Slack

Slack is the most common place to put an agent: it answers @mentions in any channel it is invited to, and direct messages from individual members. Use it for internal question-and-answer, team runbooks, and anything your team already asks each other in a channel.

How it works#

When a trigger event occurs in a connected Slack channel — such as an @mention or a direct message — Runbear forwards the message to your agent. The agent processes the request, executes any connected tools or knowledge-base lookups, and posts the response back to the Slack thread.

Setup#

1. In the Runbear dashboard, open your agent and go to the Chatbots tab.
2. Click the Slack tile.

3. Choose how the agent appears in Slack:
   • The Create option named after your agent, such as Create @HR Helper (Create Custom Bot, recommended): a dedicated bot for this agent, with its own name and avatar. Enter a Custom App Name and select a Slack Configuration Token, then click Create. The form links to instructions for generating a configuration token in Slack.
   • Use @Runbear (Use @Runbear Bot): the shared Runbear bot, which every agent in your organization can use. If it isn't in your workspace yet, click Install @Runbear to Slack and approve the installation in Slack.
4. Under Create Connection, pick the channel the agent should answer in, or Direct Message with Runbear for direct messages, then click Create.
5. Invite the bot to any channels where you want it to respond.
6. Mention @Runbear (or your custom bot name) in a channel to start a conversation.

Display the agent in Slack's AI panel#

When your agent is installed in Slack, workspace owners and admins can make it available in the Agents & Assistants section of the Slack desktop app. This lets all members discover and use it from the top-right corner of Slack.

For admins#

1. Open your workspace settings (click the workspace name or Admin icon in the sidebar).
2. Navigate to Workspace Settings.
3. Scroll to the Agents & Assistants section.
4. Enable your agent and save.

For members#

1. Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
2. Select Preferences.
3. Go to the Navigation section.
4. Under App Agents and Assistants, check or uncheck agents to show or hide them.

After setup#

Each channel or DM you deploy to is a connection on the agent's Chatbots tab, with its own triggers and preferences: whether the agent keeps answering in a thread, replies to every message, runs on a schedule, replies privately, and more. See Chatbot settings.

To change the bot's icon, use the App icon row on the connection's Preferences tab. For the shared Runbear bot you upload the image there; for a custom bot the row links to the bot's settings on api.slack.com, where you upload it under Display information. Claude Agent SDK agents have no Preferences tab; a custom bot's icon can still be changed directly in its Slack app settings.

Disconnecting#

To remove the agent from one channel or DM, delete that connection from the Chatbots tab; see Deleting a connection.

To remove a bot from the whole Slack workspace, for every agent, use Settings → Integrations → Slack; see Integrations.