Get instant answers in Slack from your connected knowledge
This article explains how to use the SiftHub Bot in Slack to generate answers. For installation and setup instructions, see the Setup Guide for SiftHub Bot.
Finding information is challenging - whether you're answering a customer question or preparing for a meeting. People ask questions in Slack and get blocked waiting for responses, while teammates spend valuable time manually searching and answering these questions over and over again.
The SiftHub Bot for Slack makes information access seamless by providing immediate answers from all your connected knowledge sources, right where your team already works!
How to Use SiftHub Bot in Slack
1. Ask Questions in Any Slack Channel
Simply mention @SiftHub and ask your question in any public or private channel. The bot will instantly search across your connected knowledge sources and provide a relevant answer.
What happens when you ask:
- SiftHub indicates it's working on your answer with an 👀emoji reaction
- You receive a response that is 'Only visible to you'
- Each answer includes links to the original sources from which it was generated. You can open the sources to verify the answer from there.
- You can choose to 'Share in channel' if the answer is helpful for others. If not, you can 'Dismiss' the answer
Responses are initially only visible to you, to protect sensitive information. Since answers are generated from your connected sources, they might contain information that other channel members don't have access to.
Where answers appear:
- For main thread questions: Answer appears as a reply, if 'Shared with Channel'
- For thread replies: Answer appears as a reply to your message in the thread
Channel Access: If the SiftHub Bot isn't already in a channel, you'll see a Slackbot message asking you to invite the bot, when you ask a question for the first time. Simply click 'Invite them' to enable the bot in that channel.
Notes:
- Each question is treated as a new, independent query, even if asked in reply to an earlier answer. The bot doesn't support answering follow up questions as of yet.
- If no relevant information is found in your connected sources, the bot will respond with "No information found in the sources to answer the question."
2. Direct message with the SiftHub Bot
Need a more private setting? Instead of in a channel, you can also ask a question as a direct message to the SiftHub Bot.
How to access:
- Find SiftHub under 'Apps' in your Slack workspace's left sidebar
- Click on the SiftHub app and go to 'Messages' in app details
- Start asking questions directly without needing to mention @SiftHub
How it works:
- All questions and their responses will be private to you
- Ask your questions directly without mentioning @SiftHub
- Receive answers generated from your connected knowledge sources, along with links to the original sources
- Responses appear as a reply when the question is asked as a main thread
- SiftHub bot doesn't support answering follow up messages as of yet
Important Information
Access: Only active SiftHub users can receive responses from the bot
Source Coverage: The bot generates answers from all connected sources in your account. Currently, users cannot filter specific sources or Collections for their queries (coming soon!)
Login Requirements: Users don't need to be logged in to the SiftHub Platform to ask questions to the SiftHub Bot in Slack
Troubleshooting
Common Issues and Solutions:
Bot not responding to questions
- Make sure you're mentioning @SiftHub correctly, if in a channel
- Verify that you're an active SiftHub Platform user
- If you were added to Slack as a user recently (and after you were added to SiftHub as a user), wait for a maximum of 30 minutes before asking the question again.
- Check that your role has the required access permissions to ask SIftHub a question in Slack
Bot not generating an answer from a source you added
- Make sure the information to answer that question is in the sources
- Wait for a maximum of 30 minutes for SiftHub to sync with the latest source content, before asking the question again
If you continue experiencing issues, please contact your SiftHub Customer Success Manager or reach out to support at support@sifthub.io.