Slack Integration
Published March 19, 2026 · Last updated March 26, 2026 · 5 min read
This feature is currently in beta. Contact help@obvious.ai to request access.
Connect Slack to Obvious and the bot handles two-way communication between both tools — you can ask it questions from Slack, get agent responses in-thread, and share files without switching apps.
Prerequisites
- A workspace admin needs to connect Slack once. If Slack isn't listed under Settings → Connectors, ask your admin to set it up.
- On first interaction with the bot, Obvious prompts you to link your Slack account.
Connect Slack to your workspace
- Open Settings → Connectors.
- Find Slack and click Connect.
- Authorize Obvious in the Slack permissions screen. This installs the Obvious bot in your workspace.
- For private channels, add the bot manually: open channel settings → Integrations → Add apps, then search for Obvious.
This is a one-time setup for the whole workspace. Every member benefits once it's connected.
How the bot works
Each Slack channel maps to an Obvious project. Within that channel, each Slack thread maps to a single Obvious thread — so conversations stay organized and searchable in both places.
When you @mention the bot, it reads your message and responds in the Slack thread using the full context of your connected Obvious project.
Start a conversation
@mention @Obvious in any channel where the bot is present:
@Obvious what's the status of the Q4 campaign?
The bot responds in a thread. Other people in the channel can see the exchange.
You can also DM the bot directly. Open a direct message with @Obvious in Slack and start typing. DM conversations create their own Obvious threads and are useful for quick questions without pulling in the whole channel.
Continue a conversation
To keep a conversation going, @mention the bot again in the same Slack thread. It picks up exactly where things left off.
@Obvious can you pull up the latest numbers from that sheet?
Each @mention in the same thread builds on the same Obvious thread context — you're not starting over. If you want a fresh conversation, start a new Slack thread and @mention the bot there.
Share files
Attach a file to your Slack message when you @mention the bot and it imports the file automatically — no need to upload it to Obvious separately. Supported file types work the same way they do when you upload directly in Obvious.
Search messages
The agent can search across all your Slack channels and DMs using full-text search. You don't invoke this directly — the agent calls it on your behalf when you ask it to find something in Slack.
Ask the agent things like:
Find all messages from @sarah about the launch timeline.
Search Slack for messages in #eng-alerts after January 15th.
Slack's search modifiers are fully supported, so you can narrow results by sender, channel, date range, or content type:
| Modifier | Example | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| from:@user | from:@sarah | Messages from a specific person |
| in:#channel | in:#general | Messages in a specific channel |
| before:YYYY-MM-DD | before:2026-03-01 | Messages before a date |
| after:YYYY-MM-DD | after:2026-01-15 | Messages after a date |
| has:link | has:link | Messages containing a URL |
| has:reaction | has:reaction | Messages that received a reaction |
Results are paginated. If the first page doesn't have what you're looking for, ask the agent to fetch the next page.
Note: Message search uses your personal Slack account, not the bot. Your Slack account needs to be connected for this to work. If search isn't available, check that you've linked your account in Settings → Connectors.
Delete bot messages
The agent can delete messages it previously posted to Slack. This is agent-invoked — you ask the agent to clean up a message it sent, and it handles the deletion.
Delete the message you just posted in #general.
The agent can only delete messages the bot itself posted. It can't delete messages from other people or other apps.
Scroll through message history
When you ask the agent to read messages from a channel, it fetches up to 100 messages at a time. If you need to go further back, the agent uses cursor-based pagination to load the next page automatically.
Show me the last 200 messages in #product.
Just ask — the agent handles the pagination and assembles the results.
Disconnect your Slack account
When your Slack account is connected, a × button appears next to the Connected label in Settings → Notifications. Click it to remove your personal Slack identity link from Obvious.
Disconnecting only affects your account — the workspace-level Slack bot connection stays intact, and other members aren't affected. You can reconnect at any time from the same page.
Troubleshooting
The bot isn't responding. First, confirm it's in the channel. If it's a private channel, the bot needs to be added manually — open channel settings → Integrations → Add apps and search for Obvious. If it's a public channel and still silent, check with your workspace admin that the Slack connector is still active under Settings → Connectors.
Only the first message got a response. The bot responds to every @mention in a thread, not just the first one. If follow-up mentions aren't getting responses, try removing and re-adding the bot to the channel, or check that the Slack connector is still active under Settings → Connectors.
Message search isn't working. Search requires your personal Slack account to be connected — the bot token can't perform user searches. Go to Settings → Connectors and connect your Slack account. If it was previously connected and stopped working, try disconnecting and reconnecting to refresh the permissions. If you see a missing permissions error, reconnecting will prompt Slack to grant the updated search:read scope.
You want to unlink your Slack identity. Go to Settings → Notifications and click the × button next to the Slack Connected label. This removes your personal link without affecting the workspace-level bot connection.
Still stuck? Email help@obvious.ai.