Skip to main content
With the Traversal Slack bot, you can start investigations, receive reports, and ask follow-up questions without leaving Slack. Mention @Traversal in any channel the app has been added to, or DM it directly. With Traversal in Slack, engineers can:
  • Start investigations from any channel or DM — either by invoking Traversal manually, or through configured auto-triggers
  • See investigations for incidents or alerts shared directly in their Slack channels or DMs
  • Ask follow-up questions in natural language to refine the analysis
  • Work alongside Incident and Alert Workers that maintain channel context and act proactively

Watch the demo

See Traversal investigating an incident from Slack.

Install the Slack app

Get the Traversal Slack app into your workspace, including SaaS, single-tenant SaaS, and BYOC install paths.
Want to shape how Traversal investigates or formats its responses in a channel? Set channel custom instructions — they apply to every investigation in that channel.

​
Commands

Traversal provides the following slash commands in Slack:

​
Triggers

Triggers let Traversal automatically start investigations when certain conditions are met. There are two types.

​
Message triggers

Message triggers fire when a message in a configured channel matches certain conditions — for example, a keyword match or a message from a specific user. Use /traversal register-trigger to create one. You’ll provide:
  • A channel ID for the channel to monitor
To find a channel ID, click on the channel name in Slack to open channel details. The channel ID is near the bottom.
  • Conditions such as keyword matches or sender filters
  • The type of context Traversal should pull into the investigation

​
Channel join triggers

Channel join triggers fire when Traversal is added to a channel that matches a pattern you define. The pattern can match against the channel name, topic, or description — for example, channels whose name starts with inci- or whose topic contains alert. If the condition is met when Traversal is added to a channel, we will automatically run an investigation. You can also specify the context source Traversal pulls into the investigation:
  • Channel topic
  • Channel description
  • Message content
  • Message thread content

​
Managing triggers

Use /traversal show-triggers to view and delete triggers across your organization. Use /traversal show-channel-triggers to see only the triggers configured for the current channel.

​
Traversal Workers

Traversal can also work in a channel continuously as a Worker, following what happens and deciding when to act without waiting for an @Traversal mention.
  • Incident Workers own live incident response from initial investigation through verified recovery and the post-mortem. Incident Workers are generally available.
  • Alert Workers continuously triage alerts, reuse relevant prior work, and identify the signals that need action. Alert Workers are in public beta.
Deploy Workers by scanning your workspace, picking a channel, or setting an auto-deploy rule. Every Worker comes with a scratchpad, private chat, schedules, and custom instructions, and the Workers console shows the whole fleet at a glance. You can also start and stop a Worker without leaving Slack.

​
Start a Worker

Run /traversal worker start in the channel you want the Worker in. A form opens with two fields:
  • Worker type — Incident, Alerts, or Custom. Incident is the default.
  • Custom instructions — optional for Incident and Alerts Workers, required for Custom. Instructions can be up to 5,000 characters.
Click Start Worker. Traversal confirms privately, and the Worker posts its usual arrival message in the channel, noting that it was deployed with a Slack command. Starting a Worker follows the same rules as deploying one from the web app:
  • You must be a member of your Traversal organization. If you aren’t, ask an admin to add you.
  • The channel can have one Worker. If one is already running, the form shows its type instead of the fields.
  • Direct messages aren’t supported. Run the command in the channel you want the Worker in.
  • Traversal must be able to join the channel. For a private channel, invite @Traversal first.
Refusals appear in the form, and confirmations are sent only to you, so a failed attempt doesn’t add noise to the channel. If the channel’s Worker was stopped earlier, the form opens with its previous type and instructions filled in. Submitting it restarts the Worker with whatever the form holds, and Traversal posts a note in the channel saying who restarted it.

​
Stop a Worker

Run /traversal worker stop in the channel. Anyone in the channel can stop its Worker, the same as clicking Stop proactive mode on the Worker’s arrival message. The Worker signs off in the channel and names who stopped it. Stopping halts new proactive work, and @Traversal still answers when you mention it. See Stop a Worker for what stays available. If the channel has no running Worker, Traversal tells you so privately.
The Worker commands are rolling out by organization. If the form says Workers aren’t enabled for your organization, contact the Traversal team.

​
DM Traversal

You can message Traversal directly to start an investigation. Open the Traversal app in Slack and send it a message — no need to be in a specific channel.

​
Investigation output

When Traversal completes an investigation, it renders the report directly in Slack. The report includes:
  • Citations with links to the observability sources referenced in the investigation, bringing you directly to the relevant data in your primary observability tool
  • A link to open the investigation in the Traversal UI for more detail
  • A feedback option so Traversal can learn about your system over time
  • A memory proposal card in the thread when Traversal wants to remember something — approve or reject it there, or in the Knowledge Bank

​
Follow-ups

Tag @Traversal in the same thread as an investigation report to ask follow-up questions or trigger additional analysis.

​
Cross-channel context

Traversal can pull context from any channel it has been added to. You can reference other channels to enrich an investigation or summarize activity across channels — both in channels and in DMs with Traversal.
Traversal can only read channels it has been added to. Make sure Traversal is a member of any channel you want it to reference.

​
Permissions

Traversal follows the principle of least privilege and requests only the Slack scopes needed for the features described above.

​
Security and data handling

  • Data usage. Slack data is used only to deliver the features described on this page. We do not use Slack data to train LLMs.
  • Transport and storage. All traffic is encrypted in transit, tokens are stored securely, and Slack signature verification is enforced on every request.
  • Least privilege. Traversal requests only the minimum scopes needed for the functionality described here.
  • Retention. See the privacy policy for retention and deletion practices.
Traversal uses generative AI and may produce inaccurate or incomplete outputs. Validate recommendations before acting.

​
Support

Questions or issues? Email support@traversal.com.

​
FAQ

Run /traversal show-channel-triggers to confirm the trigger is enabled in the intended channel. Note that trigger conditions are case-sensitive — the message content must match your configured conditions exactly.
Only organization admins can register, view, or delete triggers. If you run /traversal register-trigger, /traversal show-triggers, or /traversal show-channel-triggers and see a message that the command is restricted, ask your admin to configure the trigger for you.