Talk to Hamster where your team already talks. @mention the bot in any channel or DM, drop files, run slash commands, cast alignment votes, and click Brief unfurls to read live work without leaving Slack.
The Slack Connection installs the Hamster bot in your workspace. Once connected, you can @mention Hamster in any channel or DM, send files for analysis, run slash commands, cast alignment votes, and read Briefs in the side panel without switching to the web app. The bot responds in threads, keeping channel noise low while giving you access to your Briefs, Tasks, and project context.
Hamster lives where the team already talks. A teammate can @mention the bot in the channel where the conversation is already happening and the bot creates a Hamster Chat thread with the right context — no copy-pasting into the web app, no "let me write that up later." Specs and questions that used to die in Slack threads now flow into Hamster as Briefs.
The Connection uses OAuth. A workspace admin installs the bot once, and each team member verifies their identity so the bot knows which Hamster account to use.
/hamster help, /hamster logout, and /hamster feedback directly from any channel or DM.The Connection is a two-step flow: a workspace admin installs the bot once, then each user verifies their account.
Only a Slack workspace admin can install the bot. The bot is installed once for the entire workspace.
The bot is installed once per workspace, but each team member must link their Slack identity to their Hamster account before the bot will respond.
If you @mention the bot from a public channel before verifying, the verification link is sent as a private DM rather than posted publicly. A short message in the channel directs you to check your DMs.
Verification links expire after 15 minutes. If yours expires, send another message and the bot will issue a fresh one.
@mention the Hamster bot in any channel and the bot starts a thread for the response. Reply in that thread and the bot continues the conversation with full context — Slack messages from the thread are passed through as context, so the bot understands what the team was discussing.
DMs work the same way without the @mention requirement. Use them for private queries that don't need to be visible to the rest of the workspace.
Drop files alongside your message and the bot analyzes them. Supported formats include PDF, Word, Excel, plain text, images, and code files. Each message can carry up to 8 files at 50 MB each.
Files must be sent with message text — file-only messages aren't supported. Oversized files are skipped with a private message back to you listing what was skipped.
When Hamster posts a Brief link into Slack, the unfurl card is clickable. Click it and Slack opens a side panel with the full Brief body — the same content the author sees in the web app, formatted as markdown with headings, lists, and code blocks intact. The panel reads the live document state, so what you see in Slack matches what's in Hamster right now.
The side panel also carries alignment actions. Mark the Brief Ready or Not yet, change its status when you have permission, or post a note. Each update lands on the Brief Activity Timeline, tied to the same version everyone sees in Hamster.
Admins can choose a primary Slack channel from the Slack Connection settings. When auto-posting is enabled, Hamster posts new Briefs to that channel as cards so stakeholders can read, vote, and follow the work from Slack.
Turn auto-posting off when you want Briefs to appear only when someone explicitly shares them. The channel picker and auto-post toggle save automatically.
Slack appears as two related Connections:
The bot uses threads for all responses, so a single channel can host multiple Hamster conversations without crossover. The bot maintains context within a thread for multi-turn conversations.
Responses are converted to Slack's mrkdwn format. Lists, bold text, links, and code blocks render natively. While Hamster is processing your request, you'll see progressive status messages so you know it's working — these are removed once the response is ready.
These also work as plain-text commands in DMs and assistant threads (where Slack blocks slash commands).
/hamster help — Show available commands./hamster logout — Disconnect your Slack account from Hamster. Use this before linking to a different team account./hamster feedback <message> — Send product feedback directly to the Hamster team. Your message is submitted with your Slack and Hamster context attached. Feedback is rate-limited to 5 submissions per user per 24 hours.When a Cloud Agent is configured for your Team, each Cloud Agent also gets its own slash command flow so you can deliver a Brief into a specific Cloud Agent directly from a channel.
/hamster logout (or type logout) before linking to a different Hamster team account.To remove the bot from your entire Hamster workspace:
⋯).This uninstalls the bot for everyone in the workspace and revokes all individual user sessions.
Removing a user from the Hamster team automatically revokes their Slack bot access — no manual steps required.
Do I need to reinstall if the bot stops responding?
No. Bot tokens are recovered automatically. If the bot is unresponsive, check that the workspace is still connected under Workspace Settings > Connections, then verify your account is still active by running /hamster logout and re-verifying.
Can multiple Slack workspaces connect to one Hamster team? Each Slack workspace installation is linked to one Hamster account.
What if my verification link expired? Send another message to the bot — it will issue a new link.
Is there a cost for the Slack integration? No. It's included with Hamster Studio at no additional cost and uses the same AI processing as the web app.