@Elementary in a Slack thread to ask the agent a question, and it answers in that thread. When you ask in the thread of an Elementary alert, the agent already knows which incident the alert refers to, so you can go straight to “why did this fail?” without repeating any context.
It is the same agent as in the web app, backed by the same Context Engine, so it can investigate incidents, trace root causes, explain lineage, and check test coverage. Actions that change anything still go through a pull request or an explicit confirmation.
How it works
1
Mention the agent
Tag
@Elementary in an alert thread, in any channel the app can post to, or in a direct message. The first time it is mentioned in a public channel, the app joins that channel by itself.2
The agent picks up the thread
Elementary reads the thread it was mentioned in, including which incident and environment the alert message refers to, and starts an agent session. It replies with a confirmation that carries a View session link into the web app, and sets the thread status to “Working…”.
3
The answer arrives in the thread
The response streams into the thread as a reply. Nothing is posted to the channel itself, so the conversation stays where the alert is.
4
Follow up in the same thread
Tag
@Elementary again to continue. The session keeps the full history of the thread, so follow-ups do not need to restate anything.Setup
Prerequisites- The Slack integration connected for alerts
- AI features enabled for your Elementary account
1
Authorize the agent in Slack
Go to the
Environments page on the sidebar and authorize Slack for the agent. Workspaces that connected Slack for alerts before the agent existed need this extra approval: it grants the permissions the agent needs to read the thread it is mentioned in and reply there.The Environments page is visible to admins only, so ask an admin on your account if you cannot see it.Until the agent is authorized, Elementary alerts show a link reading “Add the agent to Slack to investigate this further”, which takes you to the same place.2
Check that alerts invite follow-ups
Once the agent is authorized, Slack alerts include the tip “Tag
@Elementary to send followup messages”. That tip is the signal that the workspace is ready.3
Invite the app to private channels
The app joins public channels on its own when first mentioned. For private channels, invite
@Elementary to the channel.