Slack does three things in tufu:
- Handoffs in a channel. Each handoff is a card; reply in its thread and the visitor sees it.
- Your bot in Slack. Teammates can mention the bot or message it directly.
- Slack as knowledge. Answers your team already gave in Slack threads can teach the bot.
Slack is part of the Team plan.
Connecting Slack#
A team admin opens Slack in tufu and presses Connect Slack. You need to be an admin of the Slack workspace to add the app.
- Import all public channels brings in every public channel. Leave it off to import only the channels you invite the bot to.
- New messages sync on their own. Sync now pulls them in right away.
Handoffs in a Slack channel#
Under Inbox → Support settings, in the Slack section:
- Handoff channel ID: the channel the cards go to, like
C0123456789. In Slack, open the channel's details; the ID is at the bottom. - Who the handoff card mentions: nobody,
@here(active members, the default), or@channel(everyone in the channel).
If the channel is private, invite the bot there first by typing /invite @tufu in the channel.
Replying from Slack#
The card's thread is the conversation. Reply in the thread and the visitor sees it; the visitor's messages show up in the thread too. Reminders and follow-ups go in the same thread.
The card's buttons:
- Send suggested reply, when there is one;
- I've got it, to take the conversation without replying yet;
- Resolve and Back to bot;
- Open in tufu.
To reply from Slack, the email on your Slack profile must be the email you sign in to tufu with. Otherwise tufu can't tell it's you, and your message isn't sent to the visitor.
The commands work in the thread too, but start them with a space (/resolve,
// note): Slack treats anything starting with / as one of its own commands. Or use the buttons.
Your bot in Slack#
Once Slack is connected, each bot's settings have three switches: answer mentions in public channels, mentions in private channels, and direct messages. Your default bot is the one that answers in Slack.
Each reply the bot writes in a Slack thread counts toward your plan, the same as a reply in a chat (how many answers).
Learning from Slack#
Add a Slack knowledge source (see Adding knowledge) and tufu learns from the threads in the channels it can see: the questions people asked and the answers they got. Give it a low boost if your docs should win over old threads.