Slack Integration
The Slack integration connects Barvol to your team's communication, enabling two-way value: Barvol can read relevant conversations as context for the AI, and can deliver notifications and summaries directly to Slack channels you choose.
What Barvol reads from Slack
Barvol reads only from channels you explicitly authorize during setup. It does not access direct messages (DMs), private channels you are not a member of, or channels you have not selected.
From authorized channels, Barvol reads:
- Message text and timestamps
- Thread replies in threads within authorized channels
- Author usernames (not full profile data)
- Reactions (emoji) on messages
File attachments, images, and links to external content are not read or stored.
Connecting Slack
Go to Integrations, click Slack, and click "Connect." You will be redirected to your Slack workspace to authorize the Barvol app. After granting permissions, you will be shown a list of channels to authorize. Select the channels that are most relevant to your business operations — for example, your #general, #product, #engineering, and #customer-success channels.
Barvol recommends selecting 3-5 high-signal channels rather than authorizing every channel. This keeps the AI context focused and avoids noise from low-priority channels.
Slack notifications from Barvol
Barvol can send notifications to a Slack channel of your choice. You configure this from the Slack integration settings. Notification types you can route to Slack include:
- Daily briefing — a morning summary of what's on your plate today
- Goal at-risk alerts — when a goal's status changes to At Risk
- Overdue task alerts — when tasks pass their due date without being completed
- Weekly synthesis — your Monday synthesis delivered to Slack
- New feedback — when a new feedback entry is logged
Each notification type can be enabled or disabled independently. Notifications go to a single channel — use a dedicated #barvol-updates channel to keep them organized.
Using Slack data in the AI chat
Once Slack is connected, you can ask the AI questions like:
- "What was discussed in #product this week?"
- "Was there any mention of [customer name] in Slack recently?"
- "Summarize the last week of #engineering conversation."
The AI references only the channels you authorized. DMs are never accessible.