How-to · Sending elsewhere

Talk to sessions from Slack

Make a Slack app for Turret, set up channels, and start and steer sessions from Slack threads.

You want to start a session from Slack, watch it work in a thread, and steer it by replying there. Turret answers your own Slack app from your desktop computer. A phone does not answer Slack.

Mention the app at the top of a channel you set up, and a session starts in that message's thread. Replies in the thread steer it with no mention. Anyone in your workspace can steer. Only you, and the people you pick, can approve its tool calls.

Turn this on only for a workspace you invite people into. Everyone in it can steer the sessions on your computer.

Make the app

Open Settings, then the Accounts tab, and pick Slack.
Press Create the app in Slack. Slack opens with Turret's settings filled in. Choose your workspace and create the app.
In Slack, open Basic Information, then App-Level Tokens. Make a token with the connections:write scope and copy it. It starts with xapp-.
Open Install App and install it to your workspace. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token. It starts with xoxb-.
Back in Turret, paste both tokens and press Save.
Switch on Answer on this computer. The line under it says when Turret is connected.
Press Pair, and send /turret pair with the code to Turret in a DM in Slack. You are now its owner.

Only a single computer can answer an app. If a second computer is switched on, it stops and says Another computer is answering this Slack app. Switch Slack off on the other computer.

Choose where sessions may run

Under Sessions from chat, add the folders a session from Slack may run in, and pick a permission mode. These are the same settings Telegram uses. A session from chat never skips its permission asks.

Set up a channel

Turret joins every public channel by itself, and does nothing in a channel until you set it up there. A mention in a channel that is not set up gets a private note saying so.

A public channel you already have. Run /turret setup in it. Pick a folder, a mode and a model, and save. A card describing the setup is pinned in the channel.
A private channel. Invite the app with /invite @Turret. Turret shows you a Set up this channel button. If you mentioned Turret first and accepted Slack's offer to invite it, Turret answers that mention once it has joined.
A new channel. Run /turret new in Slack, or press New channel in Turret's Slack settings. The channel is made, you are invited, and it is set up.
A session that is already running. Press Open a session in Slack in Turret's Slack settings and pick the session. The whole channel talks to that session.

If anyone but you invites the app to a private channel, it leaves. It also leaves any channel shared with another organisation.

An app made before Turret joined channels by itself lacks the channels:join permission. The Slack panel says so. In your app's settings on api.slack.com, open App Manifest, add the channels:join scope and the channel_created event, save, and reinstall the app.

Use it

Mention @Turret at the top of a set-up channel. Turret reacts with 👀, starts a session in that thread, and keeps a single message there showing its plan and steps, with a Stop button.
When the turn ends, the reply arrives as a new message that mentions you, and the 👀 becomes ✅.
Reply in the thread to steer. Type !stop to stop the turn, !status to see what it is doing, !new to start a fresh conversation, or !help.
A permission request arrives as a card with Allow once, Allow always and Deny. Only you and the people under Who can approve can answer it.
Write to Turret in a DM, and each message starts a chat session in its own thread. Only you can start sessions there.
Mention @Turret in a channel that is not set up, and only you see a note saying it is not set up there.

When something is wrong

Slack refused the bot token, or the app token: make a new token in Slack, paste it, and save.
Another computer is answering this Slack app: switch Slack off on the other computer, then switch it off and on here.
Turret is not set up in this channel: run /turret setup there.
A folder is no longer approved: add it again under Sessions from chat, or set the channel up with another folder.