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External channels let people use agents in apps like Slack, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Linear, etc. Currently, Slack is the only external channel supported.

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Example requests

Ask your coding agent which agent to put in Slack and how it should respond. It can connect the channel and listen mode.
“Put our support agent in the #support channel and have it reply only when mentioned.”
“Connect the data analyst agent to #data so the team can ask questions there.”

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Connect agents to Slack

The simplest way to connect an agent to Slack is from the web app. Each agent’s detail page has an External Channels panel where you connect Slack once and bind the channels the agent should answer in.
1

Open the agent

In the web app, go to Agents and select your agent. The External Channels panel is on the right.
2

Connect Slack

Next to Slack, click Connect and approve the OAuth prompt. This connects your Slack workspace to the organization once; you don’t need to reconnect it for this agent or any other agent later.
3

Bind a channel

Click the connected Slack workspace, then Add channel. Pick a channel and choose how the agent should respond:
Listen modeWhat it does
Mentions onlyResponds only when the agent is @mentioned
All messagesResponds to every message in the channel
Direct messagesResponds to direct messages with the agent
Leave Threads on to let the agent follow up in the same thread.
4

Message the agent

Message the bound channel according to its listen mode. Keystroke starts or continues an agent session and posts the reply back to Slack. Review runs in History by filtering Type to Agent.
Once Slack is connected, the workspace stays connected for the organization. Adding more agents to Slack is just the bind step.

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Channel access and credentials

Channel membership is how you control access to an agent. Once an agent is bound to a Slack channel, anyone in that channel can message it, and the agent runs with its assigned tools, actions, and credentials regardless of who sent the message. The agent acts on behalf of the channel, not the individual user: a teammate messaging the agent uses the agent’s credentials, not their own. Only bind agents to channels whose members you trust with everything the agent can do.

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Manage Slack from the CLI

You can connect Slack and manage channel bindings entirely from the CLI instead of the web app. 
keystroke auth login
keystroke connect slack

keystroke channels platforms list
keystroke channels accounts --platform slack
keystroke channels directory --platform slack --account <team-id>
keystroke channels bind --agent support --platform slack --account <team-id> --channel <channel-id> --mode mention
keystroke channels list --agent support
Channel commands are platform/org-scoped and require CLI authentication. See the CLI reference for the full command set. Slack OAuth and gateway routes mount automatically on your deployed project, so connecting against the cloud target works out of the box; you don’t need to add Slack to keystroke.config.ts. If you instead run a local server with keystroke dev, Slack must be able to reach it, so expose a public tunnel via PUBLIC_PLATFORM_PROXY_URL instead of localhost: 
SLACK_CLIENT_ID=...
SLACK_CLIENT_SECRET=...
SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET=...
PUBLIC_PLATFORM_PROXY_URL=https://your-public-url.example.com
keystroke dev

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Other external channels

Additional external channels listed below will be added over the coming weeks. You can request specific channels by contacting us at team@keystroke.ai and we will add them promptly.
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Linear
  • Discord
  • Google Chat

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Next steps

Run agents

Prompt the same agent directly while testing channel behavior.

Agent runs

Inspect Slack-started agent sessions in History.

Credentials

Connect OAuth credentials used by tools and integrations.

Build agents

Tune the agent prompt and tools for channel use.