# Intro to ClearFeed

**ClearFeed** is a conversational helpdesk built for teams that support customers and employees directly in **Slack**. Requests from Slack — and other channels like **Email, Web Chat, Microsoft Teams, or Portal** — flow into a single shared queue, allowing your team to manage, track, and respond without leaving Slack.

You can use ClearFeed as:

* **A standalone helpdesk on Slack**
* **A bridge between Slack and your existing ticketing systems**

## Why ClearFeed?

ClearFeed helps teams manage requests efficiently and stay productive:

* **Stay in Slack:** Handle customer and employee requests directly from Slack
* **Integrate seamlessly:** Connect with 10+ ticketing and task management systems
* **Automate workflows:** SLA alerts, escalations, and out-of-office responses
* **AI-powered support:** Automated responses to FAQs and actions in tools like Okta, Jira, HubSpot
* **Gain visibility:** Insights and reporting to monitor workloads and SLAs

## How ClearFeed Works

Here’s the typical flow:

1. **Install ClearFeed** in your Slack workspace
2. **Add ClearFeed** to channels where requests are submitted (internal or Slack Connect)
3. ClearFeed **converts messages into a shared queue of requests**
4. Your team manages and responds to requests in:
   * A **Slack triage channel**, or
   * The **ClearFeed Web App**
5. Optionally, **sync requests** with external systems like:
   * Jira, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Salesforce, GitHub, Linear, ClickUp, HubSpot, etc.
6. **Automate workflows** with SLA alerts, Automations, Workflows, and knowledge-powered Virtual Agent responses

## Use Cases

ClearFeed can be used by **Customer Support** or **Internal Teams (IT, HR, Engineering support, Sales Ops)** in two ways:

### Standalone Support System

* Function as a full-fledged ticketing system within Slack
* Track, manage, and resolve requests internally
* Optionally integrate with external task management tools like Jira, Asana, Linear

### Integration Bridge

* Connect Slack to external ticketing platforms (Salesforce, Zendesk, Freshdesk, etc.)
* Requests captured in Slack are automatically synced with external systems
* Ensures visibility across teams and efficient follow-ups

## ClearFeed WebApp Features

* Group Slack channels into **Collections** with custom policies
* Map Collections to **triage channels**
* Set **business hours**, schedules, and SLA alerts
* Respond to requests and add **private comments**
* Manage **knowledge sources** for Virtual Agent
* Get detailed **reports** on request load and SLA performance
* **Broadcast announcements** across multiple Slack channels

## Integrations & APIs

* **Integrations:** Connect with Jira, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Salesforce, GitHub, Linear, HubSpot, ClickUp, and more for **bi-directional ticket sync**
* **APIs & Event Stream:** Retrieve request data for custom reporting or build real-time applications on top of ClearFeed

## Security & Compliance

* ClearFeed is **SOC 2 Type 2 compliant**
* Learn more: [Security](https://docs.clearfeed.ai/clearfeed-help-center/getting-started/security)