Slack app

An agent can answer your team in Slack: an HR helper, an IT help desk or an ops assistant, right where people already chat. They mention the app in a channel or message it directly, and the agent replies in the thread.

Connect an app

In backcrew, open the agent’s page → Embed → Slack app. It shows an app manifest made for this agent.
Click Create the Slack app, or go to api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From a manifest, pick your Slack workspace and paste the manifest. It already has everything the app needs: permission to read mentions and direct messages and to reply, and the address where Slack sends messages for this agent.
In the app’s settings, open Install App → Install to Workspace, and allow it.
Copy the Bot User OAuth Token (under OAuth & Permissions, it starts with xoxb-) and the Signing Secret (under Basic Information → App Credentials).
Back in backcrew, paste both and click Connect app.

backcrew checks the token with Slack, keeps the token and the signing secret in a secret store (never in its database), and never shows them again. The card then shows your Slack workspace.

To use the app in a channel, add it there first: mention it (@your-app) and Slack offers to add it, or use the channel’s Integrations → Add apps.

How the app behaves

Answers when someone mentions it in a channel it was added to, and direct messages (open it under Apps in Slack’s sidebar).
Replies in the thread. Each thread is one conversation: follow-ups in the same thread continue it, and a new message starts a new one.
Each person has their own memory, if the agent uses memory.
A mention with no question gets a short greeting. Files and images get a polite “I can only read text messages” - neither costs anything.
It ignores other bots, and messages in channels that don’t mention it.
Long replies are split to fit Slack’s message size.
When the workspace runs out of credits or reaches its monthly limit, the app replies that it can’t answer right now and that whoever manages it can sort this out. People never see your balance or internal errors.

Security

Every message from Slack is signed with your app’s signing secret. backcrew refuses anything unsigned, signed with another secret, or older than five minutes, so nobody else can make the agent answer, or resend an old message.
A message is answered only by the agent whose app it was sent to.
Slack resends messages it thinks were missed; backcrew answers (and charges) each one once.

Turn it off or disconnect

Off keeps the app connected but replies that it’s turned off, and nothing is charged.
Disconnect app stops it answering at once and deletes its token and signing secret from backcrew. The app stays in your Slack workspace: remove it there if nobody needs it, or connect it again here.

Each app answers up to 30 messages a minute across everyone talking to it.

Troubleshooting

The card says “no messages yet” after you mentioned the app. Check the signing secret: messages signed with a different one are refused. Disconnect and connect again with the right one.
Slack says the request URL isn’t verified. In the app’s Event Subscriptions, click Retry. The address must be the one in the manifest.
Nothing happens in a channel. Make sure the app was added to the channel and that you mentioned it.