Slack and Teams
Slack and Microsoft Teams are channels. People use a bot there without opening Chat. An Owner or Admin connects the provider once, then chooses which bot answers where. Everything is under Connections in the Console.
A connector, on its own, means a provider connector for Slack or Microsoft. It is not an MCP connector.
Connect Slack or Teams
Open Connections and choose Add connection. Pick Microsoft or Slack. A setup guides you through each step, with a script or a way by hand. The app lives in your own Slack workspace or Microsoft 365 tenant. You need admin rights there. The full guides are Connect Slack and Connect Microsoft.
- Slack. GEKI creates the Slack app from a configuration token. You install it with Add to Slack and invite it to channels.
- Teams. First connect Microsoft: the domain, an app in Microsoft Entra, and admin consent. Then set up Teams on the Teams app tab: the Azure Bot and the Teams app.
The apps take their name, colour, and publisher from Settings: the display name, the brand colour, and the publisher. A name can have at most 35 characters in Slack and 30 in Teams. A longer display name needs a short app name, which the setup asks for.
Connections shows a card for each connection with its status and a row for each channel. A connection page has tabs for the connection and its app. Credentials are write-only. The Console shows only that they are set. The status is Connected, Needs attention, or Broken, with the reasons. In Slack, bots answer mentions only after a passed test.
Choose which bot answers where
Select Configure in the Teams or Slack row on Connections. The channel page holds only these settings. App settings are on the connection.
- Direct messages. Which bots members can pick in a direct message. The Personal bot switch offers the Personal bot in direct messages. "New conversations go to" sets where a new conversation starts: Members choose, a bot, or the Personal bot.
- Bots. The Company Bots this app answers with. A member can call any of them with
~name. The entry bot answers a mention in a channel that has no default bot. Name detection is Name or Model. With Name, a bot answers when its name appears in a thread it is in. With Model, a small model also decides whether a message was meant for the bot. - Channels. A table of the channels the app is in. For each channel you see who answers, the default bot, the triggers that post there, and a name detection override. A channel the app left shows "App removed".
When the app needs an update, the channel page shows a warning with a link to the app.
Only live bots answer. A paused or draft bot says it is not available.
How a bot answers
In a channel. Mention the app. The bot of a new thread is the one named with ~name, else the only bot of the connector, else the default bot of the channel, else the entry bot. Without a bot, the app posts a choice. A thread has one bot. Another bot joins when someone names it with ~name. In a thread, the bot reads the messages of members as context. It answers when it is mentioned, named, or addressed.
In a direct message. The person talks to the bot alone. The bot is the only one, the bot set for new conversations, or the one the person picks. In Teams, "New conversation" starts a fresh chat. A Teams chat also starts fresh after eight hours without a message.
Teams group chats are not supported.
The app shows "working…" and then the answer. Reasoning and tool calls do not show in Slack and Teams. In Slack channels, the reply carries the name and icon of the bot. In Teams channels, replies start with the name of the bot in bold. Stop in Slack or Teams ends a running answer. A long answer continues in more messages.
Slack files go to the bot like Chat attachments. Files the bot creates are uploaded to the thread. Teams needs the Teams files feature for files. Without it the bot reads the text only.
Who may use a bot there
The app maps a Slack or Teams user to a member of the organization by email. A person with no match gets "Sorry, only members of the organization can use this bot." Guests, users of other workspaces, and bots are ignored.
In a direct message, the person must be allowed to use the bot. The groups of the bot apply, as in Chat. Otherwise the answer is "You cannot use this bot." A chat that runs in a direct message belongs to the person. They can continue it in Chat.
Channel threads run as the connector, not as the person who writes. The Owner or Admin who put the bot into the channel decides who sees it.
Results of triggers
A trigger can post its answer to a channel. Pick the channel in the trigger. A reply in that thread that mentions the app starts a conversation with the bot.