# Integration with Slack

Connecting Dewstack to Slack puts your documentation behind a bot: someone asks a question in a channel and gets an AI-generated answer drawn from your published pages, without leaving Slack. The connection lives in **SmartDocs → Integrations** and takes one OAuth click, but your documentation has to be trained first – the bot answers from the SmartDocs index, not from raw pages.

You need admin rights in the Slack workspace you are installing into.

## Train your documentation first

Open **SmartDocs** in the left sidebar and make sure the toggle at the top is on. Go to the **Train the Docs** tab, select the published pages you want the assistant to use – deselect anything you would rather it never quote – and train them. Until this finishes, the Slack bot has nothing to answer from.

Retrain whenever your documentation changes; the bot answers from the last trained snapshot, not from live content. For the full setup, see [Configuring SmartDocs](/docs/smartdocs/configuring-smartdocs).

## Connect your Slack workspace

1.  In **SmartDocs**, open the **Integrations** tab.
2.  Click **Add To Slack**.
3.  On Slack's authorisation page, choose the workspace from the dropdown and click **Allow**.
4.  Slack returns you to Dewstack, which confirms with _"Dewstack App installed successfully in Slack!"_

Dewstack asks Slack for three permissions and no more: read the messages that mention it (`app_mentions:read`), post messages (`chat:write`), and register its slash command (`commands`). It cannot read channel history it was not mentioned in.

If you see _"Dewstack App already installed in this Slack Workspace. Please remove the same and retry."_, the Dewstack app is already present in that Slack workspace. Remove it from Slack's **Manage apps** page, then click **Add To Slack** again.

## Ask questions in Slack

There are two ways to query your documentation.

**Mention the bot in a channel.** First invite it there – type `/invite @Dewstack` in the channel – then ask:

@Dewstack how do I rotate an API key?

**Use the slash command.** `/smartdocs` works in any channel without inviting the bot first:

/smartdocs how do I rotate an API key?

Two subcommands do something other than search:

*   **`/smartdocs help`** lists the two usages – asking a question, and `contact` – and links to the Dewstack documentation.
*   **`/smartdocs contact`** replies with the Dewstack support address, `support@dewstack.com`.

Both replies are visible only to the person who typed the command.

## Manage and disconnect

Connected Slack workspaces appear under **Connected Workspaces** on the Integrations tab, listed by Slack team name, each with a **Disconnect** button. You can connect more than one Slack workspace to the same Dewstack workspace.

Disconnecting confirms with _"Dewstack App disconnected successfully from Slack! Please also remove it from Slack workspace."_ – do that second step, or the app keeps appearing in Slack's app list even though it can no longer answer.

Answers are AI-generated

Responses come from a large language model working over your trained documentation. They are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete, and they reflect the last training run rather than the current state of your pages. For anything consequential, check the source page.

## Limits and plan requirements

*   **SmartDocs is locked without a subscription** unless you are in a trial; the sidebar entry shows a padlock and an upgrade prompt. Without SmartDocs there is no Integrations tab and no Slack connection.
*   Team members need the _Manage SmartDocs_ permission to reach the tab. Owners and Admins have it; Creators and Editors do not.
*   The bot answers from **published, trained** pages only. Drafts and untrained pages are invisible to it.

## Related

[Configuring SmartDocs Enable it, train it, style the widget and embed it elsewhere.](/docs/smartdocs/configuring-smartdocs) [Connect an AI assistant (MCP) Let Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor read your docs live.](/docs/api-and-agents/mcp)