Triage Channels

Work from Slack to solve customer requests

ClearFeed’s triage channels help support teams manage requests—whether from customers or employees—directly within Slack. They serve as a central hub to view, respond to, and act on inbound requests without switching tools.

This guide outlines how triage channels work across different Product Editions:

• External Helpdesk

• Internal Helpdesk

• Integrations

Request Propagation and Visibility

• All public responses to the request thread from Responders in the Triage channel are propagated to the same thread in the Request channel.

• Messages posted by Non-responders in the Triage channel are not synced back to the Request channel.

• Emoji reactions from the Request channel are synced to the Triage channel.

• Emoji reactions in the Triage channel are synced back to the Request channel only if added by Responders.

• All requests from request channels in a Collection will be propagated to their corresponding Triage.

• If you are working predominantly from triage channels, we suggest you mute all request channels (and preferably leave those channels)

Key Capabilities of Triage Channels

Triage channels offer the following core features across editions:

• Respond from Slack: Replies from triage threads sync to the original Slack thread and/or external ticket (if integrated).

• Edit properties: Modify status, priority, assignee, tags, and more within Slack.

• Internal collaboration: Prefix replies with 🔒 to add private comments. These are hidden from requestors and may sync as private/internal notes in connected systems.

• Advanced actions:

  • Escalate to tools like Jira, GitHub, Asana, etc.

  • Mark as Solved or Closed

• View ticket details: All fields filled in via Create or Edit forms are shown in the triage channel block.

• Create and Search Requests: Slash commands run from Triage allow creating requests and searching from them in the attached Collections

• Team-level privacy: Multiple teams can use separate triage channels based on Collections.

External Helpdesk

Used to manage customer conversations via Slack Connect channels.

Key Features:

• Requests created from customer channels are routed to a triage channel.

• Responders can reply in the triage thread—responses sync to the original thread.

• Use the Edit button to update fields like Assignee, Status, Priority, or custom fields.

• Click view in #channel to jump to the original customer conversation.

• Use Not a Request to exclude irrelevant threads from reports and SLAs. This can be done for Open/Pending requests with a dedicated button or via "More Actions" for In-progress/On-hold ones.

  • Remove: Deletes the conversation entirely.

  • Archive: Hides the conversation but reopens on further messages.

• Mark as Solved allows you to resolve the request.

• Mark as Closed allows you to permanently close the request.

• Add 🔒 private comments to coordinate internally. Messages (and any attachments) starting with the 🔒 stay hidden from the customer.

• Use More Actions to:

  • File a ticket in Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, etc. (with two-way sync)

    • If you use Freshdesk, Salesforce, Zendesk, Hubspot, or JSM for ticketing, convert Slack requests to tickets with the "File a ticket" option in "More Actions."

    • All responses and attachments flow smoothly between Slack and your ticketing system.

    • Agent responses from the triage channel are visible in both the request channel and the external ticketing system.

    • Your team can continue working on requests in the triage channel even after converting them to tickets.

  • File tasks or link existing tasks from engineering integrations

    • Comments from the triage channel thread are synced into the linked task for better visibility.

    • ClearFeed can automatically update the triage channel thread when the linked tasks are completed in the engineering system.

Internal Helpdesk

Used for internal support teams (IT, HR, etc.) managing employee requests via Slack.

Key Features:

• Tickets submitted via ClearFeed Forms or Bot or User messages are routed to the triage channel.

• Replies in triage sync with the ticket thread, visible to the requester.

• Use Edit Ticket to update fields defined in the form's Edit section. Read more about managing the edit ticket form here.

• Add 🔒 private comments for internal collaboration.

• Automatically update Slack threads when linked tasks are resolved.

• Use Mark as Solved or Mark as Closed as appropriate.

• Use More Actions to:

  • File tasks or link existing tasks from engineering integrations

    • Comments from the triage channel thread are synced into the linked task for better visibility.

    • ClearFeed can automatically update the triage channel thread when the linked tasks are completed in the engineering system.

Integrations

Used when ClearFeed is being used to manage tickets created in external systems like Zendesk and Freshdesk

Note: Currently, Ticketing is only for Zendesk, Intercom, and Freshdesk integrations. If you require support for other integrations, contact us via Slack or at [email protected].

Key Behaviors:

• Tickets created in these tools are routed to the triage channel of the corresponding Collection.

• Triage replies sync to the external system, and vice versa.

• Triage blocks include the external ticket ID and link for easy access.

• Use Edit Ticket to modify external ticket fields (based on your form config). Read more about managing the edit ticket form: for Zendesk ticketing, for Freshdesk ticketing.

• Add 🔒 private comments and optionally sync these to:

  • Zendesk (as internal notes)

  • Intercom (as internal notes)

  • Freshdesk (as private notes)

  Learn how to enable private comment sync here.

• Mark ticket as Solved button allows users to resolve the external ticket.

• View Form button lets responders view the form filled out by requestors when creating a ticket.

FAQs

General Triage Channel Usage

1. What is the “More Actions” menu in Triage ticket DMs and what can I do with it? Answer: The “More Actions” menu is available in Triage ticket DMs for Zendesk, HubSpot, Intercom, and other ticketing platforms. From this menu, you can file tasks, send quick replies, and open the ticket in Triage or the Web App.

2. What happens if I reply directly in the customer/request channel instead of the triage? Answer: Replies from request channels are still captured, but working from the triage channel is recommended to ensure better internal collaboration, access to request status and other fields and ability to take internal actions on the request.

3. Can I set up multiple triage channels for the same Collection? Answer: No. Each Collection can be associated with only one triage channel. To separate concerns across teams, use multiple Collections instead.

4. Can multiple Collections be attached to the same triage channel? Answer: Yes. You can send requests from multiple Collections into the same Triage channel. This can allow you to view requests and tickets across different Collections from one triage channel - while still having SLA policies and reporting at a Collection level.

5. Can I customize the fields shown in the triage message block? Answer: Yes. Fields shown are based on the "Create" and "Edit" ticket form configuration. Only filled-out or updated fields will be displayed.

6. Can I prevent all messages from the Request Channel from appearing in the Triage Channel? Answer: Yes. ClearFeed offers an account-level setting that limits message mirroring—only the first message from each request will appear in the triage channel, rather than the full conversation. To enable this for your account, please contact us via Slack or email [email protected].

Triage Channel Setup and Configuration

1. How can I control the default privacy of messages in the Triage channel? Answer: You can configure message privacy using the Triage Comment Visibility setting. Set it to Private to make all messages internal by default (requiring 📢 emoji to make them public), or Public to make messages visible to requestors by default (requiring 🔒 emoji to keep them private). Learn more about Triage Channel Settings.

2. How can I avoid double notifications in Triage and Request channels? Answer: This depends on your preferred workflow:

   If you work primarily from Request channels:

   • Turn off notifications from the Triage channel or leave it entirely

   • If you don't want to leave the triage channel, enable the "Disable tagging Slack users on Triage Channel" option in Triage Channel Settings to prevent duplicate notifications when users are tagged in the request channel.

   If you work primarily from Triage channels:

   • Mute Request channels or set notifications to only show when you're tagged

   • If you're getting repeated notifications in a Request channel thread (because you were tagged or replied there once), turn off notifications for that specific thread by using Slack's ... menu next to the message and selecting "Turn off notifications for replies"

   

   Turn off notifications for specific thread replies in Slack

Search and Navigation

1. How can I search for requests from a Triage Channel? Answer: Use ClearFeed's natural language search feature CF-Query. Simply type /cf-query followed by your search query in plain English (e.g., "/cf-query Show me tickets from last week tagged as urgent"). CF-Query supports searching by timeframe, priority, status, assignee, involved users, and channels. Learn more about Natural Language Search.

2. How can I start a thread in a request channel from the triage channel? Answer: Use the /cf-start-thread command from the triage channel. Type the command, hit enter, select the customer channel, type your message, and submit. This message will be treated as a request in the selected channel. Learn more about creating requests from triage channels.

Advanced Features

1. How do I set up a new Triage Channel? Answer: You can set up a triage channel either from the ClearFeed WebApp (Settings > Triage Settings > Create new Triage Channel) or directly from Slack by adding the ClearFeed bot to a channel with /invite @ClearFeed and configuring it as a triage channel. For detailed setup instructions, see Setup Triage Channel.

2. Can I sync private comments between triage channels and external ticketing systems? Answer: Yes, if you're using External Helpdesk or Integrations product editions. You can configure whether private (🔒) comments from the triage channel sync to linked ticketing systems and whether internal notes from ticketing systems sync back to the triage channel. This is currently supported for Zendesk (internal comments) and Freshdesk (private notes). Learn more about Triage Channel Settings.