Reactions and Workflows
frugally.app supports emoji reactions as action triggers and integrates with Slack Workflow Builder for custom automation flows.
Emoji reactions
How reactions work
When frugally.app posts an Execution result or a Guard notification to a Slack channel, team members can react with specific emoji to trigger actions.
| Emoji | Action | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
✅ :white_check_mark: | Approve a Guard Project | Guard Project submission notifications |
❌ :x: | Reject a Guard Project | Guard Project submission notifications |
🔄 :arrows_counterclockwise: | Re-run the Execution | Execution result messages |
🔍 :mag: | Get detailed results | Execution result messages (posts a threaded reply with per-resource breakdown) |
Permissions
Reactions respect the user's frugally.app role:
- Approve/Reject — Only users who are valid approvers for the Project (based on approval rules) can approve or reject via reaction
- Re-run — Only Members and above can trigger a re-run
- Details — Any team member can request detailed results
If a user without the required permission reacts, frugally.app sends an ephemeral message explaining that the action was not taken.
Enabling reactions
Emoji reactions are enabled by default. To disable them, navigate to Settings > Slack > Reactions and toggle them off.
Emoji reactions make Guard approvals fast and visible to the whole team. Instead of switching to the dashboard, approvers can review the notification and react directly in the channel.
Slack Workflow Builder integration
frugally.app can be used as a step in Slack Workflow Builder, allowing you to create custom automation flows that combine frugally.app actions with other Slack and third-party tools.
Available workflow steps
| Step | Description | Inputs |
|---|---|---|
| Run Execution | Triggers a manual Execution | Target name, action |
| Run Dry Run | Triggers a dry run | Target name, action |
| Get Savings | Fetches savings data for a period | Period (today, week, month) |
| Get Schedule Status | Fetches upcoming schedule information | Target name (optional) |
Example workflows
Scheduled cost report
Send a weekly savings summary to a finance channel every Monday morning:
- Trigger: Scheduled (every Monday at 9 AM)
- Step 1: frugally.app — Get Savings (period: week)
- Step 2: Send message to #finance-updates with savings data
Approval escalation
Escalate a Guard Project that has not been approved within 4 hours:
- Trigger: frugally.app posts a Guard Project notification
- Step 1: Wait 4 hours
- Step 2: Check if the Project is still pending
- Step 3: If pending, send a reminder to the #platform-leads channel
Emergency shutdown
Allow on-call engineers to trigger an emergency shutdown from a specific channel:
- Trigger: New message in #incidents containing "shutdown"
- Step 1: frugally.app — Run Execution (Target: "All Non-Prod", action: stop)
- Step 2: Post confirmation to #incidents
Setting up workflows
- Open Slack Workflow Builder (from the Slack sidebar: Automations > Workflows)
- Create a new workflow or edit an existing one
- Add a step and search for "frugally" in the step library
- Select the frugally.app step and configure its inputs
- Publish the workflow
Workflow Builder integration requires the Slack workspace to be on a Slack paid plan. The frugally.app steps are available on the Pro and Enterprise plans.