# Talk to your crew in Slack

**What you'll do:** mention your crew in a channel, get the answer in a thread, and approve work without leaving Slack.

Your crew lives in Slack like a teammate. It only responds when mentioned, it keeps each job in its own thread, and anything that needs your decision shows up in the thread as an approval.

![A Slack thread where a crew member reports progress and asks for approval](/assets/docs/guides/slack-thread.webp)

## Steps

1. **Connect Slack once.** Open the workflow's Integrations → Slack tab and set up its bot — paste the two tokens from your Slack app — or use the shared bot. (On Cloud onboarding we do this with you on the call.) Then invite the bot to any channel, or message it directly.
2. **Mention the crew to start a job.** In the channel, write something like "@Ava chase the Acme invoice and report back." The @mention matters — the crew ignores ordinary channel chatter and only answers mentions.
3. **Follow the thread.** The crew replies in a thread under your message with progress, evidence, and questions. Each job stays in its own thread, so a busy channel never mixes two jobs together.
4. **Approve from the thread.** When the crew needs a decision — a plan to approve, an email to send, a change to make — it asks in the thread. Reply `approve` to let it continue, or describe what to do differently.
5. **Follow up with another mention.** To steer a running job, @mention the crew again inside the thread. It remembers the thread history, so "use the shorter template this time" just works.

![The workflow's Slack setup in the app: its own bot or the shared bot, with token fields](/assets/docs/guides/slack-setup.webp)

## What happens next

Routine jobs stop needing you. The crew runs them on schedule, posts short status updates to the channel, and only threads you when something needs approval or goes off track. Move the goal's autonomy up when you trust it — see [Approvals and autonomy](approvals-autonomy.md).

## FAQs

**Does the crew read the whole channel?**
No. It responds to @mentions and reads the thread it is working in, within strict limits. It never acts on conversations it wasn't invited into.

**Can it message me first?**
Yes. Scheduled updates, finished jobs, and approvals come to you — in the channel thread for the job, or by DM if you set that up. You never have to go looking for status.

**What can it do from Slack?**
Anything the goal allows: research, drafts, file updates, tool actions, and sending messages — each gated by your approval settings. Outward-facing actions always ask first at the default level.

**Two of us share a channel. Whose job is it?**
Whoever mentioned the crew. Each thread is one job with its own history, so teammates can run separate jobs in the same channel without interference.

*Need help? [Book a call](https://calendly.com/manish-tryagentworks/intro) and we'll connect Slack with you.*