Slack Inbox

Slack integration

Invite the Productlane bot to a customer Slack Connect channel and its messages become threads you can manage, reply to, and link to Linear.

Slack needs the Pro plan or above, and a Member or Admin role to connect.

Where to find it

Settings > Integrations > Slack.

Set it up

1. Click Connect and authorize Productlane in Slack.
2. Invite the Productlane bot to each customer Slack Connect channel you want synced.
3. Under Options, pick a Notifications channel, and mute any channel that should not create threads.
4. Under Action Menu, turn on Public bot response for pushes and Thread auto-replies if you want them.
5. Set up your own alerts under Personal Slack notifications.

Everything saves as you change it.

What syncs

Messages and threads in Slack Connect channels where the bot is present sync into Productlane. Replies you send from Productlane appear in Slack, replies in Slack come back, and threads can be linked to Linear issues.

How messages group into threads

A top-level message, meaning one that is not already a reply inside a Slack thread, either joins the channel's current open conversation or starts a new one. Timing decides which, rather than how long the conversation has been running.

• A top-level message with nowhere to go opens a conversation that collects that channel's loose chatter.
• That conversation stays open for more top-level messages as long as each new one lands within 30 minutes of the last message in the channel, not 30 minutes from when it was created. A channel getting a message every 10 minutes stays in one conversation for as long as that pace holds.
• The first Slack reply to any message in that window claims the conversation for its own thread. Every further reply inside that Slack thread stays attached to it, with no time limit.
• A top-level message sent more than 30 minutes after the last channel message starts a fresh conversation, even when the earlier one never got a reply.

Why did my Slack conversation split into two threads? More than 30 minutes passed between one top-level message and the next, so a second conversation opened. Once a Slack thread has a reply, its replies keep grouping together however much time passes.

Whether the first message is included

When Productlane creates a thread from a Slack Connect channel, it looks at who posted the top-level message.

• A customer posted it: the message comes in as the thread's first message.
• A teammate posted it: it stays out, since chatter between teammates is not assumed to be a customer request.

When a teammate's message really is the start of a customer conversation, use Create thread anyway on it.

Filing a Slack thread under a company

A thread from Slack does not need a contact before you can file it under a company. Open the customer selector on the thread and search for the company directly. See Customers.

Notifications stopped arriving in a channel

Work through these in order.

1. Check the Notifications dropdown under Options. Set to Disable, or pointing at a different channel, sends notifications nowhere or somewhere unexpected.
2. Check Muted channels on the same page. A muted channel never receives new-thread messages, feature requests included.
3. Confirm the bot is still in the channel. If it was removed, or the channel was archived, renamed, or deleted, Slack stops delivering quietly. Re-invite it, or pick a new channel.
4. Confirm the workspace is still connected. A Connected badge sits next to the Slack title. A Connect button instead means the workspace was disconnected, manually or by revoking the Slack app.
5. Look for the update banner. A "Slack Integration Update Required" banner means the workspace is on the old integration. Disconnect from the banner, then reconnect.
6. Confirm the plan. Below Pro, the page shows an upgrade prompt and nothing is sent until you upgrade and reconnect.
7. Check the request arrived at all. Open your public roadmap and confirm the submission is in Productlane. If it never arrived, the cause sits upstream of Slack.

If all of that checks out, disconnect and reconnect Slack. That rebuilds the OAuth connection and the channel permissions from scratch.

Good to know

• The integration is built around Slack Connect, so invite the bot to customer-facing channels.
• The legacy Slack integration is no longer supported. Disconnect and reconnect to move to the current one.
• When Slack access is revoked from the Slack side, the workspace shows a "New threads are no longer posted to Slack" banner and every admin gets a one-time notification, so the feed does not go dark quietly.