How to work with Slackbot
Navigate your workday with help from Slackbot, your personal agent for work. Slackbot has the same context and access to information you do, so answers are always relevant and personalized. Start a conversation to prepare for your next meeting, analyze that giant spreadsheet, or find just about anything (though maybe not your misplaced housekeys).
What to expect
- By default, all members of a workspace or Enterprise organization can use Slackbot. If you don’t see it, you might need to upgrade your plan or ask an owner or admin if they’ve restricted access.
- Responses from Slackbot are based only on information you can view in Slack, and no one using Slackbot can see anything they don’t have permission to view (like private channels or direct messages they aren’t a part of).
- Slackbot can help with just about anything. Get started by summarizing past conversations in advance of a planning session, creating a first draft of a new blog post, or tracking down that one message you need to follow up on.
- You can also use Slackbot to access information from Salesforce, third-party apps installed in your workspace, and enterprise search data sources.
- The number of messages you can send to Slackbot and which features you can use depend on your Slack plan. Visit Slackbot limits and credit usage for more details.
Note: Slackbot is protected by the Slack AI Guardrails, a built-in security framework designed to ensure privacy and security while using Slack AI features.
Ask Slackbot anything
Be clear and concise with your requests, but remember you can always ask follow-up questions or provide different instructions. When you need to ask Slackbot about something different, it’s better to start a new conversation than switch to a totally different topic in an existing one.
How to write great prompts
A prompt is a set of instructions you provide to Slackbot in order to get a specific response. The best prompts are short and precise, and include references to additional context you want Slackbot to consider in its response (like files, channels, or Salesforce records).
Example prompts
| Instead of this... | Try this! |
| What needs my attention? | Which direct messages or mentions do I need to follow up on this morning? |
| Make an agenda for my meeting with @name. | Create an agenda for my Thursday meeting with @name using the conversations in #channel-name from March 19 and our previous meeting notes [link to canvas]. |
| Tell me what’s going on with [project]. | What decisions were made in [link to thread] about [project name]? |
| How is [customer account] doing lately? | Can you summarize recent meetings with [customer account] and make a canvas for the quarterly business review scheduled next month? |
| Draft a project brief for launching [feature]. | Write a first draft of a project brief for the launch of [feature] using these resources — [link to slides], [link to product brief]. |
Start a conversation
Desktop
Mobile
- Click Slackbot in the top-right corner of the screen or the top of your sidebar.
- Type your message or question, or click the microphone icon to dictate your prompt. Press Enter or click Send.
- As Slackbot works on generating a response, you can see the steps it’s taking (like performing searches, checking your calendar, creating documents, etc.). If Slackbot starts going in the wrong direction or you realize you need to ask a different question, click the Stop button.
- When Slackbot tries to make edits to a shared canvas, you’ll need to click Confirm before new content is added. If you click Cancel, it won’t make any changes.
- From the Home tab, tap Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- Type your message or question, or tap the microphone icon to dictate your prompt instead.
- As Slackbot works on generating a response, you can see the steps it's taking (like performing searches, checking your calendar, creating documents, etc.). If Slackbot starts going in the wrong direction or you realize you need to ask a different question, tap the Stop button.
Note: Slackbot voice dictation works with all Slack supported languages and many others, though it’s currently optimized for English. Dictated messages are transcribed, but audio data is not stored.
Set up recurring tasks
To have Slackbot take actions (like sending a reminder or creating a meeting agenda) on a regular basis, create a task. Tasks can run a certain number of times, on a schedule, or until a specific date, and each task can run a maximum of three times per day. Your tasks will stop running once the daily limit is reached, and resume the next day after limits reset at 12 a.m.
Desktop
Mobile
- Open Slackbot.
- Open the Tasks tab. If you don't see Tasks, click the More tab.
- Click Add Task and select Create with Slackbot.
- Describe the task you want Slackbot to do. Be sure to specify when it should run, how often, and when it should stop running (if applicable).
- Slackbot will generate a draft task for you to review. You can ask it to make changes, or click Create task to proceed.
- From the Home tab, tap Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- Describe the task you want Slackbot to do. Be sure to specify when the task should run, how often, and when it should stop running (if applicable).
- Slackbot will generate a draft task for you to review. You can ask it to make changes, or tap Create task to proceed.
Modify or delete a task
Once you’ve created a task, you can make changes, pause it, or delete it. When you pause a task, it won’t run again unless you restart it.
Desktop
Mobile
- Open Slackbot.
- Open the Tasks tab. If you don't see Tasks, click the More tab.
- Hover over a task and select Pause to stop it from running temporarily (like while you’re on vacation or attending a conference and won’t be checking Slack) or select Edit to make changes.
- Hover over a task and click the three dots icon to delete it.
To update, pause, or delete a task, ask Slackbot to make whatever changes you need.
Tip: Create a skill to provide Slackbot with step-by-step instructions for any complex process, like creating an onboarding deck for a new customer or pulling data for a weekly meeting with your boss. To browse all available skills, open Slackbot and click the Skills tab.
Use deep research
Turn deep research on so Slackbot can research complex topics across all available sources (channels and files, the web, Salesforce data, and connected MCP servers) and produce a comprehensive report, rather than standard shorter response.
- From your desktop, open Slackbot.
- Click the plus button next to the message field and select Deep research.
- Describe what you’d like Slackbot to research, then send your request. It can take Slackbot up to 10 minutes to complete more complex requests.
Work with documents and files
Slackbot can analyze and summarize files, as well as create and edit them. Here are the types of files Slackbot is able to read:
- Canvases
- CSV and TXT (up to 1MB)
- Lists
- PDF (up to 4.5 MB or 100 pages in length)
- PNG, JPG, static GIF, webP, and HEIC images (up to 30 MB, though images over 3.75MB will be resized)
Note: Slackbot can only read Box files from direct links that start with https://company-name.app.box.com. It cannot access files shared from Box with links starting with https://company-name.box.com.
Share prompts
Crafting the perfect set of instructions for a particular task can take time. Once you’ve fine-tuned a prompt to work just the way you need, share it with others so they can use it too.
- From your desktop, open Slackbot.
- Type your prompt to start a new conversation with Slackbot, or open a previous conversation.
- Hover over the prompt and click Forward message.
- Select a channel or person from the drop-down menu, and add a message about the prompt you’re sharing if you’d like.
- Check the box next to Forward as prompt, then click Forward.
- Anyone who can see the message can click Send to Slackbot to start a conversation using your prompt.
View conversation history
You can always access previous conversations with Slackbot to find information or pick up where you left off. Conversations are named automatically, and you can rename them from Slack on desktop if you'd like.
Desktop
Mobile
- Open Slackbot.
- Click the History tab.
- Select a conversation to re-read it or send a followup message.
- To change the name of a conversation, hover over it and click
Rename.
- From the Home tab, tap Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- Tap History in the top-right corner.
- Select a conversation to re-read it or send a followup message.
Who can use this feature?
- All members except guests
- Available on the new version of Business+ and Enterprise+ plans
- Available on the legacy Business+, Enterprise Select, and Enterprise Grid plans with the Slack AI add-on