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Slack

Each coworker is its own Slack app. People mention it in a channel or send it a direct message, and it answers in the thread.

Connect Slack

Section titled “Connect Slack”

  1. On the coworker’s Slack tab, click Create the app in Slack. Slack opens with the app’s manifest (its name, scopes and events request URL) already filled in; pick your workspace and create the app.

    Prefer to paste it yourself? Click Copy manifest instead, then at api.slack.com/apps choose Create New App → From a manifest, select the YAML tab (Slack opens on JSON), and paste.

  2. Install the app to your workspace. Then paste two values on the Slack tab and click Connect:

    • Bot user OAuth token, from OAuth & Permissions (it starts with xoxb-). Slack also shows it right after you install the app.
    • Signing secret, from Basic Information → App Credentials (32 hex characters). Slack doesn’t show it after the install. The other token Slack shows there is the app token (it starts with xapp-), and it doesn’t work here.

    Both are stored encrypted and never shown again. On success the tab reads Connected to your workspace as @name.

  3. In Slack, type /invite @name in each channel it should work in. Private channels work too. The channels it’s in show up under Where it listens.

To stop it answering direct messages, turn off Answer direct messages on the same tab.

Work with it in Slack

Section titled “Work with it in Slack”
  • Mention it in a channel it’s in: @leo what shipped this week?. Or send it a direct message.
  • It shows it’s on it. It reacts with 👀, posts On it., and then posts its answer in the thread. When it finishes it reacts with ✅, or ❌ if the task failed.
  • Reply in the thread to continue. Each Slack thread is one conversation: it remembers what was said earlier in the thread. In a channel thread it has answered in the past week, it hears replies without another @mention.
  • It reads the thread. It sees the whole thread with who said what, so you can mention it in the middle of a discussion.
  • Point it at other threads. Paste a link to a Slack thread, or name a channel such as #launch, and it reads that too (up to 3 per message). It reads a channel only if both you and it are in it.
  • Messages sent while it’s working are answered together in its next reply.

It works only with full members of your Slack workspace. It does not answer guests or channels shared with other organizations.

Who can trigger it, and whose access it uses

Section titled “Who can trigger it, and whose access it uses”

Anyone in a channel the coworker is in can trigger it by mentioning it, whether or not they belong to the Droneship project. While Answer direct messages is on (the default), any full member of your Slack workspace can also give it a task by direct message. There is no separate check today for who is allowed to run it.

Every run uses its creator’s access, not the access of whoever triggered it: the creator’s GitHub connection and saved model key, and the project’s shared connectors. See How it runs.

So who can reach it in Slack is the control. Channel membership, together with the Answer direct messages switch, decides who can run it. Add someone to a coworker’s channel only if you are comfortable with them acting through the creator’s access, and turn off direct messages to keep that surface to the channels you choose.

We plan to tie a coworker’s access to the person who triggered it, rather than its creator. Until then, treat anyone who can reach it in Slack as able to act with the creator’s access.

Next

Section titled “Next”