Deploy an agent as a Slack app

Deploy an agent as its own Slack app, and it shows up in Slack as itself: its own name, its own image, and its own DM. People message the agent directly, and it takes over the Slack channels connected to the Ravenna channels it’s assigned to. You can deploy as many agents as you like. Each one becomes its own Slack app, and Ravenna installs it in every connected workspace of your Slack organization.

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Before you start

• Connect Slack to Ravenna. See Slack setup.
• Give the agent a name, description, and image on its Identity tab. The Slack app uses them. Slack shows the image as the app icon when it’s a PNG, JPG, or GIF.
• Assign the agent to the Ravenna channels it should answer in. See Connections.

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Connect privileged access

Ravenna creates and installs agent apps with Slack’s app management permission, so each Slack organization needs privileged access with App management granted first.

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Deploy the agent

Deploying runs for each Slack organization with App management access:

1. Ravenna creates the agent’s app in the Slack organization, with the agent’s name, description, and image.
2. Ravenna installs the app’s bot in every connected workspace of that organization.
3. Ravenna creates a Ravenna channel for the agent’s DMs, named after the agent, with the agent’s image in the sidebar. A redeploy reuses it.
4. The Ravenna app adds the agent’s bot to every Slack channel connected to the Ravenna channels the agent is assigned to, and the agent’s bot takes those channels over.

Workspaces that join your Enterprise Grid organization later get the agent’s app installed automatically.

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Deployment statuses

Each workspace card shows the install date and these statuses: If the agent’s bot misses some Slack channels, the card names them: Couldn’t add the agent to #it-help. Invite the Ravenna app there, the agent joins on the next sync.

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What changes in Slack

Ravenna sends each Slack message to one bot, in this order:

1. A thread stays with the bot that started it.
2. A Slack channel connected to a Ravenna channel the agent is assigned to goes to the agent’s bot.
3. Everything else goes to the app that handles tickets in that workspace.

For people in Slack, that means:

• They DM the agent’s app directly, and those conversations land in the agent’s channel in Ravenna.
• The agent answers in its Slack channels as itself, with its own name and image.
• Ravenna keeps the agent’s channels in sync. Assign the agent to a channel, or connect a Slack channel to one of its channels, and the agent’s bot joins. Unassign the agent or disconnect the Slack channel, and the bot leaves and the main app takes the channel back.
• If someone removes the agent’s bot from a Slack channel, the bot rejoins on the next sync while the agent is still assigned.

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Update the agent’s app

Ravenna pushes a new agent name or image to its Slack apps when you save it on Identity. After other changes, such as a new description, click Update app in the Slack section. Update app also reinstalls the bot where it’s Outdated.

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Remove the agent from Slack

Ravenna deletes the agent’s app in every connected Slack organization. Its Slack channels go back to the main app, and its open DMs end. The agent’s Ravenna channel and its tickets stay. Deploy again to create a new app. Deleting the agent also removes its Slack apps.