TL;DR: Install the Runbear plugin in Claude Code, run /runbear:deploy, then /runbear:connect-slack. Your local agent becomes an always-on Slack bot your whole team can use, no laptop required.
You can build a genuinely useful AI agent in Claude in an afternoon. Then you close your laptop, and it stops.
The fix is to deploy it: send your agent to Slack so it runs on its own, always-on, where your whole team can reach it without you in the loop.
| Dimension | On your laptop | Deployed to Slack |
| Availability | Runs only while your machine is awake | Always-on, 24/7 |
| Who can use it | Just you | Your whole team, in Slack |
| Identity | A local project | Its own Slack bot, with a name and icon |
| Permissions | Your access only | Each teammate authenticates as themselves |
| Your involvement | You run it for people | People use it directly, without you |
Here is how to do it.
How to deploy a Claude agent to Slack
You already have an agent running locally: a project with a CLAUDE.md, whatever skills it needs, and its integrations. Here is how to deploy it.
Prerequisites
- Claude Code installed, with the Runbear MCP connected (the deploy sets this up on first run).
- An existing local agent: a project folder with a CLAUDE.md, and optionally skills and MCP integrations.
Set it up once. Runbear's deploy tools ship as a Claude Code plugin (see the Agent Skills docs). Add the marketplace and install it one time:
/plugin marketplace add runbear-io/skills
/plugin install runbear@runbear-skillsThat gives you two commands: /runbear:deploy to deploy a project, and /runbear:connect-slack to give it a Slack bot. (The plugin lives in the runbear-io/skills repo.)