Slack Agent Reference

Howl lives in your Slack workspace, right where customers report issues. Mention @Howl in any channel it’s in to investigate a reported bug, review PRs, fix CI failures, and open pull requests, without leaving Slack.

The native AI Assistant experience (the assistant panel and thread status updates) requires your workspace to be on a paid Slack plan. Every other feature on this page — @mentions, PR reviews, CI fixes, and connect commands — works on Slack Free too.

See tasksmind’s privacy policy for how workspace and message data is collected, used, and stored.

Installation

Add Howl to Slack

Install from your dashboard so the workspace links to your organization. Sign in, then go to Settings → Integrations and click Add to Slack there. This runs the authenticated OAuth flow, so no manual token configuration is needed. (Installing from a public page can’t detect your organization, so it isn’t offered there.)The following permissions are requested:

Scope	What it’s for
`app_mentions:read`	Respond to @Howl mentions
`chat:write`	Post messages and thread replies
`channels:history`	Read messages in public channels Howl is in
`groups:history`	Read messages in private channels Howl is in
`im:history`	Read direct messages sent to Howl
`channels:read`	Confirm channel membership for routing
`channels:join`	Join a public channel when you connect it
`users:read`	Resolve Slack user names for attribution
`users:read.email`	Match a Slack user to their tasksmind account
`assistant:write`	Power the native AI Assistant panel (paid Slack plans)

Add Howl to a channel, before you connect it

The connect commands below run inside the channel they configure, so Howl has to be a member of that channel first.

/invite @Howl

Or open the channel name → Integrations → Add apps → Howl. For a public channel, Howl adds itself when you connect it; a private channel must invite it (agents can’t self-add). If you connect before it’s in the channel, nothing is saved, it’ll ask you to add it first.

Link a channel to a GitHub repo

Link a repo to the current channel. Howl uses this repo as context for all agent commands run in this channel.

@Howl connect github your-org/your-repo

Repeat this in each channel to connect different repos. One channel can have one active repo.

Connect a customer-support channel (optional)

In a channel your customers post to, an org owner or admin maps it to an on-call project’s repo. Reports here become incidents and fix PRs automatically. Customers only see friendly updates, never code, logs, or stack traces.

@Howl connect support your-org/your-repo

The repo must already have an on-call project in your dashboard.

Designate a dev channel for incident detail (optional)

In your team’s internal engineering channel (never your customer support channel), route the full technical detail for incidents, root cause, file paths, PR links:

@Howl set dev channel here

The agent refuses to designate a channel already marked as a support channel, so this can’t accidentally leak technical detail to customers.

Verify setup

@Howl ping
# Expected: pong | backend=connected | sdk=loaded

@Howl status
# Expected: lists your connected repo

Commands

Every command works as an @Howl … mention in a channel the agent is in, or in a DM with the agent. Agent commands stream progress updates in a thread and may ask for approval before taking action.

Setup

Command	What it does
`@Howl connect github org/repo`	Link a GitHub repo to this channel
`@Howl connect support org/repo`	Make this a customer-support channel (owner/admin)
`@Howl set dev channel here`	Route root cause, file paths, and PR links to this channel (refuses on a support channel)
`@Howl status`	Show repos connected to this channel
`@Howl setup`	Post the full step-by-step setup guide
`@Howl ping`	Health check, confirms backend and SDK are reachable

Status & info

Instant replies, no agent job started.

Command	What it does
`@Howl status PR #214`	PR status, review state, and CI checks
`@Howl status TICKET-123`	Ticket status and execution history
`@Howl changes PR #214`	File changes and diff summary for a PR

Agent commands

These start a background job. Howl posts progress steps in a thread and asks for approval before committing or opening a PR.

Command	What it does
`@Howl review https://github.com/org/repo/pull/214`	Full code review: findings, risks, suggestions
`@Howl review PR #214`	Same as above using PR number (repo must be connected)
`@Howl fix CI for PR 214`	Fetch failing check logs, identify root cause, propose fix
`@Howl fix bug <description>`	Investigate a bug report, find root cause, propose fix
`@Howl implement <feature>`	Plan and implement a feature, requires approval before committing
`@Howl summarize this repo`	Index the connected repo and generate an architecture summary
`@Howl investigate <topic>`	Pull Slack, logs, and recent commits to root-cause a customer issue

Replies are posted in a thread on your message so the channel stays clean.

The approval & safety gate

Full detail on the four approval buttons, risk classification, and who can approve.

Enterprise & self-hosted

If your team uses a self-hosted or enterprise Slack App, configure the following URLs in your Slack App manifest under Event Subscriptions and Interactivity:

Events URL:        https://<your-host>/slack/events
Interactivity URL: https://<your-host>/slack/interactions

Under Event Subscriptions → Subscribe to bot events, add: app_mention, message.channels, message.im. Then invite the agent to your channels with /invite @Howl.

Troubleshooting

@Howl requests fail with a signature error

Cause: SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET is missing or wrong in the agent configuration.Fix: Verify the signing secret matches the value in your Slack App → Basic Information → App Credentials.

@Howl mentions get no response

Cause: The agent is not in the channel, or the app_mention event is not subscribed.Fix: Run /invite @Howl in the channel. Then check Slack App → Event Subscriptions and confirm app_mention is listed under bot events.

The agent still shows up under its old name

Cause: The name Slack renders comes from the Slack app’s own configuration, not from your installation. Reinstalling re-runs OAuth, which refreshes the permissions granted to the app — it does not change what the app is called.Fix: Nothing to do on your side. A rename propagates to every workspace that already has the app installed; reload Slack if a client is still showing the old name.

A newly added permission doesn't seem to apply

Cause: Slack freezes the set of granted scopes at install time. Adding a scope to the app grants it to nobody — every workspace keeps exactly the permissions it agreed to when it installed.Fix: Re-run Add to Slack from Settings → Integrations. Only a completed OAuth flow rewrites the granted scopes for your workspace. (This is the one thing reinstalling does fix.)

connect github returns "workspace is not registered"

Cause: The workspace was not installed via the OAuth flow, only a direct token was added.Fix: Re-install via the Add to Slack button on the Integrations page to complete the OAuth install and register the workspace.

Agent returns "Repository appears to be empty or inaccessible"

Cause: The GitHub token does not have access to the repository (common with fine-grained tokens).Fix: Use a classic GitHub Personal Access Token (ghp_...) with repo scope, or ensure your fine-grained token explicitly includes the target repository.

fix CI / review PR returns a 404 error

Cause: The GitHub token lacks read access to the repository, or the PR number does not exist.Fix: Confirm the token has repo scope and the PR number is correct. Merged PRs are still accessible via the API.

ping returns sdk=not loaded

Cause: The tasksmind SDK module failed to import, usually a missing dependency or env var.Fix: Check that SUPABASE_URL and SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY are set in your deployment secrets.

Your setup guide

The full account-to-first-fix walkthrough.

API keys

Programmatic access for webhooks and custom integrations.

Get Started

What You Can Do

Reference

Slack Agent Reference

Installation

Commands

Setup

Status & info

Agent commands

The approval & safety gate

Enterprise & self-hosted

Troubleshooting

Your setup guide

API keys