Slack
Connect Slack so the decisions your team writes in channels become business context, and so agents can send alerts and reports where your team already works.
Slack does two jobs in Meerkats. Reading: the channels you choose become part of your business context, so when someone writes "we're deliberately buying growth at 2x ROAS on the new range this month", agents know it before they flag the dip. Sending: alerts, reports and approval requests go to the channels or people you choose.
Meerkats reads only the channels you add it to. It never reads direct messages.
| How it connects | Sign in and approve |
| Reads | Messages in chosen channels, Channel list, Files (optional) |
| Can change | Send an alert or report to a channel or person; Post an approval request with Approve and Reject buttons; Reply in a thread |
| Refresh | On your plan's schedule, plus Resync anytime |
Before you start#
- A Slack workspace where you can install apps, or an admin who can approve the install.
- The channels you want Meerkats to read, for example #marketing and #decisions.
Permissions#
Slack asks you to approve these permissions. Each one is listed with why Meerkats needs it.
| Permission | Why Meerkats needs it |
|---|---|
channels:read, groups:read | List the public and private channels Meerkats has been added to |
channels:history, groups:history | Read messages in those channels |
users:read | Show who said what |
chat:write | Send alerts, reports and approval requests |
files:read | Read files shared in those channels (optional) |
Connect#
1. Connect Slack#
- Open Integrations
In the sidebar, select Integrations, find Slack and select Connect.
- Allow the Meerkats app
Pick the Slack workspace and select Allow. The app appears in your workspace as Meerkats.
2. Choose channels#
- Add Meerkats to a channel
In Slack, open the channel and type
/invite @Meerkats. For private channels, a member must do this. - Pick which channels become context
On the Slack connection in Meerkats, tick the channels to read. Everything else is ignored.
- Pick a default alert channel
Choose where alerts go unless a rule says otherwise.
What syncs#
| Slack | In Meerkats |
|---|---|
| Messages in chosen channels | Message text, author, time, thread, reactions; used as context for agents and searchable from the chat |
| Channel list | Channels Meerkats is a member of |
| Files (optional) | Documents shared in chosen channels, added to **Data Hub › Assets** |
Raw data lands in Data Hub › Bronze Layer. Modelled tables, with metrics defined once, are in Data Hub › Gold Layer. Every number in a report or an agent’s answer comes from a query on these tables, never from the model’s own arithmetic.
How often it syncs#
Meerkats syncs on your plan's schedule: daily on Free, hourly on the $49 plan, every 30 minutes on $149 and every 15 minutes on $399. You can run a sync at any time with Resync in Data Hub › Bronze Layer.
- New messages in chosen channels reach agents within a few minutes. History from before the invite is imported once, going back as far as your Slack plan keeps it.
What Meerkats can change#
In every connected tool, Meerkats can create, read, update and delete records, within the permissions you grant and the permissions the tool allows. These are the changes it proposes for Slack, and the limit that applies to each.
| Change | Limit |
|---|---|
| Send an alert or report to a channel or person | Low risk: runs on its own once a rule says so |
| Post an approval request with Approve and Reject buttons | Runs on its own; the approval itself is the control |
| Reply in a thread | Low risk: runs on its own once allowed |
How every change is governed
Every change starts as a proposal in your Inbox. Nothing changes in the connected tool until a person approves it, unless you set that rule to act on its own.
Before it runs an approved change, Meerkats re-reads the live value. If the value moved since the proposal, it asks again instead of acting on stale data.
Meerkats stores the value it replaced, so every change can be undone from Agents run history.
Anything Meerkats creates starts paused. Switching it on is a second, separate approval.
Example automations#
Type any of these on the New automation page (Automation Agents › + New Agent).
- “Alert me on Slack in #growth when total ad spend goes over $500 in a day”
- “Post a Monday morning summary of last week's spend, revenue and corrected ROAS to #leadership”
- “Send approval requests for budget changes to #ads-approvals”
Troubleshooting#
Meerkats doesn't see a channel
It has to be a member. Type /invite @Meerkats in the channel, then tick it on the connection.
Alerts aren't arriving
Check the rule's output channel exists and that Meerkats is a member. Private channels need an invite.
Installation needs admin approval
Some workspaces restrict app installs. An admin approves the request in Slack under Administration › Manage apps.