Slack

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

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Connect your Slack Workspace

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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 Data Sources section. Scroll to the messaging platforms section and select Slack.

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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.

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Select Slack Channels to connect

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 selected all of the channels you want Unblocked to access, click Save Settings.

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Invite Unblocked to Slack

In order to answer your team’s questions and reference previous conversations from Slack as context, Unblocked needs to be added to the channels you’ve selected. Upon selecting a new channel in the Slack settings of the web dashboard, you will be prompted to invite Unblocked before saving. Click Add and Continue to ensure that Unblocked is added to the selected channels.

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Connecting Private Channels

Unblocked supports both public and private channels. 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 in the web dashboard. Under the “Add private channels” banner, click “Grant access”.

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Channel Preferences

You can configure how Unblocked responds to questions for every connected channel, ensuring optimal behaviour for the specific needs of each channel. This includes:

• Customizing answer preferences
• Configuring auto-response frequency

You can configure channel preferences from the web dashboard or from Slack.

In the web dashboard, hover over a selected channel and click the pencil icon to bring up channel settings.

In Slack, type in /unblocked-settings to bring up channel settings.

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Customizing Answer Preferences

The custom Answer Preferences feature lets you tailor responses for each selected channel. You can control four main aspects of the answers:

1. Data Sources: Choose a Data Sources Preset to determine which data sources you want to include in your answer.

2. Answer Length: Choose concise or detailed responses, determining how much information is included.

3. Answer Tone: Select a tone that suits the needs of the channel, from casual to technical, affecting the level of technical detail and inclusion of code examples.

4. Research Depth: Opt for quick or thorough research. A thorough setting enables Unblocked to handle complex questions with multiple retrieval and reasoning steps, though it may increase response time.

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Configuring Auto-Responses

The Auto-response feature is automatically enabled for every channel you select. This feature allows Unblocked to respond to questions asked in Slack channels, even when Unblocked is not @mentioned. Unblocked will only respond to questions when it has an answer.

You can configure when Unblocked should auto-respond by selecting one of the following options:

• High confidence: Unblocked will only respond when it is highly confident it has a good answer. This may result in a lower volume of questions answered.
• Moderate confidence: Unblocked will respond with moderate confidence to more questions. Choose this setting if you want Unblocked to respond to a higher volume of questions.
• Don’t auto-respond: Unblocked will not automatically respond. (Unblocked will still respond if a user @mentions it.)

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Managing Default Preferences

When a channel is selected and connected to Unblocked, it inherits the following set of default preferences:

• All sources: Unblocked will respond to questions using all connected data sources as references.
• Default Answer Length: Unblocked will respond to questions with balanced conciseness.
• Default Answer Tone: Unblocked will respond to questions with balanced technical detail.
• Default Research Depth: Unblocked will respond to questions with balanced research depth.
• High confidence: Unblocked will only respond to questions when it is highly confident it has a good answer.

To modify the default preferences, click the context menu at the top of the page, and select Manage Channel Preferences to bring up the default channel settings.

Update the settings to your preferred configuration and click Done. Your changes will then be inherited by all newly selected channels.

Additionally, you can apply the default preferences to all currently selected channels. In the default channel settings, check Apply to all currently selected channels, and click Done.

Save all changes made to the default channel settings by clicking Save Settings.

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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 dashboard. Under Personal Settings, click on User Accounts. In the Unlinked Accounts section, find the row for Slack, and click Link my account.

You will be redirected to Slack to connect your account. Click Allow to grant Unblocked the necesary permissions to associate and connect your Slack identity. After redirecting back to the User Accounts page, you should now see your Slack account under the Linked Accounts section.

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Troubleshooting

If you have trouble signing in, ensure that your Slack workspace administrator has enabled Sign in with Slack for your Slack workspace. If this setting is not enabled, you will not be able to connect your Slack user account.

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Using Unblocked in Slack

At this point, you can now interact with Unblocked in Slack. Unblocked will incorporate past and future conversations about your codebase to answer any questions that you and your team ask.

You’ll be able to add more channels for Unblocked to access or manage the current set of channels configured with Unblocked by returning to the Unblocked data source page for Slack.