# Channels

Drive a project from chat — Slack and Microsoft Teams messages spawn sessions and the agent replies in-thread.

Canonical page: https://kortix.com/docs/concepts/channels

A **channel** connects a chat workspace to a project so you can run the agent
from chat. Connect Slack or Microsoft Teams to a project, and a message or
mention spawns a [session](/docs/concepts/sessions); the agent replies in the
thread. Follow-up messages in that thread continue the same session.

- **Connect Slack** with [`kortix channels connect`](/docs/reference/cli) or
  from the project's Channels page in the dashboard. Both offer the same two
  modes: one-click via the Kortix-managed Slack app (the CLI prints an
  "Add to Slack" install link — open it, pick the workspace, click Allow), or
  bring your own Slack app (`--manual`: a bot token + signing secret, via
  flags, `SLACK_BOT_TOKEN`/`SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET` env vars, or stdin).
- **Connect Microsoft Teams** from the project's Channels page when Teams is
  enabled on your Kortix deployment. If a managed Kortix Teams bot is available,
  the dashboard gives you the app manifest, admin-consent link, and install
  steps; self-hosted deployments can bring their own multi-tenant Azure Bot with
  an app ID, client secret, and Azure AD tenant ID.
- **Credentials are stored as project [secrets](/docs/concepts/secrets)** (e.g.
  `SLACK_BOT_TOKEN`, `SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET`, or Teams bot credentials for
  self-hosted installs) — never in the repo.
- **The agent talks to chat through the Executor.** Connecting Slack
  auto-materializes the `kortix_slack` connector; connecting Teams
  auto-materializes `kortix_teams`. Both use provider `channel`: the agent's
  chat calls run through the gateway with the bot credential resolved
  **server-side**, so the token is never exposed inside the sandbox. The channel
  connector also shows up in the project's Connectors, where you control who can
  use it.

> **Note**
> Channels are configured through the dashboard, CLI, and secrets — **not**
> through the manifest (`kortix.yaml`/`kortix.toml`). v2 removes channel
> declarations from the schema outright; `kortix_slack` / `kortix_teams`
> connectors auto-materialize on connect, you don't declare them.

## Who the agent runs as

By default, every chat sender — the first message in a channel, a thread
follow-up, or a button click — must be linked to a Kortix account that has
access to the project before the agent will act for them. Link your identity
once with Slack's `/kortix login` slash command, Teams' `/login` command, or the
button on the prompt below; it opens a short-lived, private browser link that
connects your chat user to a Kortix account.

If there's no linked mapping yet, the agent doesn't run — it posts an
ephemeral prompt nudging the sender to connect (or, if they're linked but
not a member of the project's account, to request access) instead of
replying.

> **Legacy**
> Deployments that disable this requirement fall back to the older behavior:
> every message runs as a stand-in for the project account's owner, regardless
> of who actually sent it. This is legacy, non-default behavior — the identity
> requirement is on by default.