Slack
Connecting context about your codebase to Unblocked
Looking to learn how to use Unblocked in Slack? See the article on Unblocked for Slack and the article about Slack as an interface for Unblocked. Need to add Unblocked to your Slack workspace? This page is for you.
To connect Slack with Unblocked, you need to be on the Business or Enterprise Plan. You can view all the features of Unblocked’s plans on our pricing page.
Unblocked exists to answer questions about your application, so it leverages your codebase as a primary source for explaining how your application works. When you connect Unblocked with your Slack Workspace, you get the benefits of having context from Slack included in your team’s answers. You’ll also get a few extra, first-class features:
- Unblocked refreshes your team’s data index as your team has conversations about your codebase. This means that answers to questions will reflect all conversations in the Slack channels that you authorize Unblocked to access.
- Your team will be able to ask questions with the Unblocked bot. It will respond to questions in channels it has been added to, both when your team @mentions it or when it has a relevant answer to an open question. You can also DM with Unblocked to ask questions privately. To learn more about how to interact with Unblocked in Slack, take a look at the article on Using Unblocked in Slack.
Connect your Slack Workspace
You need to be a Slack Workspace Admin to connect Unblocked to your Slack workspace.
Sign into Unblocked
Whether you sign in with a source code manager or your SSO provider, you first need to authenticate to Unblocked.
Once you’ve signed in, click Data Sources in the sidebar, and then the Add Sources tab. Scroll to the messaging platforms section and select Slack.
Sign into Slack
You’ll be redirected to Slack to identify the workspace you intend to use with Unblocked. If you aren’t already signed in to Slack, you’ll need to do so. Make sure you sign into a Slack account that has Workspace Admin privileges.
After signing in to Slack, Slack will ask if you want to grant permission to Unblocked to see your channels and interact in them. Click Allow to continue.
Select Slack Channels to connect
You can add Unblocked to both public and private Slack channels. When a question is asked, Unblocked will respect the access permissions for private channels, and not include that context in answers provided outside the private channel.
You will be redirected back to Unblocked where you can select the Slack channels to use with Unblocked. Although you can add Unblocked to any channels you like, Unblocked can provide the most helpful context when you use it in channels where code-specific conversations happen.
Once you’ve chosen all of the channels you want Unblocked to access, click Save Settings.
Invite Unblocked to Slack
In order to answer in your team’s questions and use context from Slack to answer the questions you ask it, Unblocked needs to be added to the channels you’ve selected. In your Slack account, click Invite and Save, and Unblocked will be added to the channels you chose.
Connecting Private Channels
Unblocked supports private channels in addtion to public ones. When the first Unblocked user connects Slack as a data source, Unblocked will only be able to be added to the private channels in which that first user is a member. For additional Unblocked users to be able to add their own private channels, you’ll first need navigate to your Slack settings, and under “Add private channels”, click “Grant access”.
App installations can be gated by Slack Workspace Admins. If this is the case for your Slack Workspace, you’ll need to request to install the Unblocked app to add your private channels.
Enabling Auto Responses
Once you’ve chosen which Slack channels to connect with Unblocked, you can then choose to turn on Auto Responses. This feature will enable Unblocked to respond to questions asked in Slack channels, even with Unblocked is not @mentioned. Unblocked will only respond to questions when it has an anwer.
To turn on Auto Responses, go to your Unblocked dashboard, click on Data sources, then open your Slack settings. You’ll notice a toggle at the top to automatically enabled Unblocked to respond to questions in your connected channels. Turn this toggle to On.
You can verify that Unblocked is listening in any configured channel by posting the question, ’Is Unblocked listening?’ If Unblocked is, in fact, listening, you’ll receive a response after a few seconds.
Connecting user accounts
After Slack has been connected to your Unblocked workspace, each team member will also need to associate their Slack user account with their Unblocked account. Unblocked personalizes answers based on identity, so connecting your user account will improve the quality of answers you receive from Unblocked. It will also enable the discussions you have with Unblocked on Slack to appear under My Discussions.
To connect your Slack user account, click on Settings in the sidebar of the Unblocked web app. Under Personal Settings click on Connected Accounts. Next to Slack, click the Connect button.
You will be directed to a page to connect you account. Click Accept and Continue and you will redirected back to the Connected Accounts page where you’ll see a green check mark next to Slack.
When you view discussions with Unblocked in Slack on the web interface, your GitHub username will be displayed rather than your Slack name.
Using Unblocked in Slack
At this point, you can now interact with Unblocked. It will be able to incorporate past and future conversations about your codebase as it answers any questions that you and your team ask. In the future, if you wish to add more channels for Unblocked to access, you can return to the Unblocked data source page for Slack to add them.