How to use 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). 

How Slackbot works

• 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 to Slackbot. 
• 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 a 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.
• Members of Business+ workspaces can send 15 messages to Slackbot per week. The weekly message limit resets each Monday at 12 a.m. in your time zone. 

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 precise and clear, 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 first 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

1. Click   Slackbot at the top of the screen. You can also open Slackbot with Cmd Shift O (Mac) or Ctrl Shift O (Windows/Linux). 
2. Send your message or question. 
3. 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.
4. When Slackbot tries to make edits to a shared canvas, you’ll need to click Confirm Canvas Update before new content is added. If you click Cancel, it won’t make any changes.

1. From the   Home tab, tap   Slackbot at the top of the screen.
2. Send your message or question. Depending on the complexity of your request, it may take Slackbot a minute to respond.
3. 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. 

Tip: To start a new conversation when you already have Slackbot open, click   New at the top of the screen (on desktop) or re-open Slackbot (on mobile).

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. 

1. From your desktop, click   Slackbot at the top of the screen. 
2. Type your prompt to start a new conversation with Slackbot, or open a previous conversation. 
3. Hover over the prompt and click   Forward message.
4. Select a channel or person from the drop-down menu, and add a message about the prompt you’re sharing if you’d like. 
5. Check the box next to Forward as prompt, then click Forward. 
6. 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 or re-open a thread to pick up where you left off. Here’s how: 

Desktop

Mobile

1. Click   Slackbot at the top of the screen. 
2. Click the   History tab. 
3. Select a conversation to re-read it or send a followup message.

1. From the Home tab, tap Slackbot at the top of the screen.
2. Tap   History in the top-right corner.
3. Select a conversation to re-read it or send a followup message. 

Manage Slackbot preferences

You can manage your Slackbot preferences to decide whether Slackbot responses show up in your Activity feed and Threads view: 

1. From your desktop, click your profile picture in the sidebar.
   
2. Select Preferences.
3. Select   AI. 
4. Below Slackbot, check or uncheck the box next to the preference you'd like to manage. 

Slackbot limits

Message limits

Members of Business+ workspaces can send 15 messages to Slackbot each week, starting Monday and ending Sunday. Once you reach your limit, you won’t be able to send new messages to Slackbot until it resets at 12 a.m. Monday in your time zone. 

System abuse limits

While we do not enforce message limits for customers on Enterprise plans, all Slackbot interactions must comply with our Acceptable Use Policy. Additionally, you may not attempt to overwhelm Slack’s infrastructure by imposing a disproportionate load on our system. This includes any activity that consumes excessive computing resources:

• Automated high frequency requests
  Using bots, scripts, or scrapers to send requests to our servers at a frequency that exceeds human capability or standard browser use. 
• Capability circumvention
  Engaging in activities designed to bypass limits.

Violation of these policies constitutes a material breach of the Main Services Agreement (MSA) and may result in immediate service suspension or account termination. 

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