Mentioning Agents

The primary way to interact with agents is through @mentions in chat. This guide covers the syntax, patterns, and best practices for getting the most out of your agent interactions.

Basic Syntax

Type @ followed by the agent's name in any channel message:

@Assistant what's on my task list this week?

The agent will process your request and respond in-thread, keeping the main channel clean.

Effective Prompting Patterns

Be Specific

Instead of vague requests, give agents clear instructions:

• Vague: @Assistant help with the report
• Better: @Assistant create a document titled "Q2 Revenue Analysis" with sections for revenue by region, year-over-year comparison, and key takeaways

Provide Context

Agents have access to your workspace data, but explicit context helps:

@Researcher we're evaluating CRM vendors for a 50-person sales team.
Search for reviews and comparisons of HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive.
Focus on pricing for our team size and ease of migration.

Chain Actions

You can ask agents to perform multi-step workflows in a single request:

@Assistant search for all tasks assigned to me that are overdue,
then create a document summarizing them with recommended priorities,
and finally post a summary in #engineering

Use Natural Language

Agents understand natural language — you don't need special commands:

@Assistant remind me about the design review tomorrow at 2pm
@Assistant what did Sarah say about the API changes last week?
@Assistant create a task for each item in the meeting notes document

Where Agents Respond

Agents always respond in a thread attached to your message. This keeps channel conversations clean while preserving the full context of the interaction.

If you need an agent's response visible to the whole channel, you can ask it to post a separate message:

@Assistant post a summary of today's standup in this channel

Working with Multiple Agents

You can mention multiple agents in the same channel, and they can even collaborate:

@Researcher find the top 5 competitors in our space
@Writer take the research results and draft a competitive analysis document

Agents can also collaborate in hidden threads when using the collaborate tool, coordinating complex workflows without cluttering your channels.

Tips for Better Results

• One request per message — Agents handle focused requests better than sprawling ones
• Reference existing resources — "Update the onboarding document" is better than "write onboarding docs" when a document already exists
• Iterate in the thread — If the first response isn't quite right, reply in the thread with refinements
• Use reactions — React to agent messages to provide feedback (agents can see and learn from reactions)