feat: log AI coding agents in user-agent, telemetry, and tracing by mwbrooks · Pull Request #550 · slackapi/slack-cli

mwbrooks · 2026-05-15T22:44:26Z

Changelog

When the CLI is invoked by an AI coding agent, the HTTP User-Agent header now includes an AI-Agent suffix identifying the agent. Developers can see the user agent in the --verbose debug logs.
# No AI Agent
$ slack version --verbose
# user_agent: slack-cli/v4.0.1 (os: darwin)

# Pretending we are Claude
$ CLAUDECODE=1 CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT=cli slack version --verbose
# user_agent: slack-cli/v4.0.1 (os: darwin) AI-Agent (name=claude-code, entry=cli)

Summary

This pull request adds detection of AI coding agents and surfaces the detected agent across HTTP requests, telemetry, and tracing.

Format:

slack-cli/v4.0.1 (os: darwin) AI-Agent (name=claude-code, entry=cli)
slack-cli/v4.0.1 (os: darwin) AI-Agent (name=claude-code, entry=desktop)
slack-cli/v4.0.1 (os: darwin) AI-Agent (name=codex)

Analytics:

We can look up "AI-Agent" to know if the CLI was run by an agent.
We can look up the specific agent used by name=.
We have the ability to log additional agent information when available (e.g. entry=) but it's very limited today.

Detected AI agents environment variables:

CLAUDECODE → claude-code
- CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT → cli or desktop or possibly even vscode
CODEX_CI → codex
GEMINI_CLI → gemini-cli
- This could be gemini if we want, but since the env var is specific the CLI we may want to take advantage of that
CLINE_ACTIVE → cline
CURSOR_AGENT → cursor
AGENT
- Generic fallback that's emerging as the common env var for agents

When detected:

The User-Agent header on all API requests gets an AI-Agent (name=<name>, [entry=<entrypoint>]) addition
Logstash telemetry events include an agent field in the context
Jaeger tracing gets an ai_agent span tag
Verbose output prints the full user-agent at startup

Testing

# Test Claude Code WITH an entry value
$ CLAUDECODE=1 CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT=cli slack version --verbose
# [2026-05-15 15:29:06] user_agent: slack-cli/v4.0.1 (os: darwin) AI-Agent (name=claude-code, entry=cli)
# ...
# [2026-05-15 15:40:26] FlushToLogstash will POST https://dev.slackb.com/events/cli payload: [{"context":{"agent":"claude-code","arch":"arm64,...

# Test Claude Code WITHOUT an entry value
$ CLAUDECODE=1 slack version --verbose
# [2026-05-15 15:29:06] user_agent: slack-cli/v4.0.1 (os: darwin) AI-Agent (name=claude-code)
# ...
# [2026-05-15 15:40:26] FlushToLogstash will POST https://dev.slackb.com/events/cli payload: [{"context":{"agent":"claude-code","arch":"arm64,...

Requirements

I've read and understood the Contributing Guidelines and have done my best effort to follow them.
I've read and agree to the Code of Conduct.

When the Slack CLI is invoked by an AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cline, Cursor, Goose, Amp, or others), detect the agent via environment variables and append an AI-Agent product token to the HTTP user-agent header. Also propagates the agent name to telemetry events and Jaeger tracing spans. User-Agent format: slack-cli/2.38.1 (os: darwin) AI-Agent (name=claude-code, entry=cli)

Removes duplicate detectAIAgentName/detectAgentName helpers from main.go and tracking.go in favor of useragent.DetectName().

codecov · 2026-05-15T22:48:19Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 85.71429% with 6 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 71.66%. Comparing base (3720e4f) to head (082c836).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
internal/useragent/useragent.go	87.09%	4 Missing ⚠️
main.go	0.00%	2 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #550      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   71.64%   71.66%   +0.01%     
==========================================
  Files         225      226       +1     
  Lines       19074    19104      +30     
==========================================
+ Hits        13665    13690      +25     
- Misses       4202     4207       +5     
  Partials     1207     1207

☔ View full report in Codecov by Sentry.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.

mwbrooks

Comments for the kind reviewers! 🖊️

mwbrooks · 2026-05-15T22:51:58Z

 		rootCmd.SetContext(ctx)
 		// Debug logging
 		clients.IO.PrintDebug(ctx, "system_id: %s", clients.Config.SystemID)
+		clients.IO.PrintDebug(ctx, "user_agent: %s", useragent.BuildUserAgent(version.Raw()))


note: This is a new addition to our verbose logs. For a while, I've wanted to see our user-agent which is used for each API request. This may also be helpful when diagnosing user reported issues.

mwbrooks · 2026-05-15T22:54:55Z

 	span.SetTag("hashed_hostname", ioutils.GetHostname())
 	span.SetTag("slack_cli_process", processName)
+	if agentName := useragent.DetectName(); agentName != "" {
+		span.SetTag("ai_agent", agentName)


note: I chose ai_agent instead of agent because it's less ambiguous and more specific that it's an AI "agent".

mwbrooks · 2026-05-15T22:55:48Z


 // EventContext contains information / metadata about the CLI session
 type EventContext struct {
+	AIAgent          string   `json:"ai_agent,omitempty"`


note: I chose ai_agent instead of agent because it's less ambiguous and more specific that it's an AI "agent".

zimeg

@mwbrooks Let's uncover patterns to encourage whenever's right 📊

The comments I leave aren't blocking so please do ignore but some of these are questions I have about user agent itself? Thanks for landing this much.

zimeg · 2026-05-15T23:52:16Z

+	ua := fmt.Sprintf("slack-cli/%s (os: %s)", cliVersion, runtime.GOOS)
+	if agent := Detect(); agent != nil {
+		var parts []string
+		parts = append(parts, "name="+agent.Name)


Suggested change

parts = append(parts, "name="+agent.Name)

parts = append(parts, "name: "+agent.Name)

☎️ question: A ":" separator might match the os adjacent but I understand can make queries more difficult. If this was intentional please ignore but I did want to ask?

zimeg · 2026-05-15T23:52:50Z

+// BuildUserAgent constructs the HTTP User-Agent header value for the CLI. If an
+// AI agent is detected, an "AI-Agent (name=..., entry=...)" suffix is appended.


📚 quibble: It'd be helpful to have a full example here but no blocker!

zimeg · 2026-05-15T23:54:15Z

+
+// DetectName returns the normalized name of the detected AI agent, or an empty
+// string if no agent is detected.
+func DetectName() string {


Suggested change

func DetectName() string {

func DetectHarness() string {

🪬 question: Forgive these words but this is an unusual export for the value found I think but I also admit to not being so familiar with practices encouraged here!

🌃 ramble: It does seem solid if we're framing this as the... actual user agent though? I'm understanding more I hope!

mwbrooks added 6 commits May 15, 2026 14:22

refactor: extract DetectName() into useragent package

e172f13

Removes duplicate detectAIAgentName/detectAgentName helpers from main.go and tracking.go in favor of useragent.DetectName().

docs: add godoc comments to useragent package functions

ce067b0

fix: align test function names with Test_Package_Method convention

4251b27

chore: fix gofmt formatting in import blocks

61ead39

feat: print user-agent in verbose debug output during startup

dfb062c

mwbrooks self-assigned this May 15, 2026

mwbrooks added code health M-T: Test improvements and anything that improves code health semver:patch Use on pull requests to describe the release version increment labels May 15, 2026

mwbrooks added this to the Next Release milestone May 15, 2026

mwbrooks changed the title ~~feat: detect AI coding agents in user-agent, telemetry, and tracing~~ feat: log AI coding agents in user-agent, telemetry, and tracing May 15, 2026

mwbrooks added 2 commits May 15, 2026 15:55

refactor: rename logstash field from agent to ai_agent for consistency

eedcf9d

chore: alphabetize test functions and rename logstash field to ai_agent

96cd3e3

mwbrooks commented May 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

mwbrooks added changelog Use on updates to be included in the release notes enhancement M-T: A feature request for new functionality and removed code health M-T: Test improvements and anything that improves code health labels May 15, 2026

style: remove stray blank line in raw_request.go import block

5bd7a8c

mwbrooks marked this pull request as ready for review May 15, 2026 23:12

mwbrooks requested a review from a team as a code owner May 15, 2026 23:12

Merge branch 'main' into mwbrooks-track-ai-agent

082c836

zimeg approved these changes May 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

feat: log AI coding agents in user-agent, telemetry, and tracing#550

feat: log AI coding agents in user-agent, telemetry, and tracing#550
mwbrooks wants to merge 10 commits into
mainfrom
mwbrooks-track-ai-agent

mwbrooks commented May 15, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

codecov Bot commented May 15, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

mwbrooks left a comment

Uh oh!

mwbrooks May 15, 2026

Uh oh!

mwbrooks May 15, 2026

Uh oh!

mwbrooks May 15, 2026

Uh oh!

zimeg left a comment

Uh oh!

zimeg May 15, 2026

Uh oh!

zimeg May 15, 2026

Uh oh!

zimeg May 15, 2026

Uh oh!

zimeg May 15, 2026

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

	parts = append(parts, "name="+agent.Name)
	parts = append(parts, "name: "+agent.Name)

		// BuildUserAgent constructs the HTTP User-Agent header value for the CLI. If an
		// AI agent is detected, an "AI-Agent (name=..., entry=...)" suffix is appended.

Conversation

mwbrooks commented May 15, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Changelog

Summary

Testing

Requirements

Uh oh!

codecov Bot commented May 15, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Codecov Report

Uh oh!

mwbrooks left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

mwbrooks May 15, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

mwbrooks May 15, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

mwbrooks May 15, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

zimeg left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

zimeg May 15, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

zimeg May 15, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

zimeg May 15, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

zimeg May 15, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

mwbrooks commented May 15, 2026 •

edited

Loading

codecov Bot commented May 15, 2026 •

edited

Loading