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New Block Kit layout block

The layout block is now available for Block Kit use.

The layout block arranges other blocks into a grid of rows and side-by-side items, so a single message or view can present structured, multi-column content instead of one vertical stack. Use it for summaries, detail panes, and metric strips, anywhere a column of stacked blocks could waste horizontal space. Other benefits include:

  • Denser, more scannable output: put related fields side by side instead of stacking them.
  • Composition with blocks you already use: section, image, actions, table, and other blocks drop into a layout item, no changes required.
  • Layout hints, not pixel math: declare narrow/standard/wide, and Slack handles the rest.
  • Self-contained structure: the grid lives entirely inside one block, so reordering the parent blocks array won't break it.
  • Graceful degradation: older clients render your fallback blocks.

For more details about building with Block Kit, check out our Block Kit overview!

Apps can now display thinking steps to users!

Display your apps' and agents' actions with three new Block Kit components:

  • The task_card block displays a single task.
  • The url source element displays clickable URL references within a task card.
  • The plan block displays multiple of those tasks together in a unified view.

How tasks are displayed is set with a new parameter in the text-streaming API methods: task_display_mode. Use this to choose whether your app's tasks appear individually or in a comprehensive plan.

Then update the task cards and plan via the new chunks parameter. The parameter also supports plain markdown.

Ready to test it out? Check out our guide on developing AI apps, or jump straight to the text-streaming methods' reference pages: