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Slack lets your team start and continue Overcut workflows from the channels where work already happens. You connect Slack once at the workspace level, then register the channels each project can use. Once a channel is registered, project workflows can be triggered by @overcut mentions, the /overcut slash command, or, in Watch all messages mode, regular channel messages and thread replies.

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What you can do

  • Trigger workflows from a registered Slack channel using @overcut mentions and the /overcut command, or use top-level messages and thread replies when the channel is set to Watch all messages.
  • Configure Trigger Event as thread reply when you want replies in completed alert, incident, handoff, or triage threads to start a workflow.
  • Optionally treat every top-level channel message and eligible thread reply as a workflow event (for incident channels, alert channels, or routing on bot posts).
  • Give agents Slack messaging capabilities so they can reply, edit, read, and react in the channel where the workflow was triggered.
  • Continue an interactive session inside a Slack thread the same way it works on a PR or issue.

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Setup overview

Slack works at two levels in Overcut. Each level is configured separately. See Multi-Project Workspaces for the broader workspace-vs-project boundary.

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Connect Slack to your workspace

Self-hosted Overcut? The managed Overcut Slack app only works on Overcut Cloud. On your own deployment, first create your own Slack app - see Slack from self-hosted Overcut - then return here for channels and routing.
1

Open workspace Integrations

From the workspace sidebar (no project selected), go to Integrations.
2

Connect Slack

In the providers list, find Slack and click connect. You’ll be redirected to Slack to authorize the Overcut app for your Slack workspace.
3

Approve the OAuth scopes

Approve the requested scopes in Slack. After approval you return to Overcut and the Slack workspace appears in the connected providers list.
You can connect more than one Slack workspace if your team uses several. When you register channels later, you pick which Slack workspace each channel belongs to.

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Register channels in a project

Channel registration is per project. A channel must be registered in a project before that project’s workflows can be triggered from it or post into it.
1

Open Project Channels

Inside a project, go to Project Settings → Project Channels.
2

Add channels

Click Add Channel, pick the Slack workspace under Messaging workspace, then select one or more channels from the list. Click Add Selected Channels to register them.
3

Confirm the channel appears

Registered channels show in the Project Channels list with the default routing mode, Mentions only (default).
Newly created Slack channels may take up to 10 minutes to appear in the channel picker. If a public channel does not appear immediately, wait a few minutes and reopen Add Channel. Public channels are joined automatically when you add them. For private channels, invite the Overcut bot first by running /invite @overcut in the channel. Private channels the bot has not been invited to do not appear in the picker.

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Project-scoped channel behavior

  • A channel registered in one project is only available to that project’s workflows.
  • The same Slack channel can be registered in more than one project when teams share a channel across workflows.
  • Removing or deactivating a channel registration stops that project’s workflows from receiving @overcut mentions, /overcut commands, top-level messages, and thread replies from the channel. The Slack workspace connection and any registrations in other projects stay in place.

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Channel routing modes

Each registered channel has a routing mode that controls which messages reach your workflows. Open the channel row in Project Channels to change it. In Routing for #…, choose Mentions only (default) for passive routing or Watch all messages for active routing. Choose Watch all messages when you want top-level messages and eligible thread replies to be evaluated as workflow triggers. Most channels should stay on Mentions only (default). Switch to Watch all messages when you want the channel itself to be the event source: for example, incident channels where every alert from PagerDuty or Datadog should be evaluated, product channels where new top-level posts should be triaged, or handoff threads where later replies should be evaluated after the original run has finished. When you switch to Watch all messages, confirm Watch every message in this channel? with Yes, watch all messages.
Watch all messages routes every top-level message and eligible thread reply through trigger evaluation, including replies from other services such as alerting or incident bots. Overcut ignores its own Slack messages to prevent loops. Pair this mode with actor, message content, and channel conditions so high-traffic channels don’t flood agents with runs. Switching a channel into this mode requires a second confirmation.

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Trigger workflows from Slack

Once a channel is registered, the same trigger types you use for repository and ticket events apply. thread_reply triggers are evaluated only for registered channels set to Watch all messages. They are not evaluated for channels that stay on Mentions only (default). If a run or interactive session is already live on a Slack thread, new replies continue that live work instead of starting another workflow.
A plain @overcut mention and /overcut <command> are different trigger types. A mention-trigger workflow won’t fire on a slash command, and a slash-command workflow won’t fire on a plain mention. An @overcut mention inside a thread is also a mention event, not a thread_reply event. Configure each surface with the matching trigger event type.
See Triggers for the full trigger model and Trigger with Slash Command for a step-by-step slash command setup.
Use /overcut when you want an explicit command in a busy channel. Use @overcut when the request fits naturally into an ongoing discussion.

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What agents can do in a Slack channel

When a workflow runs in a registered channel, you can give the agent Slack messaging capabilities so it can participate in the conversation. These are configured per agent in Agent Roles: see Agent Tools Reference. Agents can only act in channels that are registered to the project they belong to.

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Interactive sessions in Slack

The same comment routing rules that apply to PR and issue threads apply to Slack threads in registered channels. While a run or interactive session is live for a thread, new replies in that thread route to the live work instead of starting a new workflow. When no run or session is live on the thread, eligible replies in Watch all messages channels can be evaluated by workflows with Trigger Event set to thread reply. Use /done to end the session gracefully, or /quit to terminate the workflow.