work.

**How to resolve**

Start a new thread. You can paste a summary of where the previous one left off.

## Claude stopped mid-task

The messages in this section mean a session started and then stopped partway through. In most cases the work isn't lost, and the same thread picks up where it stopped. Each entry says whether anything needs redoing.

### I hit repeated API server errors and stopped after retrying

**What you see**

Claude posts in the thread:

> I hit repeated API server errors and stopped after retrying. Mention me to continue.

The related messages "I hit repeated 529 Overloaded errors (the API is at capacity) and stopped after retrying. Mention me to continue." and "The API request timed out and I stopped after retrying. Mention me to continue." behave the same way.

**What it means**

The API serving the session returned repeated errors, so Claude stopped rather than keep retrying. The work isn't lost.

**How to resolve**

Mention Claude in the same thread; it picks up where it stopped.

### I hit API rate limits and stopped after retrying

**What you see**

Claude posts in the thread:

> I hit API rate limits and stopped after retrying. Wait a moment, then mention me to continue.

**What it means**

The Claude API rate-limited your organization's traffic partway through the turn. The work isn't lost. Rate limits are about momentary request rate, not accumulated usage: a single task makes many API requests in short bursts, so this can appear on an organization's very first request. It isn't the channel spend limit, and it doesn't mean anything is misconfigured.

**How to resolve**

Wait a moment, then mention Claude in the same thread; it picks up where it stopped. If it recurs constantly across channels, the organization's sustained traffic is above its rate limits; an admin can stagger heavy use or contact their account team about limits.

If your message mentions a spend limit instead, that's a different problem; see [You've reached a Claude Tag spend limit](#you%E2%80%99ve-reached-a-claude-tag-spend-limit).

### This request needs usage credits that aren't available

**What you see**

Claude posts in the thread:

> This request needs usage credits that aren't available and I couldn't finish this turn. Enable or purchase usage credits in claude.ai, then mention me to retry.

**What it means**

Your organization's usage credit balance can't cover the request, so the turn stopped. The session is still there.

**How to resolve**

An admin enables or purchases usage credits in claude.ai for your organization. Once that's done, mention Claude in the same thread to retry (adding credits doesn't restart the work on its own). The retry continues with the thread's conversation and context. [What survives between replies](/docs/claude-tag/concepts/how-it-works#what-survives-between-replies) covers what else carries over.

### Claude couldn't clone a repository for this session

**What you see**

Claude posts in the thread:

> Claude couldn't clone a repository for this session. Mention Claude in this thread to retry.

**What it means**

The clone failed when the session started. A one-off failure is transient; the same repository failing every time usually means it isn't granted for this channel.

**How to resolve**

Mention Claude in the same thread to retry. If the same repository fails every time, send your admin [the GitHub access entry](/docs/claude-tag/admins/troubleshooting#github-doesn%E2%80%99t-work-in-this-channel).

Cut at 300 lines. The page has the rest.

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