What You Can Do
Once connected, you can:- Chat with AI Players in DMs — Send messages directly to the PlayerZero bot to ask questions about your codebase, debug issues, or investigate problems
- @mention in channels — Mention the PlayerZero bot in any channel to start a conversation. The bot creates a Player session and responds in a thread.
- Trigger investigations from messages — Use Slack message shortcuts to send any message thread to a PlayerZero AI Player, with full thread context automatically captured
- Route work into workflows — Use the “Add to Backlog” shortcut to send Slack threads into a specific workflow stage for structured processing
- Receive alerts in channels — Get real-time notifications for issue clusters, anomaly spikes, and deployments delivered to your team’s channels
Message Shortcuts
PlayerZero adds two message shortcuts to Slack. Right-click any message (or use the ⋯ menu) to access them.Add to Backlog
Sends a Slack message and its thread context into a PlayerZero workflow.- Select Add to Backlog from the message shortcut menu
- Choose a project (if you have more than one)
- Choose a workflow entry stage — the Player will start processing from this stage, or select Ask for a freeform conversation
- Add any additional context to supplement the thread content
- Click Create
Ask PlayerZero
Sends a Slack message and its thread context to a PlayerZero AI Player for a freeform conversation.- Select Ask PlayerZero from the message shortcut menu
- Choose a project (if you have more than one)
- Add any additional context
- Click Create
New Backlog (Global Shortcut)
Creates a new PlayerZero backlog item without message context. Access this from Slack’s global shortcuts menu.- Open the global shortcuts menu
- Select New Backlog
- Choose a project and workflow entry stage
- Provide context describing the work
- Click Create
How Thread Context Works
When you trigger either message shortcut from a message that’s part of a thread, PlayerZero reads the parent message of that thread and includes its content alongside your additional context. This means the AI Player understands the full conversation without you needing to copy and paste.Scopes & Permissions
PlayerZero requests only the permissions needed for AI agents to assist with debugging, communication, and issue management. We follow the principle of least privilege — each permission directly enables a specific capability.
| Scope | Why It’s Needed |
|---|---|
app_mentions:read | @mention responses — Allows PlayerZero to detect when someone mentions the bot in a channel and respond |
channels:history | Thread context — Enables reading message threads to provide full context when a shortcut is triggered from a channel |
channels:join | Channel access — Allows the bot to join channels where it needs to deliver alerts or respond to mentions |
channels:read | Channel discovery — Lets PlayerZero list available channels during setup so you can choose where to receive alerts |
chat:write | Responses and alerts — Enables sending agent responses, investigation results, and alert notifications |
chat:write.customize | Attributed messages — Allows the bot to send messages on behalf of team members (e.g., “Alice (via PlayerZero)”) when relaying messages from the PlayerZero UI |
commands | Shortcuts — Required for the “Add to Backlog” and “Ask PlayerZero” message shortcuts |
files:write | File sharing — Enables sharing files (e.g., diagrams, reports) generated by AI agents |
groups:history | Private channel threads — Same as channels:history but for private channels |
groups:read | Private channel info — Same as channels:read but for private channels |
im:history | DM conversations — Enables reading and responding to direct messages with the bot |
mpim:history | Group DM conversations — Enables participating in group direct message threads |
users:read | User mapping — Allows matching Slack users to PlayerZero accounts for proper attribution |
users:read.email | Email matching — Uses email addresses to link Slack identities with PlayerZero user accounts |
Setup
Setup starts in PlayerZero — no pre-configuration in Slack is required. The Slack connection is managed under Collaboration, not the Ticketing page (which is used for tools like Jira and Linear).
- In PlayerZero, navigate to Settings → Collaboration
- Click the Slack card to open its detail page
- Click Enable — a popup window will open for Slack authorization
- Sign in to Slack and authorize PlayerZero in your workspace
- After authorization, the popup closes and you’ll see the Slack detail page with configuration options
Notification Configuration
Once Slack is connected, you can configure where notifications are delivered at the organization and project level. Organization-level defaults:- Set a default Slack channel for notifications from the Collaboration settings page
- Control which projects are authorized to use the Slack connection — either all projects or a specific set
- Each project can configure notification channels independently
- Assign different Slack channels to different workflow stages — for example, route triage notifications to
#support-triageand engineering escalations to#eng-alerts - Enable or disable workflow notifications (approval requests, stage transitions) per project
- Optionally restrict notifications to business hours based on your team’s timezone
- Notifications generated outside business hours are held and delivered when business hours resume