Slide is a backup, continuity, and disaster-recovery (BCDR) platform for MSPs — backup appliances ("Slides"), the agents they protect, snapshots, and the recovery workflows (file restores, image exports, and bootable recovery virtual machines) built on top of them. StackJack talks to Slide through the Slide public API.
Connecting Slide to StackJack gives your AI assistant a family of 79 slide_ MCP tools — MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools are the standardized commands an AI assistant can call through StackJack. With them, your AI can:
- Inventory clients, devices (appliances), agents, snapshots, and backups across your fleet
- Investigate alerts and the audit log — who did what, and what needs attention
- Recover (on Pro plans) — start backups, mount file restores and push files back, export disk images, and boot recovery virtual machines
- Manage (on Pro plans) recovery networks, including IPsec tunnels, port forwards, and WireGuard peers, plus device VLANs and power state
How StackJack authenticates to Slide
Slide uses a single API token. You mint the token in the Slide Console, and StackJack sends it on every request as a bearer credential. There is no client ID, no sign-in redirect, and nothing to refresh — the token stays valid until you revoke it in the Console.
The token inherits the permissions of the Slide account it belongs to — everything your AI can see or change in Slide is bounded by what that account can. A 403 from a tool means the account lacks that permission, not a StackJack-side block.
Slide is a global service with one address (https://api.slide.tech) — there are no regional endpoints, so there is no region to choose.
Before you begin
- In StackJack: you need a role that can manage connectors (tenant Owner, a co-owner, or an Administrator).
- In Slide: you need access to the Slide Console with permission to create an API token.
Step 1 — Create an API token in the Slide Console
- Sign in to the Slide Console and go to Settings → API.
- Generate a new API token. Slide tokens are long-lived and stay valid until you revoke them.
- Copy the token immediately and store it securely — treat it like a password. Anyone with the token can read and act on your Slide account.
Step 2 — Add the credential in StackJack
- In the StackJack portal, open Connectors.
- Find the Slide card. Click How To Connect for the same steps inline, or Configure to enter the token.
- Paste your API token. There is no client ID or URL to enter — the address is fixed.
- Click Save.
What happens when you save
- The token is stored encrypted in Azure Key Vault — never in the StackJack database, and never shown back to you.
- If this is the first time you configure Slide, a Free-tier subscription for the connector is created automatically so its Free tools work right away.
- StackJack immediately live-validates the token by making a cheap authenticated read against your Slide account. Validation never blocks the save: you'll either see a success confirmation or a "saved but validation failed" warning with the reason.
- The connector card shows the current connection and validity status from then on.
Plans and available tools
- Free includes the 38 read-only tools: list and get across accounts, users, clients, alerts, the audit log, agents (including file search), devices and their networks and VLANs, backups, snapshots, file restores, image exports, recovery virtual machines, and networks.
- Pro adds the 41 write and action tools: update account/alert settings, client and agent lifecycle, device power and network/VLAN changes, and the recovery actions — start a backup, create and push file restores, export images, boot and delete recovery VMs, and manage recovery networks (IPsec / port-forward / WireGuard).
- Business offers the same tool set as Pro with a higher monthly call quota.
Slide has no per-user sign-in for the API (the token is a single account credential), so all AI traffic authenticates as that one token — there is no per-user attribution. Current pricing and quotas are shown in the portal's Billing page and at checkout.
A note on recovery actions. Several Pro tools change live infrastructure — powering a device off or rebooting it, starting a backup, pushing recovered files back onto a protected system, exporting an image, or booting a recovery virtual machine. StackJack marks these as sensitive so a careful AI client asks before running them. Scope your AI's access deliberately: use the tool selections on the MCP Setup page and the Permissions page to enable only the actions you want an AI to take.
Eventual consistency. Slide is eventually consistent: a resource you just created or changed may take a moment to become readable. Your AI shouldn't assume a write is visible on the very next read — a brief "not found" right after a create usually resolves on a retry a moment later.
Rate limits
Slide meters each token with a small burst allowance that refills continuously (roughly ten requests per second). StackJack paces requests to stay under it and backs off automatically when Slide signals a rate-limit response, so bursts of tool calls queue briefly instead of failing — a long multi-page inventory read may simply take a little longer.
Rotating or replacing the token
The API token is the recovery secret. If you revoke the token in the Slide Console — or it is otherwise invalidated — the stored credential stops working. To restore access, mint a new token in Settings → API, then open Connectors → Slide → Configure in StackJack, paste the new token, and Save.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Saved but validation failed" right after saving | The token was mis-pasted, or it was revoked in the Slide Console | Re-copy the token from Settings → API and paste it again in Connectors → Slide → Configure |
| Tools worked, then started failing with an auth error | The token was revoked or regenerated in Slide | Mint a new token and update the credential in Connectors → Slide → Configure |
| One tool returns a 403 while others succeed | The token's Slide account lacks the permission that tool needs | Grant that permission to the account in Slide, or use a token from an account that has it |
| A resource you just created returns "not found" | Slide is eventually consistent — the write isn't readable yet | Retry the read after a moment; it should resolve on its own |
| Write or action tools missing from your AI's tool list | Connector is on the Free tier, or the tools aren't selected for your client | Upgrade the Slide connector plan and check your tool selections on the MCP Setup page |
| Tool calls slow down under heavy use | StackJack is pacing requests to stay under Slide's rate limit | Expected under bursts — the calls queue and complete; narrow the request or reduce parallelism if needed |