# Slack channels Piste posts and listens in

> The Slack channels Piste creates for automations, opt-in team channels from the Who should see what? card, and channels where Piste listens and answers unasked.

Source: https://www.usepiste.com/docs/slack/channels

Piste creates a public channel for each of three automations you start from a conversation, and, if you opt in, one per team instead. It also answers unasked in public channels where the owner asked it to listen. Any full member of your Slack workspace in a channel can decide on the cards an automation posts there.

## Automation channels

When you start one of these three [automations](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations) by talking to Piste, it creates a public channel for it:

| Automation | Channel | When it posts | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad spend watch (early access) | `#piste-ad-spend` | Every morning at 8:00 | Google Ads or Meta |
| Monday budget memo (early access) | `#piste-budget` | Every Monday at 8:00 | Google Ads or Meta |
| Change follow-ups | `#piste-changes` | Every morning at 9:00, posting only when a follow-up is due | Shopify |

Times are in your workspace's time zone. [Templates](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations/templates) describes what each automation checks, and [Change follow-ups](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/change-follow-ups) what its posts offer. Started with no ad account connected, Ad spend watch and the Monday budget memo say in their channel "No ad account is connected yet, so I've nothing to read."

### How is an automation channel created?

The usual moment is the [Kickoff](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/slack#what-happens-in-the-kickoff), when you pick what to start. You can also ask Piste in any conversation to start one of the three in its own channel. Only the owner can. Piste then:

1. creates the public channel and invites you to it;
2. posts a setup message: what the channel is for, when it runs, and "Anyone here who's a full member of this Slack workspace can take a decision; guests can't.";
3. runs the automation once, straight away.

Ad spend watch and the Monday budget memo post that first run within a few minutes. Change follow-ups starts with what changed in your store in the last 28 days and posts only when a follow-up is due.

A workspace has at most one of each. Asking again tells you where the existing one posts. If you'd already made one of them elsewhere, posting to the web chat, iMessage or your DM, Piste moves it into the new channel and switches it on, keeping its schedule.

### What if the channel name is taken?

If a channel with that name exists and Piste is already in it, Piste uses that channel. Otherwise it tries once more with your workspace's name added, such as `#piste-ad-spend-alpine-supply-co`. It never tries a third name: if both are taken, Piste asks you to pick a channel.

### Can I use a channel of my own?

Yes. Create a channel or pick one, invite Piste to it with `/invite @Piste`, and tell Piste which channel to use. You also do this when Slack won't let Piste create a channel:

| What Piste says | What to do |
|---|---|
| Piste's Slack install is from before it could create channels | Reinstall Slack from the link Piste gives you (nothing is lost), then ask again. Or pick a channel yourself. |
| "This Slack workspace only lets some people create channels, so Piste can't." | Create a channel or pick one, invite @Piste, and tell Piste which. |

### Who can decide on the cards in a channel?

Any full, active member of your Slack workspace who's in the channel. Guests can read and discuss the posts but can't decide. [Proposals and cards](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/proposals) lists the few kinds of card that stay the owner's alone.

Someone who joins a channel Piste created for an automation or a team gets one private welcome: who set it up and what for, how many decisions are open, and that they can take them with the buttons under Piste's posts. A guest is told instead: "As a guest in this Slack workspace you can read and discuss what I post here, but only full members can take decisions or ask me about them." The owner and bots get no welcome, and nor does anyone joining a channel you picked yourself.

[Sale rooms](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/sales) also get a public channel of their own.

## Team channels

Team channels are optional: one public channel for each part of the business instead of one per automation, with the person who looks after it invited.

| Team | Channel | Automations |
|---|---|---|
| Stock and shipping | `#piste-ops` | Stock watch, Returns watch, Slow movers and dead stock |
| Ads and growth | `#piste-growth` | Ad spend watch, Change follow-ups, Top customers |
| Money | `#piste-money` | Monday budget memo, Morning sales briefing, Weekly trading report |

### How do I set up team channels?

Piste sends a "Who should see what?" card to your Slack DM once: when you ask Piste to set it up for your team, when you mention a colleague, once a second automation is running, or when you reply to the first week's message about bringing someone in. You can ask for it again any time.

#### 1. Open the card in your DM

It has a row for each team with an automation already posting in a Slack channel, listing those automations and where each posts now. With none, Piste sends no card and offers to start one in a channel first.

#### 2. Pick a person for each team

Each row has a `Pick someone` list of your Slack workspace's full members, or `Nobody`. The list shows up to 99 people; invite anyone else to the channel yourself once it's set up.

#### 3. Press Set it up

The card reads "Setting up your team channels…", then "Done." with a line for each team.

For each team you picked someone for, Piste creates the public channel (or uses the one of that name it's already in), moves the team's automations there with their schedules unchanged, leaves a note in each channel they moved out of, and invites you and the person you picked. It archives no channel and starts nothing new. Ad spend watch, the Monday budget memo or Change follow-ups started later goes straight to its team's channel.

Some automations stay where they are: ones that post only to you (the web chat, iMessage or your DM), paused ones, and ones you wrote yourself. `Not now` closes the card with "Not now. Ask me any time to set up channels for your team."

Only the owner can use the card. Each person you pick must be a full, active member of your Slack workspace: Piste checks with Slack and won't take a guest, a bot, a deactivated account or someone from another organisation.

## Listening channels

In a public channel where the owner has asked Piste to listen, Piste may answer a question about a product in your store that nobody addressed to it. It answers once, in a thread under the question, can only read, and stays quiet when it has nothing useful to say.

### How do I switch listening on?

As the owner, write "@Piste listen in here" in the public channel. "@Piste listen in this channel" and "@Piste start listening here" work too. Piste replies: "I'll listen in this channel. When someone asks about a product in the store that I can look up, I'll answer once, in a thread, and only if I have something useful to say. Any member can tell me to stop: “@Piste stop listening”."

Listening works only in a public channel that isn't shared with another organisation. In a DM or a private channel, Piste says to just ask it.

### When does Piste answer unasked?

Only when all of these are true:

- The message is a person's new top-level message: not a reply in a thread, not edited, and not mentioning anyone.
- It reads as an English question or claim about the store, using words such as stock, sold out, order, price, code or shipping.
- It names an active product in your store: every word of the product's title is in the message.
- Its author is a full member of your Slack workspace.
- Piste has something useful to say. Otherwise it posts nothing.

An unasked answer is short, says where its figures came from, and ends with a line saying who asked Piste to listen and "Any member can stop it: “@Piste stop listening”." It can only read: changes, approvals, questions back, memory, automations and coder jobs are all refused in it. A reply in that thread gets nothing more from Piste unless it mentions @Piste; the first mention starts an ordinary conversation with whoever wrote it.

| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Unasked answers per thread | 1 |
| Unasked turns per channel | At most 5 in any 24 hours, counting turns that ended up posting nothing |
| After someone calls an answer not helpful | At most 2 in any 24 hours, for the next 7 days |
| Products matched per message | At most 3 |
| Languages | English only |

A short reply under an unasked answer, 8 words or fewer, such as "not helpful", "that's wrong", "nobody asked" or 👎, counts as not helpful.

### How do I switch listening off?

Anyone who's a full member can write "@Piste stop listening" in the channel. Piste replies "OK, I've stopped listening in this channel, as @name asked. The owner can switch it back on."

To see how it's going, ask Piste "how's listening going?". For each channel it says who switched listening on and when, whether it's still on, and, over the last 7 days, the answers posted, the unasked turns that posted nothing, and the answers called not helpful.

## Related

- [Conversations](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/slack/conversations): where Piste answers and who may approve.
- [Quiet hours and digests](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/slack/quiet-hours): hold a channel's posts to once a day.
- [Automations](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations): what an automation is and where it can post.

## Questions

### Can I use my own Slack channel instead of the one Piste creates?

Yes. Create or pick a channel, invite Piste with /invite @Piste, and tell Piste which channel the automation should post in.

### Who can decide on the cards Piste posts in a channel?

Any full, active member of your Slack workspace who is in the channel. Guests can read and discuss the posts but can't decide.

### Does setting up team channels change my automations' schedules?

No. Automations move to their team's channel with their schedules unchanged, nothing new starts, and Piste archives no channel.

### Will Piste jump into every conversation in a listening channel?

No. It answers only a new top-level message that reads as a question about the store and names a product in it, once per thread, and at most 5 times a day per channel.

### Who can turn listening off?

Any full member in the channel, by writing @Piste stop listening. Only the workspace owner can switch it back on.