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 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.

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:

Call integrations-list and look for an integration where kind is "slack"
If a Slack integration exists, note its id — you'll need it as integration_id
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

User says	Parameters
"every day" / "daily" / "every morning"	`frequency: "daily"`
"every week" / "weekly"	`frequency: "weekly"`
"every Monday"	`frequency: "weekly"`, `byweekday: ["monday"]`
"every month" / "monthly"	`frequency: "monthly"`
"twice a week"	`frequency: "weekly"`, `interval: 1`, `byweekday: ["monday", "thursday"]`

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 6):

{
  "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"
}

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

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 6 insights selected via dashboard_export_insights. If the user doesn't specify which insights, fetch the dashboard with dashboard-get and select the first 6 insights from its tiles

managing-subscriptions