Slack Channels

Once ClearFeed starts monitoring a Slack channel, any new message posted on the Channel is considered a Request. To help understand how requests are created, lets first look at an example:

Create Requests by Sending a Message

• A user posts a message in a Slack channel monitored by ClearFeed.

• ClearFeed detects the new message and identifies whether the user posting the message is a Responder or Non-Responder.

• Based on the Collection settings, ClearFeed decides whether to convert the message into a Request.

• Once converted to a Request - Responders can see the request - its ID, Status and other details - and respond to it from the Triage channel or ClearFeed Web App.

• Unless a Ticket is also created - Requesters see nothing unusual in the Slack channel/thread — no IDs or status indicators.

• If a Ticket is created (either automatically or manually) - Requesters see a Ticket message with ID and Status posted on the thread.

Configuring Request Creation from Channel Messages

The example flow above can be controlled via configuration parameters, or varies by the Product Edition. Some of the important behaviors and their controls are documented below.

1. What Messages create Requests

Usually, every Slack thread is an independent Request. But the exact behavior varies depending on your Product Edition and configuration.

Responder versus Non-Responder messages

For new accounts, messages from both Responders (agents) and Non-Responders (customers or employees) create requests. You can change the Collection Settings so that requests are created only from Non-Responder messages.

In External Helpdesk accounts on Agent-based pricing, not every user in your workspace is a responder. In these cases, you may want only customer messages to create requests — not internal team messages.

To support this, ClearFeed now classifies users into two groups:

• External Users

  • Slack Connect members (different Slack team ID from your workspace)

  • Guest users (single-channel or multi-channel) — commonly used by customers in workspaces without Slack Connect

• Internal Users

  • Members of your own Slack workspace (same Slack team ID)

Default behavior: Only External User messages create requests. Internal user messages do not create requests unless you explicitly allow them.

Force-create: If you need to create a request from an internal user message, add a 📌 (:pushpin:) emoji to the first message in the thread.

Merging multiple messages into one Request

In Customer Support use cases - users can often type in multiple messages in rapid succession. ClearFeed can combine such message. See Merging and Split for more details.

• Message Merging is only enabled for External Helpdesk Product Edition

• It is disabled for all other Product Editions and for Collections setup for Automatic Ticketing to an external ticketing system (like Zendesk).

To change the default behavior - please contact ClearFeed Support.

Ignorable Messages

By default, ClearFeed will not create Requests out of the following categories of messages (with some examples)

• Greetings ("Good Morning", "Happy Birthday", "Hi")

• Acknowledgment: ("Ok Thanks", "Got it", "Cool")

• Appreciation: ("great work", "thanks for helping out", "awesome folks")

• Resolved: ("this works", "this is solved", "got the answer thanks")

Note however - it can create requests if someone replies to such messages (see next section) and such messages can also get merged with adjacent ones ones.

Requests from Replies

As we have seen above, there are many types of messages that are not treated as Requests. To resummarize:

• Messages from Responders (if so configured)

• Ignorable Messages

• Announcement Messages

are not treated as Requests. However replies to such messages by Non-Responders (unless Ignorable) are converted into Requests. Let's take an example:

1. An Announcement about a new feature is posted to 100 channels.

2. No Requests are created.

3. Customer Replies on one of the Announcements (eg: "How can I get enable this new feature").

4. ClearFeed creates a Request from the specific thread where this reply was made.

5. This request is now visible on Triage channels and Webapp and Responders can reply to it from there.

2. Conversion of Requests to Tickets

Requests can be converted to Tickets. As mentioned before, Tickets can be thought of as Public Requests - where the ID and Status are shared with Requesters (ie. customers or employees). Depending on the Product Edition and configuration - these Tickets can be:

• Native ClearFeed tickets (Internal Helpdesk)

• Tickets in External systems like Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce et al (External Helpdesk and Integration Edition)

Requests can be converted into Tickets manually or automatically.

3. Forced Request/Ticket creation

ClearFeed does not load existing messages from a Slack Channel when it is added to a Collection. So only new messages posted on the channel are converted into Requests. It may also, rarely, fail to load messages due to downtime in either Slack or ClearFeed. Sometimes rarely, users also fail to fill the forms required during Automatic Ticketing and in such cases as well - Tickets may not be created as desired.

For such cases, two mechanisms are available to convert a message into a Ticket manually:

1. Apply a 📌 (:pushpin:) emoji to the first message in a thread. Applying the emoji will create a request (in case of External Helpdesk - this will make the request visible in ClearFeed webapp and Triage Channels)

2. Apply a 🎫 (:ticket:) emoji to the first message in a thread. This will create a ticket (and a request simultaneously). If a custom emoji has been configured to create tickets manually - use the custom emoji instead.

Create Requests using the Slack Workflows

ClearFeed supports creating requests directly through Slack Workflows. This allows teams to collect structured information from requesters in Slack and automatically create a ClearFeed request in the right channel. By using workflows, you can:

• Standardize the way requests are submitted.

• Collect required information upfront.

• Attribute requests to the actual requester (not the Slack bot).

Steps to Create a Slack Workflow

• From your desktop, hover over More, then select Automations.

  
• Click Create Workflow near the top-right corner.

• Configure the Trigger

  1. Choose “From a Link in Slack” as the trigger.

• Add Workflow Actions

  • Collect information in a form - Add questions for the requester (e.g., Describe your issue, Priority level, Team).

  • Send a message to a channel

    • Select the channel monitored by ClearFeed.

    • Use workflow variables to send the collected information into the message.

    • To ensure ClearFeed treats the message as a request from the person who submitted the form rather than the Bot, add the requester info in the first line by using the format: #requester {{Person who submitted the form}}

      If you want to use a different keyword (e.g., #employee or #user), contact ClearFeed Support to configure it for your account.

• Open the request channel where you want the workflow.

• Click the Workflows tab in the conversation header.

  • If you don’t see it, click the “+” button to find it.

• Select Add workflow to add the workflow to be added to the Request Channel

  • You can also use Feature workflow to replace the message field by a button to start the workflow. Members of the conversation can click on the button to start the workflow, or click on Send a message to switch to the message field to send a regular message.

    Learn more about Managing the Workflows in Slack here

• Go to Settings > Additonal Settings, whitelist the bot on ClearFeed. Learn more about this here

Example Use Case

• IT Team Workflow: Collect laptop issue details → Post formatted message in #it-support → ClearFeed creates a request for the employee.

• HR Workflow: Collect leave application info → Post in #hr-requests → ClearFeed creates a request under the employee’s name.

Create Tickets using the /cf-file Command

1. Go to any channel monitored by ClearFeed

2. Type in /cf-file command and hit enter

3. Choose the applicable form for ticket creation

4. Fill out the form, and we will share the ticket details on the same channel

FAQs

1. I have added a Channel to a Collection - but do not see any requests or tickets. Why? Answer: After a Channel is added to ClearFeed, only new messages posted to it are treated as Requests. Older messages can be converted to Requests or Tickets manually by following the procedure here

2. I have Auto Ticketing enabled, but tickets aren’t being created for some threads. Why? Answer: This can happen for various reasons.

   • One is if users are prompted to fill out an Email or a Form and they do not do so. In that case Automatic Ticket creation can fail. One can forcibly create tickets manually in this case by applying the 🎫 emoji.

   • Another reason, in case of External Helpdesk, can be is messages are merged. Not every message maybe converted into a Ticket (merged messages can be split using the Split functionality in the Triage channel).

3. Why isn’t ClearFeed creating a request from my workflow message? Answer:

   1. Make sure the first line contains #requester followed by the requester variable.

   2. Confirm the message is posted in a channel monitored by ClearFeed.

   3. Verify that the workflow variables are correctly mapped in the message.

4. Can I use workflows in private channels? Answer: Yes, as long as the ClearFeed bot has been added to the channel.

5. Can I customize the form questions? Answer: Yes, you can add any questions that are relevant to your request process. The collected answers can be passed into the message body.