Roboto in Slack#

Overview#

The Roboto Slack app (@Roboto) brings Roboto’s AI into your team’s Slack channels. Mention @Roboto in a channel and the same AI that powers AI Chat answers in a thread, with the same tools and data: it can search your datasets, inspect files and topics, analyze signals, and link you to the result in Roboto. Anyone in the organization can join the conversation by mentioning @Roboto again.

The app works in both directions:

Ask Roboto from Slack. @Roboto in a channel starts a conversation backed by a Roboto thread. Most of this page covers this direction.
Let agents post to Slack. Any AI conversation in Roboto (AI Chat, an agent, a skill) can send a message into channels an admin has approved, so a triage result or a daily summary lands where people will read it.

Both directions share one setup: an organization admin connects a Slack workspace from Settings → Integrations → Slack. Connecting Slack requires a premium plan. For the walkthrough, see Use Roboto in Slack.

How a Slack conversation works#

A mention starts a thread. @Roboto <question> as a top-level channel message opens a Slack thread, and Roboto answers in it. Mentioning @Roboto inside an existing thread works too: Roboto reads the thread so far and answers in context.

Follow-ups need another mention. Roboto acts only on messages that mention it, so a reply without @Roboto does not start a turn. The app never listens to a channel, only to explicit mentions. It does read what was said between mentions, so you can discuss an answer with colleagues and then ask @Roboto and what about the second flight? without repeating yourselves.

The thread belongs to the organization, not to one person. Every mention in a Slack thread, from any member, continues the same conversation. One shared history means a colleague can pick up where you left off, and Roboto remembers what it already told each of you. Roboto knows who asked each question, so “who am I talking to?” gets the right answer in a shared thread.

One organization per thread. A Slack workspace can be connected to several Roboto organizations; teams commonly keep production, development, and engineering organizations in one workspace. A thread answers from exactly one of them, chosen when it starts. If you belong to only one connected organization, the choice is automatic. If you belong to several, Roboto asks you privately which one the thread is about, then announces the choice in the thread so everyone reading knows where the answers come from. To ask about another organization, start a new thread.

One question at a time. If someone mentions @Roboto while it is still answering an earlier question in the same thread, Roboto replies privately, asking them to mention it again once the answer is posted.

Answers arrive formatted for Slack. While Roboto works, a status line in the thread reports what it is doing. Roboto posts the finished answer as a single message, with links that open the relevant dataset, file, or visualization in Roboto. A very long answer is truncated, with a link to the full thread in the web app.

Who can use the app#

Slack’s own access controls decide who can read a thread: anyone in the channel sees the questions and the answers, as with any other message.

Roboto’s access controls decide who can add to one. To mention @Roboto and get an answer, you must:

Link your Slack account to your Roboto account. The first time you mention @Roboto, Roboto sends you a private, single-use link that expires after ten minutes; mention @Roboto again for a fresh one. Signing in to Roboto and confirming binds the two accounts. You do this once per workspace, and it covers every channel in it.
Be a member of the thread’s organization. Roboto checks membership on every mention, so someone removed from an organization cannot use an old thread to keep asking about its data.

Colleagues who fail either check can still read the thread. They cannot add to it until they link their accounts or join the organization.

The Slack conversation in Roboto#

Every Slack thread is a Roboto thread. It appears in the web app under Agents → Threads with organization visibility, so any member can open it, read the full transcript, including the tool calls behind each answer, and see the Slack messages Roboto was shown.

In the web app a Slack thread is read-only: the conversation lives in Slack, and only Slack mentions advance it. To carry one on yourself in Roboto, fork it. The fork is a private, writable copy of your own, exactly like forking any other shared thread.

Sending messages to Slack#

Once a workspace is connected and an admin has approved one or more channels, Roboto’s AI can post messages into those channels. Ask for a post in AI Chat (“post a summary of this triage to #flight-review”), or build one into an agent or skill so a recurring job delivers its result to the team.

Every post passes two independent gates. Slack lets the app post only in channels it has been invited to, and Roboto lets the AI post only in channels an admin approved. Roboto re-checks that approval at the moment of posting, so revoking a channel takes effect immediately, even in a conversation already under way. Any organization member who can open a chat can have the AI post into an approved channel; approval decides where agents may write, not who may ask them to.

The AI writes the message body from whatever it read during the conversation, so Roboto neutralizes Slack’s @channel, @here, @everyone, and user-mention syntax before posting. A dataset description containing @channel cannot page your workspace.

What to know before you connect#

Content in a Slack thread is untrusted input. Roboto’s AI acts on your data through its tools, and the messages it reads, including the ones posted between mentions, can come from anyone in the channel. As with any AI that reads shared conversations, prompt injection is a risk to weigh when deciding which channels to use @Roboto in.
Slack threads are visible to the whole organization in Roboto. Every message Roboto is shown, including talk between mentions, is copied into an organization-visible thread. Mentioning @Roboto in a private channel therefore shares that thread’s text with organization members who are not in the channel.
Slack keeps a copy. Questions and answers live in your Slack workspace under Slack’s retention as well as in Roboto.
Usage is billed to the organization. A Slack turn consumes the organization’s AI credits just as a web-app turn does.
Disconnecting is immediate. An admin can disconnect a workspace at any time: agents lose the ability to post, and Roboto clears the channel approvals. Uninstalling the app from Slack also revokes Roboto’s access.

Limits#

@Roboto works in channels; direct messages are not supported yet.
An organization connects to one Slack workspace, though one workspace can serve several Roboto organizations.
Slack messages edited or deleted after a mention do not change what Roboto saw.
Roboto posts each answer when it is complete rather than streaming it.