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Connect Slack to start tasks from chat. You create routes that map a Slack channel to an Aether project; a channel can route to several projects. A message in a routed channel opens a task, and the agent’s updates post back to that message’s thread. Slack can also deliver your task notifications as direct messages.
Slack is config-gated: it is only available when the deployment has Slack OAuth credentials configured. If you do not see Slack in Settings → Connections or the CLI commands return errors, the deployment has not enabled it. See Integrations.

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Prerequisites

A route targets an Aether project that has a linked GitHub repo — that is where the agent’s work lands. Connect GitHub and import a repo first; see GitHub integration.

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Connecting Slack

Go to Settings → Connections → Slack and click Connect to authorize Aether for your Slack workspace.
Check the connection any time:
Status reports the connected workspace and team ID, plus whether direct-message notifications are wired up for your Slack user.

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Reconnecting for new permissions

The /aether slash command and the Send to Aether message shortcut need Slack’s commands permission, which a workspace grants only when it connects. A workspace connected before Aether requested that permission must reconnect once: Settings → Connections → Slack shows a Reconnect Slack prompt until it does. Click Reconnect Slack and approve the same workspace — your routes and settings stay in place, and the prompt disappears once the new permission is stored.

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Listing Channels

Routes are keyed by channel, so look them up first:
This lists channels the Aether app can see, with their IDs and whether each is private.

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Creating a Route

A route maps a Slack channel to an Aether project. A channel can have routes to several projects: create one route per project. A channel routes to a given project at most once — creating the same channel and project again fails with an error naming both.
--channel-id and --channel-name must be provided together; omit both to pick a channel interactively. Add --private when supplying a private channel by ID. --aether-project accepts a project ID or short prefix and defaults to your selected project; it must be a project with a linked repo. New routes are enabled by default — pass --enabled false to create one paused. In the web app, add routes under Settings → Connections → Slack → Channel routes. The channel picker lists every channel, including ones already routed to other projects.

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Starting Tasks from Slack

In a routed channel, post a message mentioning @Aether to start a task. Aether replies in that message’s thread and posts its progress, result, project, task link, and PR link there as the task runs. Reply cancel, stop, or abort in the thread to cancel the task. If your Slack user’s direct messages are wired up (shown by aether slack status), Aether can also deliver your task notifications as Slack DMs.

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Channels Routed to Several Projects

When a channel has more than one active route, name the project in your message to start the task there directly: its project name, or its repo as owner/name or just the repo name. A message that names none of the channel’s projects, or more than one, gets Which project? in the mention’s thread instead, with one button per active route, labeled by project name and in project-name order (more than five projects become a single dropdown). Paused routes are not offered. Anyone in the channel can pick. The task starts in the chosen project as the request of the person who mentioned @Aether, not the person who clicked, and the Which project? message becomes the task card: it updates in place with the task’s progress, and the agent’s replies continue in the same thread.

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Unrouted or Paused Channels

A mention in a channel with no routes, or whose routes are all paused, starts no task. Aether answers with a private note that only the person who mentioned it can see — “No projects are linked to #channel.” or “Aether is paused in this channel.” — with a link to the Slack settings page, where you can add a route or resume one.

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The /aether command

Type /aether in a routed channel, optionally followed by your request:
A form opens with a Project list of the channel’s enabled projects and a Request field holding what you typed after /aether (empty if you typed nothing). The project is preselected to the one your most recent Slack task in this channel ran in, or the first project by name. Start a task is chosen at the top of the form; choose Review a pull request there to review a pull request instead. Submit the form and it closes; Aether posts the task’s card in the channel. Reply in the card’s thread to follow up, or reply cancel, stop, or abort there to cancel the task.
  • A request is required. Submitting an empty request shows an error in the form and starts nothing.
  • No projects here. In a channel with no linked or enabled projects, the form explains why and links to Slack settings; there is nothing to submit.
  • Invite the app first. Aether can only post the card in a channel its app is a member of. If it is not, Aether sends you a direct message asking you to invite it to the channel, and starts nothing.
  • Attribution. The task is yours if your Slack identity is linked to Aether; otherwise Aether starts it as the workspace’s default user and prompts you to link your identity.
/aether always starts a new conversation in the channel: Slack does not deliver slash commands sent from inside a thread. To start a task from a thread, mention @Aether in it or use Send to Aether on one of its messages.

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Send to Aether

To turn any message in a routed channel into a task, open the message’s ⋯ menu and choose Send to Aether. The same task form as /aether opens, with the Request field holding the message’s text (its first 3,000 characters for a longer message) and the project preselected as for /aether. Edit the request if you like, then submit. The task runs in that message’s thread, as if you had mentioned @Aether there: Aether posts the task’s card in the thread, a reply in the thread follows up on the task, and cancel, stop, or abort there cancels it. On a reply inside a thread, the task runs in that thread, not under the reply.
  • Pull request links. On a message that links exactly one pull request, the form also offers to review it; see Without pasting the link.
  • One task per thread. If the message’s thread already has an Aether task, submitting the form shows an error in it and starts nothing; reply in the thread to follow up on that task instead.
  • The rest is as for /aether. A request is required, a channel with no enabled projects gets the explanatory form, Aether sends you a direct message if its app is not in the channel, and the task is yours if your Slack identity is linked. The message’s original author is recorded on the task’s first message.

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Change project

When a task ran in the wrong project, rerun it in the right one from its card. Task cards in a channel that routes to two or more enabled projects carry a Change project button; cards in a channel with a single project do not. The button opens a form whose Project list holds the channel’s other enabled projects (the task’s current project is left out) and whose Request field holds the task’s original prompt, which you can edit. When you submit it, Aether:
  1. stops the current task, as if you had pressed its Stop button, and drops any follow-ups still queued for it;
  2. starts a new task with your request in the project you chose, in the same thread;
  3. moves the thread to the new task: from then on, replies in the thread are follow-ups to the new task, cancel, stop, or abort there cancels the new task, and the old task receives nothing more from the thread.
The old task’s card stays in the thread and shows it stopped; the new task’s card appears below it.
  • Link your identity first. Only a Slack user linked to an Aether member of the org can change a task’s project. Anyone else gets the prompt to link their identity, and nothing changes.
  • One change per thread at a time. Once a thread has moved to a new task, Change project on an older card in it explains that the thread has moved on; use the button on the newest card instead.
  • Submitting twice changes once. Slack redelivering the same submission stops the old task and starts the new one only once.
  • Long requests. A task whose original request is longer than a Slack form holds (3,000 characters) cannot be rerun from Slack; the button explains this and links to the task in Aether instead.

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Reviewing a pull request

Ask Aether to review a pull request with a mention or the slash command:
This is the same review as commenting aether review on the pull request or clicking Re-review at head in Aether: it wakes the pull request’s review run at its current head, or starts one if the pull request has none, and the verdict is posted on the pull request. No task is started. To pick the pull request from a list instead of pasting its link, run /aether and choose Review a pull request at the top of the form. The form then lists the open pull requests of the repositories of the channel’s enabled projects, newest first, each as repo #N title (up to 100). Choose one and click Request review: Aether posts the review’s card in the channel, as for /aether review. If none of those repositories has an open pull request, the form says so and there is nothing to submit. Choose Start a task to go back to the task form. A message asks for a review when, after the @Aether mention, it starts with review (in any case) and contains exactly one link to a GitHub pull request. A mention that has the word review and one pull request link but does not start with review gets a choice instead (see Without pasting the link). Anything else — review the login flow, reviewing <PR link>, or links to two pull requests — starts a task as usual, and a mention in a thread that already has a task is a follow-up to that task.
  • The thread is the review’s conversation. Aether posts the review’s card in the mention’s thread; for /aether review and the form it posts the card in the channel, and the card’s thread is the conversation. Reply in the thread to send the reviewer a follow-up, or reply cancel, stop, or abort to stop it.
  • The card shows the review. While the review runs, the card says Reviewing PR #18 of acme/web. Once the review is posted, the card gives its verdict: Approved PR #18, Changes requested on PR #18, or Commented on PR #18. Its buttons open the review in Aether and the pull request on GitHub.
  • One conversation per review. If the pull request’s review already reports into another Slack thread, asking again still wakes it, but the review keeps reporting there: the new thread gets a note linking the pull request and the review instead of a second card.
  • The channel’s projects. The pull request’s repository must be the repository of one of the channel’s enabled projects.
A request Aether cannot act on, whichever way it was asked, gets a private note that only you can see, saying how to fix it, and asks for no review:
  • the pull request’s repository is not one of the channel’s projects (with a link to Slack settings);
  • no Aether project is connected to the repository, or more than one is;
  • the pull request has not been synced from GitHub yet;
  • the link is not a pull request, such as GitHub’s page for opening one.
As for /aether, Aether sends you a direct message asking you to invite its app if /aether review, the form’s review or a Send to Aether review is used in a channel the app is not in. Submitting the form twice for the same pull request asks for one review. Pull request links are often already in Slack, posted by a teammate or by GitHub’s Slack app. You can ask for their review without typing the link again; each way below asks for the same review as @Aether review <PR link>, with the same card and the same private notes when Aether cannot act.
  • Reply under the link. Reply @Aether review — the word alone — in the thread of a message that links exactly one pull request, in its text or in an attachment such as GitHub’s Slack app and link previews post. Aether reviews that pull request, and the thread gets the review’s card. Under a message with no pull request link, or links to two different pull requests, @Aether review starts a task as it always did.
  • Send to Aether. On a message that links exactly one pull request, the Send to Aether form opens with a choice at the top: Review this pull request (preselected) or Start a task. A review needs no project and no request, so both fields are optional; submit, and the review’s card appears in the message’s thread. Start a task works as on any other message. A message with no pull request link, or links to several, gets the usual form with no choice.
  • Buttons when Aether is unsure. A mention that has the word review and exactly one pull request link but does not start with review — @Aether can you look at this and review the retry logic <PR link> — gets a reply in its thread with two buttons, Review PR #18 and Start a task, that anyone in the channel can click. Review PR #18 asks for the review. Start a task starts the task the mention asks for, in the project the mention names or the channel’s only project, or after Which project? otherwise. The buttons message becomes the review’s or the task’s card (or Which project? first).
The first click decides: a second click, by the same person or a teammate, on either button, changes nothing — also while a chosen task still waits on Which project? — and Slack redelivering a mention, a click or a form submission asks for nothing twice. As with Which project?, the request is the mention author’s whoever clicks: a private note goes to them, and a refused review leaves the buttons in place, to click again once fixed or to start a task instead.

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Managing Routes

routes list shows each channel once, on its first route, followed by that channel’s routes in project-name order; Settings → Connections → Slack lists routes in the same order. Each route has its own enabled flag, so you can pause one project’s route in a channel without deleting it or touching the channel’s other routes. In Settings, each route also has its own agent profile and Post task cards toggle.

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Disconnecting Slack

Disconnecting removes all Slack routes. --force skips the confirmation prompt.

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API

The Slack endpoints are config-gated — see the API overview. Browse the operations under the Slack group, for example list routes and create a route. The full CLI reference is at aether slack.