Slack

Set up an AI agent for Slack. This Slack chatbot answers questions in the thread from your knowledge, links the source, and works your other apps from there.

eesel's AI agent for Slack is an AI Slack bot your team @mentions in a channel or messages directly. It answers in the thread from your connected knowledge, with a link to the source, and it can also draft replies or do work in your other apps from that thread.

Invite your AI teammate into Slack and it answers questions in the thread from your knowledge, with a link to the source. It keeps answering follow-ups in that thread without being mentioned again. From the same thread it also does work in your other integrations, such as looking things up and drafting replies. It is not Slack AI, which is Slack's own built-in feature.

Your agent answering a question in a Slack thread, with a link to the source.

Set up eesel in Slack

1

Ask your agent to connect Slack

Open the chat in your dashboard and ask it to connect Slack. It posts an Add to Slack link for you to open and approve in the browser. It then waits for you to say it is done. Prefer to click? Integrations > Slack has the same Connect button.

The agent posts the Add to Slack link in the chat.

2

Approve it in Slack

The link opens Slack's own permission screen. Pick the workspace, read the list of what the app can view and do, and click Allow.

Slack shows a notice saying the app is not approved by Slack. That is because eesel is not listed in the Slack Marketplace. It is not an error and it does not limit what the app can do.

Slack's permission screen, with the workspace picker and the permission list.

A person approves this in the browser.

3

Confirm the connection

Tell your agent in the chat that you approved it. It confirms the connection, names the person who approved it, and says how to reach it in Slack.

The chat confirming Slack is connected.

Check it worked. The left sidebar now lists Slack with your workspace name. From a terminal, eesel status lists the integration as connected.

4

Check the workspace is on your agent

Integrations > Slack shows the connection as Connected, with your Slack workspace name. The Automations section lists the mention automation for this workspace, switched on. The Actions section shows the Read and Write action groups.

The Slack integration page, with the mention automation on and the action groups listed.

5

Ask it a question in a channel

Your teammate asks before it joins a channel. Right after you connect, it sends a direct message to whoever installed it, naming the public channels it would like to join and why. It joins only the ones you say yes to, then reads the most active of them to get to know your team. Naming a channel yourself, for example "read #support", counts as a yes. Private channels always need a person to run /invite @eesel.

Connecting alone does not start your agent. It needs an automation first. Ask in the dashboard chat to turn on the mention automation, and tell it how you want it to answer. Anyone can then mention it in a channel it is in and get the answer in the thread. Direct messages need no mention. It has an App Home tab in Slack too.

The app's hello message, and its answer to a mention in the thread.

Check it worked. Your Automations page lists the automation, switched on. From a terminal, eesel automations lists the automation as on.

6

Ask it to do work in your other apps

Mention your agent and ask for a look-up in a connected store or helpdesk. It answers in the thread with what it found.

A look-up in another connected app, answered in a Slack thread.

Ask it to draft a reply and the draft appears in the thread. It sits there until you tell it to send, and the thread says so.

The draft waiting in the thread to be sent.

7

Approve it from the thread

Tell it to go ahead. If an action is waiting on a person, its approval card posts in the same thread. Each action gets its own card naming the integration, the action, the record it touches and the content. Approve and Deny decide it, and Review in eesel opens the same approval in the dashboard. Nothing runs until someone decides it.

Only people with edit rights in your eesel workspace can decide an approval, in Slack or in the dashboard.

One approval card per action, waiting in the thread.

8

Check the result in the app

Open the app the action ran in and look at the record. The reply is there as a public message, signed the way you asked for. Any tag it applied is on the record too.

The approved reply and tag on the helpdesk ticket.

From Claude Code, Cursor or a terminal. The same setup works as commands: eesel login, then eesel integrations connect slack, which prints the details that connection method needs. A person approves the connection in Slack: use the link the command returns, or if it comes back held with no link, ask for one with eesel chat "give me the connect link for slack". Print the link for the person, wait for the connection status to change, and do not retry it. eesel status then shows the integration as connected, and eesel automations lists your automations. Turn the mention automation on with its instructions in one command: eesel automations enable slack slack_eesel_mentioned --instructions "...". Full command reference: The eesel CLI. Step-by-step: Set up from Claude Code or the terminal. From an MCP client: Claude Code and MCP clients.

Sources, triggers and actions

Sources

Slack is a place your agent answers, not a knowledge source it indexes. Nothing in your Slack workspace is copied into eesel. Your agent searches messages live while it answers. Once it is in a channel it can read that channel's history, including messages from before it arrived.

Its answers in Slack come from what else you have connected. Confluence, Notion and Google Drive are usually where the answers live. Your help center or website helps if people in Slack ask what customers ask. See Integrations.

Search only ever covers channels your agent is in. Within those, it covers every public channel, plus the private channels the person asking is also in. Reading a channel's history also needs your agent to be in it.

Your agent also reads images attached to a mention, up to five of them.

Triggers

Triggers are the Slack events an automation can run on:

Trigger	Fires when	Best for	Key
When @eesel is mentioned in a channel	Someone mentions the eesel app in a channel it is in	Answering questions on demand	slack_eesel_mentioned

Slack has one trigger. The trigger event is fixed when the automation is created. So a new automation is required for each different trigger event.

The automation has three controls:

• Channels. A multi-select picker where you choose channels by name, or paste channel IDs. Leave it empty and the automation covers every channel your agent is in.

• The instructions. Describe in plain language the questions you want it to take and what to do with them, and it skips the rest.

• Pause. A switch that stops the automation. While it is paused your agent is silent in Slack.

Several agents on one Slack workspace. The Channels picker on each automation decides which agents are eligible in a channel. Where more than one is eligible, eesel picks from the question itself. When it is not sure, it posts a picker in the thread and you choose. The first agent to answer in a thread owns that thread from then on.

Actions

Actions are what it can do:

	Action	What it does
Respond	Send Message	Sends a message to a channel, a thread, or a person as a direct message, using Slack's own formatting
	Add reaction	Reacts to a message with an emoji
Manage	Join channel	Joins a public channel with no /invite needed, after asking in the conversation first. Public channels only
	List channels	Lists the workspace's channels, flagging which ones your agent is in
Look up	Look up user	Finds a Slack user by email or name
	Read thread	Reads a full thread, with each message marked as your agent's or someone else's
	Read channel	Reads the recent messages in a channel
	Search messages	Searches past Slack messages live. Nothing is indexed

You stay in control the whole way. Adjust your AI agent's access to knowledge and its action permissions to your liking. See Actions and Approvals.

Search respects Slack's own permissions. It covers the public channels your agent is in, and the private ones the person asking is in. So it cannot surface a private or customer channel to someone who is not in it. Slack does not let a guest into public channels on their own, so a guest only gets the channels they share with your agent. That holds in Slack and in the eesel dashboard. In the dashboard we match you to your Slack account by your email address. If you sign in to eesel with a different address, your private channels are left out, and your agent tells you why.

Limitations

• It only reads and posts where it is a member. Private channels need a person to invite it.

• Nothing from Slack is indexed. It searches your Slack history live while it answers. The rest of its answers come from your other connected sources.

• One trigger. The mention automation is the only Slack trigger. Follow-ups in a thread it has answered need no new mention.

• One Slack workspace, one eesel workspace. A Slack workspace answers to the eesel workspace that connected it last. Connecting it from a second eesel workspace moves it there.

• Up to five images per mention. It reads images attached to a mention, up to five of them.

• Older connections may lack newer permissions. Reconnect to pick them up. See Troubleshooting below.

Troubleshooting

Agent not responding to mentions?

Check the Automations page shows the mention automation on and not paused. Check your agent is in that channel. If the automation has channels picked, it only runs in those. Check the automation's instructions cover the questions you expect. Mention the app from Slack's autocomplete, since Slack matches mentions by user ID rather than by a typed name. Then open the Activity page in your dashboard, where every Slack run appears.

Agent can't post in a channel, or the wrong agent answers?

For a public channel, ask your agent to join it or run /invite @eesel. A private channel needs a person to invite it. If the wrong agent answers, check which channels each automation covers. The first agent to answer in a thread keeps it.

Search isn't finding a message?

A channel your agent is not in will not appear. Nor will a private channel the person asking is not in. A full member of your Slack workspace gets every public channel your agent is in, whether or not they have joined it themselves. A guest gets only the channels they share with your agent.

Message search, joining channels or reading files not working?

These need permissions added to the Slack app after some workspaces connected. An older connection keeps the permissions it was granted at the time. Disconnect Slack and connect it again to pick up the newer ones.

Slack says the app isn't approved?

That notice appears because eesel is not listed in the Slack Marketplace. It is not an error and it does not limit what the app can do. Continue with the approval.

FAQ

How do I add an AI agent to Slack?

Connect Slack from the dashboard chat or Integrations > Slack, approve Add to Slack in your browser, then turn on the mention automation. Your team can then @mention the agent in any channel it is in, or message it directly. The steps are in Set up eesel in Slack.

Does connecting Slack start answering questions automatically?

No. Your agent will not answer until the mention automation is on and it is in the channel. Asking to join channels after you connect is separate from answering.

Can the Slack AI agent auto reply without being mentioned?

Yes, inside a thread it has already answered. Mention it once to start a thread and it picks up further messages there on its own. Direct messages never need a mention. In a channel, a new question needs a mention.

Can I use the Slack AI bot for support?

Yes. It answers your team's questions from your help center, docs and files, and from the same thread it can look up tickets or orders and draft replies in your connected helpdesk or store. See Internal operations and Helpdesk.

Can I connect Slack to Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes, through eesel. Once Slack is connected, you can talk to the same eesel agent from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, and it works with your Slack workspace too. See Use eesel from Claude and other assistants, Use eesel from ChatGPT and Claude Code and MCP clients.

Does eesel index my Slack messages?

No. Nothing from Slack is copied into eesel. Your agent searches your message history live, only in channels it is in, and only in private channels the person asking is also in.

Which Slack channels can the eesel AI agent see?

Only channels it is in. It asks before joining a public channel, and a person has to invite it to a private one. When it searches, it covers the public channels it is in plus the private channels the person asking shares with it. A guest gets only the channels they share with it.

Do I have to name the Slack app "eesel" for mentions to work?

No. Slack matches mentions by the app's user ID, not by its display name. Mention it from Slack's autocomplete and it works under any name.

Related pages

• Internal operations for the job your agent does for your team

• Helpdesk for the customer-facing work it can run from a thread

• Actions and Approvals for choosing what your agent may do

• Integrations overview for how sources, triggers and actions fit together

• Set up from Claude Code or the terminal