Slack & channels

Connect Slack to a project and control sessions from a channel.

A channel connects a chat platform to a project. A message in a connected channel starts a session. The agent replies in the same thread.

Live channels

Beeuni supports four channel platforms today:

• Slack — connect with one click through the Beeuni-managed app, or bring your own bot token.
• Microsoft Teams — connect through org admin-consent OAuth, or bring your own Azure Bot (experimental; enable it under Settings → Feature flags).
• Email — an AgentMail-backed channel (experimental; enable it under Settings → Feature flags).
• Voice — a realtime voice channel (experimental; enable it under Settings → Feature flags). Speak with an agent in realtime.

Only Slack and Microsoft Teams connect through the CLI and dashboard. Email and voice are managed from the dashboard. This page covers Slack. Teams follows the same session, identity-linking, and credential rules.

How a channel starts a session

The first message in a Slack thread or Teams conversation creates a session. The thread keeps that session, even after the sandbox stops and resumes.

In a Slack channel, a later message reaches the session only when it mentions the bot. Untagged replies are for the people in the thread. The agent reads them the next time someone mentions it. In a direct message, every message goes to the session.

A Slack workspace connected to more than one project shows a project picker on the first mention.

Identity linking

Beeuni links each chat sender to a Beeuni account before the agent runs for them. Run /beeuni login in Slack and follow the link to sign in. Teams uses the same requirement. An unlinked sender gets a prompt to link instead of a session run.

A sign-in link works once and expires after 10 minutes. A Slack account that is connected to one Beeuni account cannot be connected to another: run /beeuni logout first. If your organization requires two-factor authentication, Beeuni asks for your second factor before it connects you, and the chat runs on the factor you connected with.

Every action runs as the linked account of the person who took it, with that account’s project role. Account owners and admins count as project managers.

Where credentials live

A connected channel’s bot token is a connector-scoped secret. It does not appear on the project’s Secrets page. Beeuni never injects it into a sandbox. Beeuni resolves the token server-side when the agent sends or reads a chat message.

Connect Slack

beeuni channels connect

beeuni channels connect --manual --bot-token xoxb-... --signing-secret ...

beeuni channels status

Connecting Slack adds a channel connector entry to beeuni.yaml for you. You never write this entry by hand.

Use Slack

Mention the bot with a task, in any channel it has joined, or open a direct message. The thread keeps its session as described above. Mention the bot again in a channel thread to follow up. A bare mention with no task gets a reminder to add one instead of starting a session.

What the agent can read

The agent reads Slack through the project’s Slack connector (beeuni_slack, or the slack command in the sandbox). Every project connected to the same Slack workspace uses the same bot, so Beeuni keeps each read inside the project’s own conversations:

A refused read answers 403 with the reason conversation_not_in_project and a message that names the conversation. To read a conversation that no project is connected to, connect it first: run /beeuni switch in it and pick this project.

• Channel history leaves out the messages of another project’s thread.
• get_history and get_thread add user_name to each message whose author Slack can name, beside the user id. Up to 25 people are named per read; a name Slack does not return within 2 seconds is left out.
• list_channels lists every public channel, and the private channels and DMs the agent may read.
• channel_info answers for any public channel. A private channel or DM follows the table above.
• file_info answers when the file is shared in a conversation the agent may read, or in a thread of this project. slack download follows the same rule: a file shared only in another project’s conversation answers 403. A download stops at 50 MB and answers 413.
• search_messages runs only while no other project is connected to the workspace, because a search cannot be limited to one project’s conversations.
• list_users, user_info and auth_test read the workspace directory and are not limited.

Writes follow their own rule, below.

What the agent can post

Posting, sending a file, editing, deleting, reacting, joining a channel and binding a thread follow one rule: the agent never acts inside another project’s channel or thread.

A refused write answers 403 with the reason conversation_not_in_project and a message that names the conversation. slack send --file and slack bind-thread follow the same rule.

channel must be the conversation or user id, such as C0123ABCD or U0123ABCD, not a channel name. Slack posts to a name, and a name cannot be checked against the rule. If Slack still posts a message anywhere but the conversation that was checked, Beeuni deletes the message and refuses the post.

To post in a channel that another project runs, run /beeuni switch in it and pick this project, or post from that project.

Control a session with slash commands

Type these as /beeuni <command> in Slack, or as plain text in a DM. Slash commands do not run inside the Assistant DM pane, so Beeuni parses the same words from plain text there.

policy accepts project_open (default — any project member who mentions the bot gets a session), owner_approval, or owner_only. This is a per-resource setting on one channel, not a role. It grants no permission the role verdict denies — see Accounts & access.

Models and keys

/beeuni models lists every model you can run here, as the web picker does: Beeuni models, and models you reach through a provider API key or a ChatGPT subscription. Each one says how it is paid for. A long list is one select you can type into. Pick one, or type /beeuni model <id>; /beeuni model default goes back to the project default.

Which keys count depends on the conversation:

• A DM with the bot — your own keys and ChatGPT subscription, plus keys shared with the project. Its sessions are private to you.
• A channel or group DM — only keys shared with the whole project. Pick a model that runs on your own keys in a DM instead.

A model that runs on keys uses every key you may use for its provider, and they rotate on rate limits. The channel’s model starts every new thread; a thread keeps the model it started with. A model a thread can no longer run is replaced for that message instead of failing it. See Provider keys and member access.

A follow-up with an image runs on a model that can read images. When no model in reach can, the agent is told so in the prompt: it says it cannot see the image and asks for the text, instead of guessing.

Channel and people names

Slack sends ids, such as C0123ABCD and U0123ABCD. Beeuni shows the names people read in Slack and keeps the ids for operations.

A channel that Slack cannot find reads Unavailable channel and keeps its id. This happens when the channel was deleted or the bot was removed from it. A name that Slack does not return within 2 seconds is left out of that message. The prompt then carries the ids alone, and the turn does not wait.

Approvals

When an agent needs a human decision before it proceeds, it files a review item. If the session was started from this thread, the decision lands here as a card: the title, a summary, a risk level, and Approve, Request changes and Deny.

Request changes opens a box for what should change. Whatever you type is stored with the decision and passed to the agent with it, so it does not have to ask you a second time. It is optional — send it empty and the agent is told to ask. Approve and Deny stay one click.

Acting on a review needs a linked Beeuni account with write access to the project.

Stopping a run

While the agent works, its live message carries a Stop button. It ends the run at the runtime, not just on the message — a run left open swallows the next message in the thread instead of answering it.

The person who sent the message being answered can stop it, as can anyone approved into that session, while they can still use the project. A bystander in the channel cannot; they get a private note saying so.

What does not work

• Slash commands do not fire inside the Assistant DM pane. Type /beeuni <command> as plain text there instead.
• Other chat platforms, including Telegram, are not supported channels today. Only Slack and Microsoft Teams connect through the CLI and dashboard; email and voice connect through the dashboard.