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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.honeycomb.io/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

The Honeycomb Canvas Slack App connects Canvas to your Slack workspace so your team can investigate observability data without leaving Slack. Once installed, team members can ask Canvas questions directly in Slack, and Canvas can automatically post AI-powered investigations into alert threads when a trigger, SLO burn alert, or anomaly fires.

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How it works

The Canvas Slack App operates as a standard Slack bot. After a team owner installs it, Canvas is available in any channel it has been added to.

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Asking questions

Any team member can mention @Honeycomb Canvas in a channel to ask questions about their Honeycomb data. Canvas queries their data and responds in the thread with natural language analysis, relevant query results, and links back to Canvas in Honeycomb for further investigation. Team members can also direct message Honeycomb Canvas without an @ mention.
To ask questions of their data, users’ Slack email addresses must match their Honeycomb account.

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Auto-investigations

When a trigger, SLO burn alert, or anomaly fires and sends an alert to a Slack channel where the Canvas Slack App is present, Canvas automatically joins the alert thread and streams its investigation as it runs. The thread receives a natural language summary of what Canvas found, including:
  • Which service, error, or latency change appears to be the cause
  • Any correlated signals
  • Links to the full Canvas investigation in Honeycomb
Auto-investigations require that the individual trigger, SLO, or anomaly have both a configured Slack recipient and auto-investigations enabled. Your team must also enable Honeycomb Intelligence.

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Limitations

The Canvas Slack App works within these boundaries:
  • Canvas can query and investigate your data, but it can’t create or modify Honeycomb resources such as Boards, SLOs, or Triggers.
  • Auto-investigations require:
    • Honeycomb Intelligence enabled for your team
    • Slack configured as a recipient on the individual trigger, SLO, or anomaly
    • The Canvas Slack App invited to the alert channel
  • Auto-investigations are only available for alerts on Honeycomb environments, not Honeycomb Classic.

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Installing the app

To complete this task, you must be a Team Owner.
Installing the app makes Canvas available to your entire Slack workspace. A team owner completes the installation once. To install the app:
  1. Select Account from the navigation menu, then select Team Settings.
  2. Select the Integrations view.
  3. Locate the Honeycomb Canvas Slack App section and select Install Slackbot.
  4. Follow the prompts to authorize the app for your Slack workspace.
Once the app is authorized, @Honeycomb Canvas is available in your Slack workspace. Add it to the channels where your team investigates and responds to incidents.

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Asking questions

Honeycomb automatically matches your Slack email address to your Honeycomb account. If your email doesn’t match an existing Honeycomb account, Canvas will let you know when you try to ask a question.
Once the Canvas Slack App has been installed, you can interact with Honeycomb Canvas anywhere in Slack:
  • In a channel: Mention @Honeycomb Canvas followed by your question in any channel where the app has been added.
  • Via direct message: Open a DM with Honeycomb Canvas and ask your question directly. No @ mention is needed.
You can ask any question about your Honeycomb data. For example:
  • @Honeycomb Canvas What's driving the p99 latency spike in the checkout service?
  • @Honeycomb Canvas Show me error rates for the payments service over the last hour
  • @Honeycomb Canvas What changed right before the error rate went up?
Responses include a mix of natural language analysis, relevant query results, and links back to Honeycomb Canvas in the UI so you can dig deeper.

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Learn more