Slack
Slack is usually the first, visible knock in an escalation policy - the whole team can see the alert before anyone is paged personally - and the place where the AlertKick bot answers questions and posts incident summaries. This page covers connecting it and everything the bot does once connected.
Connect a workspace
Section titled “Connect a workspace”Admin, then Integrations, and choose Add to Slack. Slack asks you to approve the app for a workspace; approve it and you are returned to the Integrations page with the workspace listed. The bot requests permission to post messages (including to public channels it has not joined), list channels, read messages in channels it is a member of, receive mentions and slash commands, and look up users by email so it can match Slack users to AlertKick users.
The table shows each connected workspace with its install type, when it
was connected, and two actions: Send test message and
Disconnect. Add another workspace connects a second one; a
workspace can also be shared by several AlertKick accounts, in which case
run /alertkick use <account> in Slack to say which one the commands
should act on.
Send test message asks for a channel and posts “AlertKick test
message - your Slack integration for workspace X is working.” Channels
where the bot is not a member are marked “(bot not in channel)”; invite
it with /invite @AlertKick in that channel, or post to it anyway - the
bot can post to public channels it has not joined.
Use it in an escalation policy
Section titled “Use it in an escalation policy”A Slack level or recipient in an escalation policy offers two modes:
- Workspace channel: pick a workspace, then search for a channel. A warning shows if the bot is not in a private channel you pick.
- Webhook URL: paste an incoming-webhook URL from Slack’s app settings. Use this for a workspace you would rather not install the app in; threading and buttons are not available on webhooks.
Channels that receive alerts are remembered, so later posts about the same alert land in the same place.
What gets posted
Section titled “What gets posted”A thread per alert. The first message about an alert in a channel is the anchor; acknowledgements, escalations, and the resolution are posted as replies in its thread, so one thread tells the alert’s whole story and the channel is not flooded. Escalation posts carry a header, the alert message, and a footer with the workspace and time.
Follow the Sun nudges. When a Follow the Sun roster decides the on-call member is asleep, the awake shift’s channel gets “Night-shift alert - can you take this?” (or “Alert outside working hours - can anyone take this?” during gap hours) with an Acknowledge button. Pressing it acknowledges the alert and cancels the pending page.
Incident close-outs. When an incident is resolved and Kicker has drafted its summary, the bot posts “INC000042 resolved - close-out summary” as a broadcast reply on the incident’s or alert’s thread, with the root cause, a link, and Create draft AAR / No AAR needed buttons. Channels subscribed to the incident get the same post.
Commands
Section titled “Commands”/alertkick works in any channel of a connected workspace:
| Command | Does |
|---|---|
/alertkick help | List the commands |
/alertkick status | Which AlertKick account this workspace is acting on |
/alertkick use <account> | Switch account, when a workspace is shared |
/alertkick alerts | Open alerts |
/alertkick incidents | Open incidents |
/alertkick ack <alert_id> | Acknowledge an alert |
/alertkick resolve <alert_id> | Resolve an alert |
/alertkick subscribe <incident_id> | Subscribe this channel to an incident’s updates |
Mentioning @AlertKick in a thread asks Kicker a question in context - “what changed on db-2 before this fired?” - and works when the workspace has AI enabled with user chat turned on under Admin, then LLM Settings. Without it, the bot replies with the slash commands instead. See AI triage and Kicker.
Security
Section titled “Security”Every request Slack sends to AlertKick - commands, events, button presses - is verified with Slack’s signing secret and rejected if older than five minutes. The OAuth flow signs its state and expires it after ten minutes. Disconnecting a workspace revokes the bot token; policies that pointed at its channels keep the configuration but stop delivering until a workspace is connected again.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”- “AlertKick bot is not in #channel”. Invite it with
/invite @AlertKick, or pick a public channel. - Buttons do nothing. The workspace was connected by webhook URL rather than Add to Slack; buttons need the app installed.
- Commands say the account is not set. The workspace is shared; run
/alertkick use <account>.