Slack Integration
Connect Slack to work with Autoheal directly from your workspace — message it privately, @mention it in a channel, and receive alert and investigation updates. Autoheal answers conversationally by default and spins up a full investigation when you ask it to look into something.
Capabilities
Once connected, the AI agent can:
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Direct-message chat | DM the Autoheal bot for a private, persistent chat session — ask questions, pull up data, get help |
| @Mention in channels | Mention the bot in any channel; it replies in a thread and can escalate to a full investigation |
| Agent-decided investigations | Ask it to investigate / look into / find the root cause and it starts a real investigation, threading results back to where you asked |
| About tab | The app's About tab describes what Autoheal does and how to work with it |
| Welcome message | Teammates you invite to Autoheal get a one-time intro DM in Slack; connecting Slack also welcomes your existing teammates (with an opt-out). Only people on your Autoheal team are messaged — never your whole Slack workspace |
| New chat | In a DM, each message you send starts its own chat and Autoheal replies in that thread — so starting fresh is just sending a new message |
| Alert & investigation notifications | Receive alerts, investigation updates, and root-cause cards in Slack |
| Answer the agent in Slack | When an investigation needs your input, its question posts as an interactive card — pick an option, multi-select, Skip, or Write your own… for a free-text reply — and answering resumes the run automatically |
| Decide hypotheses in-thread | Root-cause cards carry 👍 Accept / 💬 Refine / 👎 Dismiss on each hypothesis. Accept and Dismiss are recorded straight from Slack; Refine opens the hypothesis's open questions in Autoheal so you can answer them |
| Progress indicator | A "Working on it…" message posts the moment Autoheal picks up your request, then edits itself into the answer when the agent replies |
| Shareable deep links | Every chat and investigation carries a link back to the Autoheal web app |
Prerequisites
- A Slack workspace where you have permission to install apps
- Admin or owner permissions to authorize the Autoheal Slack app
Setup
- Go to Integrations in Autoheal
- Click Slack
- Click the Connect to Slack button
- Authorize the Autoheal app in your Slack workspace
- Open a direct message with the Autoheal app (find it under Apps in your Slack sidebar)
- Send a message like
hi— Autoheal replies in a private, persistent chat session - Check the app's About tab for a quick overview of what it can do
- Open any channel where you want Autoheal to help
- Type
/invite @Autohealor mention@Autoheal - The bot joins and is ready to respond in that channel
Already connected before these features shipped? Re-authorize the Slack app so Autoheal can pick up the newer permissions that direct messages need. In Autoheal go to Integrations → Slack and run Connect to Slack again for the same workspace — it re-authorizes in place (no duplicate). Your existing connection keeps working; reconnecting just grants the added scopes and welcomes your team.
How It Works
- In a DM: each message you send starts its own chat, and Autoheal replies in a thread under it — just like the channel behavior. Reply within that thread to continue the conversation; send a new top-level message to start fresh. No @mention needed.
- In a channel:
@mentionthe bot with your question. It replies in a thread; each thread is its own session. - Investigations: when you ask Autoheal to investigate, look into, or find the root cause of something, it starts a full investigation and threads the hypotheses, findings, and root-cause card back to where you asked.
- Acknowledgement: Autoheal posts a "Working on it…" message the instant it picks up your request and edits that same message into the answer, so you always know it's working.
- Starting fresh: just send a new top-level message — it begins a new chat in its own thread. Your previous threads stay saved and linkable.
Usage Examples
In a direct message (no mention needed):
which services are erroring right now?
investigate why the checkout service is returning 500s
In a channel where the bot is present:
@Autoheal look into high latency on the payments API
@Autoheal what changed in the last deployment?
@Autoheal who is on call for the platform team?
Best Practices
Dedicated Channels
Create dedicated channels for Autoheal investigations (e.g., #autoheal-investigations) to keep your main channels clean while maintaining visibility into ongoing investigations.
Incident Channels
Invite the Autoheal bot to your incident response channels so it can assist during active incidents with real-time investigation capabilities.
Thread Conversations
Use Slack threads for follow-up questions to keep conversations organized and maintain context for the AI agent.
Troubleshooting
Bot Not Responding
- In a channel, verify the bot is invited and you used
@Autoheal(with the @ mention) - In a DM, just message the bot directly — no mention needed
- Check that the Slack integration shows as Connected in Autoheal
- Try re-authorizing the Slack app if the issue persists
Can't Message the Bot in a DM
- If the DM composer is disabled ("Sending messages to this app has been turned off"), the app's Messages tab isn't enabled — an admin must re-authorize / reinstall the app so the latest configuration applies
- Re-authorizing also grants the direct-message permissions if you connected before those features shipped
Authorization Failed
- Verify you have admin or owner permissions in the Slack workspace
- Check that third-party app installations are allowed in your workspace settings
- Contact your Slack workspace admin if app installations are restricted
Notifications Not Arriving
- Check that the bot is present in the target channel
- Verify the Slack integration is enabled (not disabled) in Autoheal
- Ensure Slack notification settings are not muting the bot