Slack

The Kapa platform provides an integration to ingest past conversations from Slack channels as a data source. Community Slack channels contain a lot of helpful information often in the form of support answers team members have provided. However, Slack channels are not meant for archiving information for other users. Great answers are not useful to anybody except the original poster because other users can not effectively search Slack. Kapa offers a way of making your past conversations on Slack useful to everyone by indexing them as a data source.

Prerequisites

• Admin access to a Slack workspace
• Ability to create a new Slack app in your workspace
• Channel ID for the channel(s) you want to ingest

Data ingested

When you connect Kapa to Slack, the following data is ingested:

• Thread URLs
• Initial thread messages and replies

Permissions required

The following permissions are required for your Slack app:

Permission	Purpose	Security considerations
channels:history	Access messages in public channels	Read-only access to message content
channels:read	View basic channel information	Read-only access to channel metadata
groups:history	Access messages in private channels	Read-only access to private channel content
groups:read	View private channel information	Read-only access to private channel metadata
metadata.message:read	Access message metadata	Read-only access to message data
team:read	Access workspace information	Read-only access to workspace data
users:read	Access user information	Read-only access to user profiles

Setup

Step 1: Create a Slack app

1. Navigate to your Slack Apps
2. Click Create New App
3. Select the appropriate workspace under Pick a workspace to develop your app in

warning

It is not sufficient to have the Kapa Slackbot installed. You need your own separate slack app.

Step 2: Give the app the correct permissions

1. Navigate to the OAuth & Permissions page
2. Add the following OAuth scopes:
   • channels:history
   • channels:read
   • groups:history
   • groups:read
   • metadata.message:read
   • team:read
   • users:read

Step 3: Install the app to your workspace

1. On the OAuth & Permissions page, click Install to Workspace
2. Authorize the app when prompted
3. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token (begins with xoxb-)

Step 4: Choose a channel

1. Pick a channel you would like Kapa to ingest
2. Find the channel ID at the bottom of the channel details

info

If you want to export multiple channels, repeat this step for each channel. You will have to create a separate source in the Kapa platform for each channel. You can use the same bot token for each source.

Step 5: Invite your bot to the channel

1. This step might not always be necessary depending on the configuration of your Slack workspace
2. Invite the slack app to the channel by typing /invite @<bot-name>
3. This is always required if the channel is private

Step 6: Configure the Kapa platform

1. Create a new source in the Kapa platform and select Slack as the source type
2. Paste the copied bot token into the Bot Token field
3. Paste the copied channel ID into the Channel ID field
4. Configure additional options as needed
5. Click Save to begin the ingestion process

Configuration options

The following configuration options are available for the Slack integration:

Option	Description	Default	Required
Bot Token	The OAuth token for your Slack app (starts with xoxb-)	None	Yes
Channel ID	The unique identifier for the Slack channel to ingest	None	Yes
Trusted Users	List of usernames whose messages should be considered authoritative	None	No
Only include threads with trusted user answers	When enabled, only ingests threads where a trusted user has responded	Disabled	No
Thread age	Only include threads newer than the specified date	All time	No
Include message reactions	Include emoji reactions to messages in the ingested data	Enabled	No
Filter by keywords	Only include threads containing specific keywords	None	No
Exclude by keywords	Exclude threads containing specific keywords	None	No

Best practices

Tell Kapa who to trust

Community Slack conversations contain a lot of valuable information but they also contain a lot of false information since anybody can post. Use the Trusted Users config option to tell Kapa which users in your Slack channel represent a reliable source of information. Here you can list your team members, external community managers, your most active community members and whoever else you trust to give a reliable answer.

If a significant number of answers in your community are provided by these individuals, we would highly recommend enabling the Only include threads that have answers from trusted users above option. Then Kapa only ingests threads from your Slack channel where one of these trusted users has answered. This is the best way to only ingest high quality content from Slack.

Focus on support channels

Support-focused channels typically contain the most valuable content for Kapa. These channels often have:

• Clear questions and problems
• Direct answers from knowledgeable team members
• Solutions that have been verified to work

Consider recency

Older Slack conversations may contain outdated information. Consider setting an appropriate Thread age filter based on your product's update cycle.

Troubleshooting

• Authentication errors: Verify your bot token is correct and hasn't expired
• Channel access denied: Ensure your bot has been invited to the channel
• No data appearing: Check that the channel contains conversations matching your filter criteria