How it works
The bot runs as its own identity — never as the person who asked, and never as the admin who installed it. Its answers are read-only: it can only use tools Fieldwork classifies as safe reads, and it only sees what is shared organization-wide or explicitly granted to it. The bot answers in exactly the channels it has been invited to. Inviting it is what lets that channel’s members use it, so the invite — visible to everyone in the channel — is the approval. Remove the bot from a channel to stop answers there.Step 1 — Connect the workspace
1
Start the install
In Fieldwork, open Settings → Slack and click Connect Slack.
2
Approve in Slack
Slack shows its consent screen. Pick the workspace in the top-right dropdown, review, and allow. Fieldwork asks for exactly two permissions: seeing messages that mention it, and posting replies. It cannot read channel history or list your channels.
3
Confirm
You land back on the settings page with the workspace shown as Connected.
If your Slack workspace restricts app installs, Slack routes this through its admin approval flow — the connection completes once a Slack admin approves it.
Step 2 — Invite the bot to a channel
In the channel where you want answers, type/invite @Fieldwork. Even simpler: just mention @Fieldwork — Slack notices the bot isn’t in the channel and offers to invite it in one click.
The bot must be a member of a channel to see mentions there; it answers nowhere else.
Step 3 — Choose its tools
In Settings → Slack, the Tools section lists everything the bot may use to answer: web search, knowledge-base reads, data reads, and read-only connector tools where the bot has been granted access. Nothing is selected at first — until you check some, answers come from the model’s general knowledge alone. Only safe reads are offered, so no selection can let the bot change anything.Step 4 — Try it
Mention the bot in a channel it’s in —@Fieldwork what were sales last week? — and it answers in the thread. Follow-ups in the same thread that mention it again continue the same conversation.
Pausing, disconnecting, and models
- Answer mentions (in Settings → Slack) pauses the bot without losing anything: channel memberships, tool settings, and thread history all survive, and re-enabling resumes where it left off.
- Disconnect is the real removal: it retires the bot’s identity and revokes its access. Reconnecting later starts its access from scratch.
- The Model selector overrides which model answers in Slack; leave it on Organization default unless you have a reason not to.
Troubleshooting
- The bot doesn’t answer. Check that the Answer mentions toggle is on in Settings → Slack, and that the bot has been invited to the channel (
/invite @Fieldwork). - Status shows “Reconnect required” or “Revoked”. The app was uninstalled from Slack or its token was revoked. Click Reconnect and run the install again — settings and history are kept.
- Answers can’t see a document or connector you expected. The bot only reads what is shared organization-wide or granted to it — it never borrows anyone’s personal access. Share the asset more widely, or grant it to the Slack bot.