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Connect your Slack workspace to Realm to make messages, threads, and files searchable. Navigate to Settings > Data sources and click Connect on Slack, or click Manage if already connected.

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Connecting Slack

Click Connect on the Slack data source page. You’ll see two connection modes:
ModeDescription
All public channelsSyncs all public channels and private channels
Channels with bot onlyOnly syncs channels where the bot has been added
After selecting a mode, you’ll be redirected to Slack’s OAuth consent screen. Review the permissions and click Allow. The person connecting must be a Slack workspace admin.
Slack OAuth consent screen showing the permissions Realm requests

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What Gets Synced

By default, Realm syncs messages from public channels and any private channels where the Realm Slack App has been added. To add Realm to a private channel, tag @Realm in the channel.
ContentSynced
Public channel messages and threadsYes
Files shared in channelsYes
Private channels (with Realm app added)Yes
Slack Connect channelsConfigurable (see below)
DMsContact Realm to enable
Canvases and ListsNo

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Permissions

Realm mirrors Slack’s permission settings. Users can only see messages from channels they have access to in Slack. You can override this by switching to “Everyone in this organization” on the data source settings page, which makes all synced Slack data visible to all Realm users.

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Slack message history

Realm syncs historical messages via the Slack API, but due to rate limits this is very slow. Uploading a Slack workspace export is the recommended way to import your full message history.

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Exporting from Slack

1

Open Slack workspace settings

As a Slack workspace admin, click Admin in the sidebar, then select Workspace settings > Security.
2

Start an export

Click Import & export data, then select the Export tab. Choose a date range and click Start export. See Slack’s export guide for details on what’s included per Slack plan.
3

Download the export

Slack will send you an email when the export is ready. Download the ZIP file.

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Uploading to Realm

On the Slack data source page, scroll to Slack Message History and upload the ZIP file. The maximum file size is 10 GB. If your export is larger, perform multiple exports with different date ranges. A progress indicator will show the upload and processing status.

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Import privacy settings

Use the Import privacy settings dropdown to control which messages are imported:
SettingDescription
Public onlyOnly import messages from public channels
All channelsImport messages from all channels in the export
Past imports are listed below with their status (synced, sync in progress, sync failed).

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Slack AI app view

To use Realm in Slack’s AI app view, you need to enable AI apps in your Slack workspace settings. See Slack’s instructions for displaying AI apps and the Slack App page for more details.
Realm app shown in the Slack assistants sidebar

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Noise reduction

Slack can be a noisy data source. To keep results relevant, Realm:
  • Ignores threads with only bot messages and no human replies
  • Ranks archived channels lower in search results
  • Ranks very short messages lower in search results

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Required scopes

channels:history, channels:read, files:read, pins:read, reactions:read, team:read, users:read, users:read.email, im:history, im:read, chat:write, chat:write.customize, app_mentions:read, reactions:write, groups:read, assistant:write, mpim:history, mpim:read, groups:history
channels:history, channels:read, files:read, pins:read, reactions:read, team:read, users:read, users:read.email, search:read

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Using Realm in Slack

Once connected, team members can interact with Realm directly in Slack. For usage details, see the User guide: Slack app.

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Slack Connect channels

Slack Connect channels (shared with external organizations) are not synced by default. You can configure this:
SettingDescription
Sync only selectedChoose specific Slack Connect channels to sync. Click Select channels to pick from a list.
Sync allSync all Slack Connect channels

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Public channel answer mode

Controls how Realm responds when mentioned in public channels (or private channels where the bot has been added):
ModeDescription
PreviewThe answer is posted as an ephemeral message only visible to the user who asked. They can then choose to share it to the channel or dismiss it.
ShareRealm answers directly in the channel, visible to everyone
NoneRealm will not answer questions in channels

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Restrict bot to configured channels

Slack restrict mentions toggle
When Restrict mentions to assistant channels is enabled, the Realm bot will only respond to mentions in Slack channels where an assistant is specifically configured. In all other channels, the bot will ignore mentions. When disabled, the bot responds to mentions in any channel it has been added to.
This setting applies to all agents in your organization. Individual agents cannot override it.