Setting up Guru's App for Slack

Guru's Slack app allows seamless access to team knowledge within Slack, maintaining conversation flow without switching contexts. This article outlines how to install the Guru app, how to invite the Guru app to Slack channels, and how to configure Guru to suggest answers to questions asked in specific Slack channels.

👥

Access Required

• You must be a Guru workspace admin to install Guru's app for Slack
• You may also need to be a Slack admin to install new Slack apps for your organization. This setting depends on your company's Slack app settings. Check with your Slack admin if you have any questions.
• To set up Knowledge Agents, you need to be on Guru's All-In-One or Enterprise Plan.

Install the Guru app for Slack

1. Navigate to Guru's web application and click Manage in the left-hand navigation.
2. Click Apps and Integrations.
3. In the Apps page, navigate to Slack and click Add Slack workspace.
4. After authenticating and completing the steps to allow Guru to connect to your Slack workspace, Guru is going to map your workspace's Guru users to their matching Slack email addresses. This way, every Slack user linked to a Guru user in your Guru workspace will be able to use the Guru app in Slack.
   1. Team members who are authors and Collection owners will be able to create and add to Guru Cards.
      1. If there are discrepancies in a user's email address between Slack and Guru, the Slack user will not be mapped. When they go to use the Guru app in Slack for the first time the Slack admin will get a message allowing them to connect the Slack user to a Guru user. Admins can also use link user @SlackUsername GuruEmailAddress to manually link the two accounts in a DM with the Guru app.
   2. Team members who use Slack (but not Guru) will not be able to ask Guru questions and will not be able to see any Guru content that they don't have permission to see unless that content in Guru is shared with "All Members". 
5. Once the setup process is complete, the Guru app will introduce itself in Slack.

To install Guru's app for Slack with an Enterprise Grid, follow steps 1-4 above. In the upper-right-hand corner of the pop-up, be sure to connect Guru to the correct organization or enterprise workspace in the drop-down menu.

Invite Guru to Slack channels

Next, invite the Guru app to interact with users in any public or private Slack channel by using the /invite @guru command in any channel.

You can also invite the Guru app to a channel by clicking the channel name and selecting the Integrations tab followed by Add apps. More information on inviting an app to a channel can be found in Slack's Help Center.

Turn on a Knowledge Agent in Slack

If your team’s Workspace has Knowledge Agents enabled, adding the Guru app to Slack and inviting it to your selected channels unlocks two ways to promote seamless knowledge sharing within Slack.

Connecting Knowledge Agents in Guru allows automatic AI-generated responses to questions in active channels using data from Collections and authorized external sources, without requiring an @mention. Users can also @mention the Guru bot directly (e.g., "@Guru how do I request paid time off?") for answers. This dual functionality ensures efficient knowledge access within Slack. 

Connect a Slack Channel to the Default Guru Knowledge Agent

1. Navigate to Manage > Knowledge Agents.
2. Guru's Default Knowledge Agent has access to all available Collections and sources. Users will only see results for content they have access to.
3. First, ensure that the channel you want to connect to the Agent has already added the Guru App. You can do this in Slack by navigating to the Channel > Integrations tab > Add Apps > Guru. You can connect Guru's Default Knowledge Agent to multiple channels.
   1. You can also toggle on Limit responses to sources shared with All Members. This will add an additional filter to Agent responses to sources accessible to all members, ensuring sensitive information isn’t inadvertently shared in public channels.

Connect a Slack Channel to a specific Knowledge Agent

Knowledge Agents offer your team a more curated search experience. Connecting a specific Knowledge Agent to a Slack channel helps proactively surface targeted knowledge to a specific group.

💡

Tip

Create a HR Buddy Knowledge Agent to add to your HR/People Ops channels to easily answer questions on company policy.

1. Navigate to Manage > Knowledge Agents.
2. Set up your Knowledge Agent by defining the required access permissions, specifying the sources it will use to answer questions, and crafting a custom prompt to shape the response structure.
3. Navigate to the Slack Channel tab for the relevant Agent.
4. First, ensure that the channel you want to connect to the Agent has already added the Guru App. You can do this in Slack by navigating to the Channel > Integrations tab > Add Apps > Guru. You can only have one channel connected to each Agent.
   1. You can also toggle on Limit responses to sources shared with All Members. This will add an additional filter to Agent responses to sources accessible to all members, ensuring sensitive information isn’t inadvertently shared in public channels.

💡

Tip

Why am I getting different answers in Slack vs. the Guru web app?

If you are finding that you get different answers in the Guru web app and Slack, likely it is because you have the Limit responses to sources shared with All Members toggled on, which further limits the sources that would be used to answer a question for security reasons. An Admin on your team can navigate to Manage > Knowledge Agents and update this setting.

Now, when a Guru user asks a question in the designated Slack channel(s), Guru will automatically suggest an answer sourced from the places you defined during setup. All Slack users in the channel will be able to see Guru's suggested answer regardless of whether or not they are licensed users in Guru, but only the licensed Guru users will be able to take action on the suggested answer ("👍" Mark as helpful, "👎" Mark as unhelpful, "Search Guru", and "Ask an Expert").

Admin Controls

There are a few Guru Slackbot commands reserved for Guru admins that will help with onboarding new Slack users to Guru and with managing the connection of users between both apps over time. To see the available Guru admin commands, type @guru help admin to direct message the Guru app or type help admin in the Messages tab of the Guru app in Slack.

Link Users

Guru will attempt to automatically link all Guru users with your Slack users. In some cases, a Slack user will have a Guru email that differs from their Slack email. Use the command link user @SlackUsername GuruEmailAddress (ex. link user @patrick patrick(at)getguru.com) to manually link the two accounts.

Show workspace configuration

Using the command show team config, you can pull up a list of all the Guru users in your workspace and what Slack users they are linked to. Clicking the Show Team button will also execute this command.

Frequently Asked Questions about Guru's app for Slack

What happens if the Guru admin who set up the integration leaves the company?
If the Guru admin who set up the Guru integration for Slack is no longer a member of your workspace, our system will look for another Guru admin to take on the role of the primary user (installing user). If there are no other admins or qualifying users, the Guru app for Slack will become disabled. If this happens, a new Guru admin can re-install the integration by navigating to the Manage > Apps and Integrations page. 

Can one Guru account be linked to multiple Slack accounts?
Yes, you can link one Guru workspace to multiple Slack teams. This does not work the other way around, however, and you can not link multiple Guru workspaces with one Slack team (unless you are on Slack's Enterprise Grid).

Why am I getting the following error "you can not associate this Slack team with another Guru team" when I set up the integration?
This error message means that you may have previously linked a Guru workspace with your Slack instance. Contact us by using this web form: Contact Guru Support.

Why didn't Guru suggest an answer?
There are a few reasons why Guru may not have suggested an answer. We recommend troubleshooting each scenario with the following steps:

• Is the Guru app for Slack connected to your Slack workspace?
  • Check Settings > Apps and Integrations and make sure the name of the Slack workspace under "Installed for" matches your expectations.
• Has the Guru app been invited to the channel?
  • Type **/invite @guru** in a message to the channel.
• Is this Slack channel connected to a Knowledge Agent?
  • Navigate to Manage > Knowledge Agents to determine if this Slack channel is connected to an Agent.
• Is the user asking the question linked to a user in Guru?
  • Typically, the user's email addresses will be a match in both applications.
  • Use the `help admin` command to link the two email addresses if not. 
• Did the user ask a question?
  • Guru can determine whether a message is a question that needs to be answered or not based on the language used, a question mark doesn't necessarily have to be used.
• Was the question asked in a Slack thread?
  • Automatic suggested answers will not appear in Slack channel threads and direct messages.
  • Messaging "@guru" in a channel thread is currently the only way to trigger Guru to suggest an answer.

Is there a way to review the questions directed at Guru and Guru's suggested answers?
Yes! All questions and suggested answers are available for Guru admin to review in the AI training dashboard