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Slack Bot

Kapa can be deployed as a bot to your Slack to answer questions. This helps with two main use cases:

  • Deploy kapa to your user community to reduce the number of questions your community managers have to answer.
  • Deploy kapa as Slack bot for your interal teams because Slack is where they already spend most their time.

Setup​

The following steps are required to deploy kapa to your Slack workspace:

  1. Create a dedicated Slack channel for kapa (Optional)
  2. Create a Slack integration in the kapa platforn
  3. Configure your Slack integration
  4. Install the kapa slack bot to your Slack
  5. Invite the kapa slack bot to your desired channels
  6. Enable kapa from your Slack workspace with a bot command

1. Create a new Slack channel (Optional)​

This step is optional but in case you are deploying kapa to your community we recommend you create a new dedicated channel for it. We advise against adding kapa to an existing help channel. You should clearly seperate the Slack channel where users can expect to get answers from a human vs answers from kapa. We further recommend that you name this dedicated channel #Ask-AI because this helps users understand what it is.

If you are deploying kapa internally for your teams, this is less relevant. However, we still recommend that the channel where kapa is deployed is easily discoverable.

See here for some real communities where kapa is installed in a dedicated channel.

2. Create a Slack integration​

Navigate to the Integrations tab in the kapa platform and create a new integration. You can choose between two types of integration when deploying to Slack:

  • Slack (Single Channel): This integration lets you deploy kapa to a single channel in your Slack workspace. If you want to deploy kapa to a single channel in your community you should use this. This integration type is also the right choice if you want to deploy kapa to multiple channels but they should all be configured differently.

  • Slack (Global Workspace): This integration lets you deploy kapa to all channels in your Slack Workspace at once. You should use this integration type if you want to deploy kapa to mulitple channels in your community which should all be configured the same way.

Create a Slack Channel Integration

3. Configure your integration​

The Slack integrations have various configuration options, some of them are mandatory and some are optional.

  • Team ID: The unique identifier of your Slack workspace. You can find this in the URL when you are logged into Slack in your browser. The team ID is the string of characters that comes after /client/ in the URL. For example, if your Slack URL is https://yourteam.slack.com/client/T1A2B3CDF, then your team ID is T1A2B3CDF. If you are using the Slack desktop app, you will need to open Slack in your browser to find the team ID. The Team ID is required by both Slack (Single Channel) and Slack (Global Workspace).

  • Channel ID: The unique identifier of the Slack channel where you want to deploy kapa. You can find it by right-clicking on the channel name in Slack and selecting Copy link. The channel ID is the string of characters that comes after /archives/ in the URL. For example, if the channel URL is https://yourteam.slack.com/archives/C1A2B3CDF, then the channel ID is C1A2B3CDF. The Channel ID is only required by Slack (Single Channel).

  • Enable forum auto-reply mode: You can configure kapa to automatically respond to new posts in a Slack channel or whether it needs to be mentioned with @kapa first. We recommend to have kapa reply to every new message because users will not have to learn to tag the bot. See below for examples of both

Kapa automatically replies to all new posts in a channel when auto-reply mode is enabled​

Auto-Reply

Kapa needs to be tagged when auto-reply is disabled​

Mention Mode

There are various other configuration options that can be selected in the UI. Click on the Advanced Configuration button to reveal them. Most of these options allow you to costumize the bot's default texts and responses. You can use Slack formatting to make the responses more engaging. Consult the Formatting Tips displayed on the configuration screen for more information.

Make sure to click the Save to save your changes.

4. Install kapa Slack bot to your workspace​

Install the kapa Slack bot from this link to your server: Slack Bot Install Link

Note that on some browsers, you may get the following error. If so, please just click the "here" button to get redirected to the correct page.

Slack Install

5. Invite kapa Slack bot to channels​

You need to invite the kapa Slack bot to all channels where you want it to be able to respond to user questions. The easiest way to do this is to type @kapa.ai to mention the bot, then click the Add to Channel button. Be sure to only invite kapa to channels that you have also configured in Step 3. If you are useing Slack (Global Workspace) you can of course invite it to any channels.

Invite Bot to Channels

6. Enable kapa Slack bot via command​

At this stage you have added the kapa Slack bot to the channels where you want it to respond and you have configured how it should behave in these channels via the kapa platform. The final step is to enable your Integration via bot command from your Slack workspace. This proves to the kapa platform that you in fact have authority over the Slack channels where you want kapa to respond.

To do this, open the Slack channel where you want the bot to respond. If you want to enable a Single Channel integration, you will need to run this command:

/kapa-enable-channel <integration_id>

If you are using the Global Workspace mode, you need to run the following command once from any channel where the bot has been invited to enable the bot across the entire workspace:

/kapa-enable-workspace <integration_id>

The integration_id is the ID of the integration you just created in the kapa.ai app. You can obtain it by clicking on the Copy integration ID button of your integration in the integrations table. You run the command by typing it into the message box and hitting Enter. The bot will respond with a confirmation message.

Invite Bot to Channels
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  • If the commands aren't available to your in your workspace, you will need to update the bot by reinstalling it. Simply follow the steps in Section 2 to reinstall the bot.
  • You need to have the correct permissions to enable the bot. Typically, this means that you will need to be an admin or workspace owner. If you are unable to enable the bot, please reach out to your Slack workspace admin. :::

7. Start Using kapa.ai​

Kapa bot is now ready to help!