Apollo: Connecting Your Slack Workspace

Overview

Connecting Slack lets you ask Apollo about your Slack messages, channels, and threads without leaving a conversation. Setup happens in three stages: your organization installs the Apollo app in Slack once, an administrator confirms the workspace in EliseAI, and then each person connects their own Slack account.

Installing the app grants Apollo no access to messages on its own. Apollo reads nothing from Slack until an individual connects their own account, and after that it acts as that person, so it can only reach the conversations they can already see.

Before You Start

You need all of the following:

• Apollo connectors enabled for your organization. This is turned on by EliseAI, so if you cannot see a Connectors tab in Apollo settings, contact your EliseAI representative to have it enabled.
• Someone with the Admin > Slack Connector > Edit permission to complete stages one and two. Organization Administrators have it by default.
• A Slack Workspace Owner or Admin to approve the installation inside Slack. This is often a different person, so the install link is built to be forwarded.
• The Admin > Slack Messages > View permission for each person who wants Apollo to search Slack. Organization Administrators have it by default, and an administrator can grant it to anyone else from that user's permissions.

Permissions

• Slack Connector > Edit connects and disconnects the organization's workspace.
• Slack Messages > View lets a person connect their own account and have Apollo search Slack as them.
• Slack Messages > Edit additionally lets Apollo post messages and share files as that person.

Where to Find It

In Apollo, click Settings, then open the Connectors tab, or go directly to app.meetelise.com/apollo/settings/connectors.

The page has three sections:

• Organization connections: where your organization connects Slack once.
• Organization products: where an administrator chooses what Apollo may use for everyone. Slack has no per-product settings, so there is nothing to enable here for Slack.
• Your connections: where each person connects their own Slack account.

Stage 1: Install the Apollo App in Slack

The install begins on the Connectors page in EliseAI, not in Slack.

1. Go to Settings > Connectors.
2. Under Organization connections, find Slack and click Manage.
3. The dialog opens on its Configuration tab, which holds four numbered steps. Start with Install the Apollo app in Slack.
4. If you are a Slack Workspace Owner or Admin, click Grant consent and approve the installation in Slack.
5. If you are not, click Copy consent link and send the link to someone who holds that role. It stays valid for 72 hours.
6. After they have used it, click Check consent status to see whether Slack has responded.

Stage 2: Confirm the Workspace in EliseAI

The installation on its own only proves that some workspace installed the app, so the connection stays pending until an administrator vouches that the workspace is yours.

1. In the same Slack dialog, go to step Confirm the workspace.
2. Check the workspace name and ID shown there against your organization's real Slack workspace.
3. Click Confirm workspace.

Step 1 then reports that consent has been granted for that workspace, and members can start connecting.

Stage 3: Each Person Connects Their Own Slack Account

Everyone who wants Apollo to search Slack does this once for themselves. An administrator cannot do it on someone else's behalf.

1. Go to Settings > Connectors.
2. Under Your connections, find Slack Messages and click Connect.
3. Sign in with the Slack account you use for work in the popup window, and approve the request. If nothing opens, allow popups for this site and try again.

Your organization authorizes Apollo for its own workspace, so an account outside that workspace cannot connect. One Slack account can be linked to one EliseAI user per organization.

What Apollo Can Do Once Slack Is Connected

With Slack Messages connected, you can ask Apollo to:

• Search messages across the channels and direct messages you belong to.
• Read a channel or follow a thread.
• Look up people in your workspace.

If you also hold Slack Messages > Edit, Apollo can post messages and share files for you. Posts go out under your own name, only in conversations you already belong to, and Apollo asks you to approve every message before it sends. Nothing Apollo posts can be unsent from Apollo.

Disconnecting Slack

• To disconnect your own account, open Your connections, click the options menu on the Slack Messages tile, choose Disconnect, and confirm. Your organization's connection stays in place for everyone else.
• To remove the connection for the whole organization, open the Slack dialog from Organization connections, go to the Disconnect step, and confirm. This also ends every individual connection.

Troubleshooting

There is no Connectors tab in Apollo settings

Apollo connectors have not been enabled for your organization yet. Contact your EliseAI representative.

The Connect button under Your connections is greyed out

You do not have the Admin > Slack Messages > View permission. Ask an Organization Administrator to grant it from your user permissions.

The Manage button under Organization connections is greyed out

The row shows Managed by your admins because you do not have the Admin > Slack Connector > Edit permission. Someone with that permission has to complete stages one and two.

Connecting my account says the organization has not finished connecting Slack

Stage two is incomplete. An administrator still needs to confirm the workspace before anyone can connect their own account.

Slack shows as connected for the organization, but nobody can search Slack

Each person still needs to complete stage three. The organization connection alone gives Apollo no access to messages.

I connected Slack, but Apollo says it cannot search it

Start a new conversation. Apollo fixes the tools available to a conversation when it begins, so a conversation you opened before connecting Slack will not pick it up. New conversations pick it up within about 15 minutes.

The tile says Reconnect instead of Connect

Your Slack sign-in expired, or Apollo now needs access it did not ask for when you first connected. Click Reconnect and approve the request again. Anyone who connected Slack before message posting became available has to reconnect before Apollo can post for them.

The organization connection shows a warning

A Slack call was refused after the connection was set up, which usually means consent was removed or narrowed in Slack. An administrator can open the Slack dialog and use the Refresh grants step to re-check it.

The install link no longer works

Consent links expire after 72 hours. An administrator can produce a new one with Copy consent link.