Slack
Agents can work in Slack: mention one in a channel and it replies in the thread, with the same permissions it has in the app.
Who can do what
| Task | User | Agent owner | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talk to an agent in Slack | ✅ shared in | ✅ | ✅ |
| Connect the Slack workspace | — | — | ✅ |
| Give an agent its own Slack identity | — as Editor | ✅ | ✅ |
| Disconnect the workspace | — | — | ✅ |
Three ways to reach an agent
| Method | What it does |
|---|---|
@Delegate | Mention the bot in a channel it belongs to; routes to the first Slack-enabled agent |
@AgentName | Mention an agent's own Slack user to reach that specific agent |
/dolly <agent> <message> | Slash command, addressed to an agent by name |
All three support threads: replying in the same thread continues the same conversation with the same agent, so context carries.
Setting it up
Four things must be in place:
- Slack app credentials — configured by the platform team.
- The Slack workspace connected — an admin does this in Organization → Integrations → Slack.
- The Slack Integration bundle on the agent — Agent → Settings → Tool Bundles.
- The bot invited to the channel. The bot must be a channel member to receive events; agents stay silent in channels it hasn't been invited to.
Giving an agent its own Slack identity
By default an agent posts as the Delegate bot, with an APP badge. You can give it a real Slack user instead so it appears as a colleague:
- Invite the agent's email address to your Slack workspace, and complete the sign-up from that inbox — display name, password, the usual.
- In Agent → Settings, with the Slack Integration bundle assigned, choose Connect Slack Account.
- On Slack's authorization page, sign in as the agent's Slack user, not your own, and authorize.
Complete the whole flow in one browser session — the redirect carries state through local storage, so finishing it in a different tab or browser fails.
Settings then shows Connected as @display_name. Disconnect Slack User reverts the agent to posting as the bot.
Authorizing while signed in as yourself connects your Slack account to the agent, and the agent will post as you. If that happens, disconnect and redo it.
Access control in Slack is the same as in the app
Before an agent acts on a Slack message, Delegate resolves the sender's Slack email to their Delegate account and applies the ordinary agent access rules — owner, admin, Editor, Viewer.
If the sender has no Delegate account, or no access to that agent, the message
is ignored silently. The /dolly slash command instead returns a private "no
access" reply.
Silence is deliberate — a bot announcing "you don't have access to that agent" in a shared channel leaks which agents exist. It does mean an unanswered mention is usually a permissions problem, so check sharing first.
The sender's email is the join key. Someone whose Slack email differs from their Delegate email won't be matched, and will be ignored.
What agents can do in Slack
With the Slack tool, an agent can send messages and files, and list channels and users. Combined with routines, that covers most of what people want: "post the deploy summary to #eng every weekday at 9."