Agent Slack apps and Athena for Slack are self-serve. Athena’s workspace Slack app is switched on by a workspace owner or administrator and connected by an administrator from the Integrations page; it also depends on Slack being enabled in your deployment’s managed integration project, which Athena Intelligence maintains. Contact us at team@athenaintel.com if the switch or the card is missing.
Agent Slack apps — talk to an agent in Slack
Each agent that enables Slack gets its own Slack app and bot user, so your team can mention that agent in a channel and get its answer in the thread. Setup lives on the agent’s Slack section in Athena.1
Connect your Slack workspace (workspace admin, once)
At api.slack.com/apps, open Your App Configuration Tokens and generate a token for the Slack workspace. In Athena, open an agent’s Slack section, paste the access token (
xoxe…) and refresh token (xoxe-1-…), and confirm Connect workspace Slack. Athena stores the pair encrypted and rotates it automatically; it is used only to create and update your agents’ Slack apps.2
Create and install the agent's bot
Choose a bot name and icon, click Create this Slack bot, then Install this Slack bot. Slack opens to authorize the bot; once authorized it is live immediately, without publishing the agent.
3
Choose where it replies
Add the channels the bot replies in, or switch on Enable all channels. Invite the bot to a channel like any Slack app, then mention it by its bot name to start a thread.
Athena for Slack — link previews, sharing and approvals
Athena for Slack is one workspace-level app. An Athena workspace owner or administrator installs it from Workspace Settings › Integrations › Athena for Slack; the card is shown when your deployment has the app configured. Once installed:- Athena links posted in Slack unfurl as cards for members who can open the asset. Whether titles appear in previews is a switch on the card.
- An owner who posts a link is privately offered to share the asset with channel members who cannot open it.
- Approval requests can be delivered as Slack direct messages with Approve and Reject buttons; the decision is recorded under the Slack member’s Athena account.
Athena’s workspace Slack app — @mentions and direct messages
One workspace-level Athena app can answer @mentions and direct messages in a connected Slack workspace. It is separate from the per-agent apps above: it replies as Athena rather than as a specific agent, and it does not add Slack as a source — Athena does not read channel history through it, and Slack does not appear as a catalog in sessions.1
Turn on Slack for the workspace (owner or administrator)
Under Workspace Settings › Integrations, switch on Slack (“Enable Slack so Athena can respond to @mentions and DMs in your workspace”). The switch shows or hides the Slack card on the Integrations page.
2
Connect the Slack workspace (administrator)
With the switch on, administrators see the Slack card on the Integrations page. Connect opens the managed Slack sign-in, a Slack administrator approves the app, and the Slack workspace is recorded as connected in Athena. There is no token to paste.
3
Mention or message Athena in Slack
In a channel the app has been added to, mention it, or send it a direct message. Athena replies in the thread, and further messages in a thread it has already answered continue the same conversation. Each Slack member is matched to their Athena account by email; a member without an Athena account in the workspace gets a reply asking them to connect to Athena instead of an answer.