> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.usekestrel.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Slack

> Connect Slack for real-time incident notifications, interactive Q&A, workflow triggers, and AI copilot commands

The Kestrel Slack integration brings incident response, workflow automation, and AI copilot capabilities directly into your team's chat. Receive real-time notifications, trigger workflows from Slack, and use slash commands to interact with your infrastructure.

## Prerequisites

* **Organization Admin** role in Kestrel
* Slack workspace admin permissions (to authorize the app)

## Setup

**1. Connect your workspace**

1. Navigate to **Integrations → Slack** in your Kestrel dashboard
2. Click **Connect Slack Workspace**
3. Authorize the Kestrel app in the Slack OAuth popup
4. The popup closes and your workspace appears as connected

**2. Invite the bot**

Invite the Kestrel bot to channels where you want notifications:

```
/invite @Kestrel
```

**3. Sync users**

Click **Sync Now** on the User Mapping card to sync Slack users with Kestrel accounts. This enables smart @mentions for namespace owners.

> [!TIP]
>
> Create a dedicated `#incidents` channel for Kestrel notifications to keep them organized.

## How It's Used

### In Workflows

**Trigger blocks:**

* **Create K8s Resource** — fires when a user requests Kubernetes resource creation via `/kestrel-workflow`
* **Edit K8s Resource** — fires when a user requests a Kubernetes resource edit via `/kestrel-workflow`
* **General Kubernetes Request** — fires on any Kubernetes-related `/kestrel-workflow` request
* **Create AWS Resource** — fires when a user requests AWS resource creation via `/kestrel-workflow`
* **Edit AWS Resource** — fires when a user requests an AWS resource edit via `/kestrel-workflow`
* **General Cloud Request** — fires on any cloud-related `/kestrel-workflow` request
* **Any Slack /kestrel-workflow Request** — fires on any `/kestrel-workflow` command invocation

**Action blocks:**

* **Send Message** — post a message to a Slack channel or DM
* **Update Message** — update an existing Slack message in place
* **Request Justification** — send an interactive approval/justification prompt and wait for a response

Example: A workflow triggers on a Create K8s Resource request from Slack, sends a justification prompt to the requester's manager, and upon approval creates the resource and posts a confirmation.

> [!NOTE]
>
> The `/kestrel-workflow` command lets any team member trigger pre-built workflows without leaving Slack — for example, `/kestrel-workflow restart-pod namespace=payments pod=api-server`.

### In Incident Response

* **Real-time notifications** — posts to your configured channel with incident summary, severity, affected resources, root cause analysis, and remediation steps
* **Smart @mentions** — namespace owners are automatically @mentioned when incidents affect their namespaces
* **Interactive Q\&A** — reply in the incident notification thread to ask follow-up questions with full incident context
* **Knowledge source** — Slack message history is searchable during incident RCA (see [Knowledge Sources](https://docs.usekestrel.ai/integrations/knowledge-sources.md))

### In Cloud AI Copilot

Use the `/kestrel` slash command anywhere in Slack to ask questions about your infrastructure:

* `/kestrel what pods are crashing in production?`
* `/kestrel show me the network policies for the payments namespace`
* `/kestrel what Terraform code manages my S3 buckets?`

## Disconnecting

1. Navigate to **Integrations → Slack**
2. Click **Disconnect Slack**
3. Confirm the disconnection

This immediately stops all notifications and removes the bot from your workspace. You can reconnect at any time.


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