managing-subscriptions

Managing subscriptions

This skill guides you through managing PostHog subscriptions. Subscriptions deliver scheduled snapshots of insights or dashboards via email, Slack, or webhook.

When to use this skill

Use this skill when the user:

• Wants to "track", "follow", "subscribe to", or "get updates" about an insight or dashboard
• Asks for "daily updates", "weekly reports", or "send me this every morning"
• Wants an AI-written summary attached to each delivery of an insight or dashboard (see step 6)
• Asks to "post", "send", or "share" the key numbers from an existing dashboard or insight to a channel on a schedule — even when phrased as "set up a scout/bot to post this daily" (a recurring message like this is usually a better fit for a dashboard/insight subscription than a Signals scout; when it's unclear which they want, confirm before building — see the happy path below)
• Wants to know what subscriptions they have
• Asks to stop, pause, or unsubscribe from something
• Wants to change who receives an update or how often

Subscriptions vs alerts

Subscriptions and alerts serve different purposes:

• Subscriptions deliver a snapshot on a fixed schedule (daily, weekly, etc.) regardless of the data
• Alerts fire only when a condition is met (threshold crossed, anomaly detected)

If the user says "notify me when this drops below 100", use alerts. If the user says "send me this every morning", use subscriptions.

The happy path: recurring numbers from a dashboard or insight

When someone wants the key numbers from an existing dashboard or insight posted to a channel on a schedule — "post the top-line from this dashboard in #launch once a day", "send the team these metrics every morning", or even "set up a scout/bot to post this daily" — the right tool is a dashboard (or insight) subscription, and an AI summary is its natural companion:

• Set dashboard (or insight) and deliver to Slack or email. For a dashboard subscription, pick the tiles via dashboard_export_insights — that field is dashboard-only, and an insight subscription is rejected if you send it (an insight subscription needs no tile list).
• Offer the AI summary, don't assume it. Per step 6, ask before enabling it, then set summary_enabled: true once the user agrees — it has AI-consent, quota, and budget gates that can reject the create, so keep it opt-in.
• The attached tile snapshots are exact. The AI summary text is model-written, so treat any figure it quotes as approximate (the same drift caveat as a prompt subscription) and lean on the snapshot for exact numbers.

Usually a better fit than a prompt subscription (creating-ai-subscription) or a Signals scout. A prompt subscription composes its own HogQL and can drift from the dashboard's numbers; a scout is for open-ended watching that decides what's worth surfacing, not scheduled delivery of a fixed, user-specified metric set. Don't override a user who's certain they want one of those — but when the ask is ambiguous (e.g. "set up a scout to post this daily"), suggest the subscription and confirm before building: "A dashboard subscription is a better fit for a recurring message. Want me to set that up?" Reach for a prompt subscription when the user specifically asks for a free-text AI report, or when no existing insight/dashboard covers the ask.

Workflow

Listing existing subscriptions

Before creating a new subscription, check if one already exists.

Use subscriptions-list with optional filters:

• Filter by insight: pass the insight query parameter with the insight ID
• Filter by dashboard: pass the dashboard query parameter with the dashboard ID
• Filter by channel: pass target_type as email, slack, or webhook

Creating a subscription

Step 1: Ask the user how they want to receive it

Always ask the user whether they want email or Slack delivery before creating a subscription. Do not assume a channel — ask explicitly:

Would you like to receive this via email or Slack?

If the user says Slack, you must verify the integration is available (see step 2). If the user doesn't have a preference, suggest email as the simplest option.

Step 2: Verify channel availability

Email requires no setup — it works out of the box. You just need the user's email address. Get it from the user context or from org-members-list.

Slack requires a connected Slack integration. Before creating a Slack subscription:

1. Call integrations-list and look for an integration where kind is "slack"
2. If a Slack integration exists, note its id — you'll need it as integration_id
3. If no Slack integration exists, tell the user:

   Slack isn't connected to this project yet. You can set it up in Project settings > Integrations. In the meantime, would you like to receive this via email instead?

Slack setup requires an OAuth flow in the browser — it cannot be done via MCP.

Webhook requires the user to provide a URL. Verify it looks like a valid URL before submitting.

Step 3: Identify the target

Get the insight ID or dashboard ID. If the user provides a URL like /project/2/insights/pKxzopBG, fetch the insight first with insight-get to get the numeric ID.

Step 4: Determine delivery settings from the user's request

Step 5: Create with subscriptions-create

For an insight subscription via email:

{
  "insight": 12345,
  "target_type": "email",
  "target_value": "user@example.com",
  "frequency": "daily",
  "start_date": "2025-01-01T09:00:00Z"
}

For a dashboard subscription (requires selecting which insights to include, max 10):

{
  "dashboard": 67,
  "dashboard_export_insights": [101, 102, 103],
  "target_type": "email",
  "target_value": "user@example.com",
  "frequency": "weekly",
  "byweekday": ["monday"],
  "start_date": "2025-01-01T09:00:00Z"
}

For Slack delivery, include the integration_id from step 2:

{
  "insight": 12345,
  "target_type": "slack",
  "target_value": "#general",
  "integration_id": 789,
  "frequency": "daily",
  "start_date": "2025-01-01T09:00:00Z"
}

Step 6 (optional): Attach an AI summary

For insight and dashboard subscriptions you can attach an AI-written summary to every delivery — a short narrative that calls out what changed, outliers, and notable insights alongside the snapshot. Set it at create time (or toggle later via subscriptions-partial-update):

• summary_enabled: true — turns on the per-delivery AI summary
• summary_prompt_guide: "..." — optional steer, e.g. "focus on sign-up conversion and any new drop-off points"

{
  "dashboard": 67,
  "dashboard_export_insights": [101, 102, 103],
  "target_type": "email",
  "target_value": "user@example.com",
  "frequency": "weekly",
  "byweekday": ["monday"],
  "start_date": "2025-01-01T09:00:00Z",
  "summary_enabled": true,
  "summary_prompt_guide": "Call out outliers and new insights since last week"
}

Enabling a summary requires the organization to have approved AI data processing (Org settings → Data → AI data processing) and to be within its active-summary cap and AI credit budget; otherwise the create/update is rejected. summary_enabled does not apply to prompt subscriptions — those are AI-generated by definition (see creating-ai-subscription).

Updating a subscription

Use subscriptions-partial-update with the subscription ID. Common updates:

• Change frequency: {"frequency": "weekly", "byweekday": ["monday"]}
• Add recipients: Update target_value with the full comma-separated list
• Change channel: Update target_type and target_value together
• Toggle the AI summary (insight/dashboard subs): {"summary_enabled": true, "summary_prompt_guide": "..."} — same AI-data-processing and budget gates as step 6

Deactivating a subscription

Subscriptions are soft-deleted. Use subscriptions-partial-update:

{
  "id": 456,
  "deleted": true
}

Defaults

When the user doesn't specify details:

• Frequency: "daily"
• Channel: email to the current user
• Start date: now (ISO 8601)
• Title: auto-generated from the insight/dashboard name if not specified

Error handling

• Duplicate check: If a subscription already exists for the same insight/dashboard and channel, inform the user and offer to update it rather than creating a duplicate
• Slack not connected: If a Slack subscription is requested but no Slack integration exists, explain that Slack must be connected in Project settings > Integrations first, then offer email as an alternative. Do not attempt to create the subscription — it will fail with a validation error
• Slack integration wrong team: The Slack integration must belong to the same PostHog team. If integrations-list returns Slack integrations but creation still fails, the integration may be misconfigured
• Dashboard insights: Dashboard subscriptions require at least 1 and at most 10 insights selected via dashboard_export_insights. If the user doesn't specify which insights, fetch the dashboard with dashboard-get and select up to the first 10 insights from its tiles

Related skills

• building-a-dashboard — assemble the dashboard worth subscribing to first
• creating-ai-subscription — schedule a free-text AI report instead of an insight/dashboard snapshot