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Slack

Users ask your Zeta Alpha agent questions in Slack, by direct message or by mentioning the app in a channel. Every answer runs as the Zeta Alpha user who asked, so it only draws on documents that user can open, and it cites them.

Admin setup​

You need configuration write access to the tenant in Platform Admin, an agent for the app to answer with (see Managing Agents in the Platform), and permission to install apps in your Slack workspace.

  1. In Platform Admin, open the tenant and select Register Slack app on the Chat bots card.
  2. Choose the index to register the app on, the agent, and whether answers stream while they are written.
  3. To use the Zeta Alpha Slack app, leave Use your own Slack app off. To use your own, see Your own Slack app.
  4. Select Register Slack app, then open the Installation URL shown on the app's page and approve the installation in Slack.

Your own Slack app​

Use your own app when the Zeta Alpha app is not allowed in your workspace, or to choose its name and icon.

  1. At api.slack.com/apps, create an app for your workspace.
  2. Under OAuth & Permissions, add the bot scopes app_mentions:read, chat:write, im:history, users:read, and users:read.email.
  3. Under App Home, enable the Messages Tab so users can message the app directly.
  4. Under Event Subscriptions, enable events, set the Request URL to the one shown on the Slack page in Platform Admin, and subscribe to the bot events app_mention and message.im. Set the same URL under Interactivity & Shortcuts.
  5. In Platform Admin, turn on Use your own Slack app and enter the app's App ID and Client ID. Under Client secret and Signing secret, choose New secret and paste the values from Basic Information. They are stored as tenant secrets; the app only keeps their names.

Zeta Alpha verifies every request with the signing secret.

Using the app​

  • Direct message: open the app in Slack and ask a question.
  • Channels: mention the app, for example @Zeta Alpha what changed in the Q3 report?. The answer is posted in a thread, visible only to the user who asked.

Each thread, and the direct message with the app, keeps its own conversation, so follow-up questions build on earlier ones. These conversations also appear in the user's Zeta Alpha chat history. With streaming on, the answer appears while it is written in direct messages; channel answers stay visible only to the user who asked, so they arrive in full.

A user gets an answer once their Slack email matches a user of your Zeta Alpha tenant who has signed in to Zeta Alpha at least once. Anyone else is asked to sign in to Zeta Alpha first.

Slack apps installed before agent selection existed keep answering with the default Slack agent, one message at a time. Choose an agent on the app's page in Platform Admin to move it to conversations and streaming.