Connecting Slack, end to end

Connect it

1. 1
   Open Surfaces and turn on Slack. You will authorize a workspace — use an account that can add apps to the channels you care about.
2. 2
   Pick the agent that handles inbound Slack work. One agent per surface keeps behavior predictable.
3. 3
   Set routing: which channels the pod listens to, and whether it responds to every message or only mentions. Start with mentions-only in one channel.
4. 4
   In Slack, mention the bot with a real request. Watch the reply arrive in-channel, then open Conversations in Lemma to see the same thread with every tool call visible.
5. 5
   If a workflow has approval steps, assignees with connected Slack get those approvals as messages — approve without leaving the channel.

Routing rules of thumb

• Mentions-only in shared channels; every-message only in dedicated channels like #support-inbox.
• Separate noisy intake (every message) from collaboration channels (mentions) using two routing rules.
• The agent answers with its scoped knowledge — if it should know your policies, grant it the policies folder.