Slack
The Spike app for Slack sends incident and on-call alerts to your channels, lets you run incident actions without leaving Slack, unfurls incident links, and answers @Spike mentions with an AI assistan
Overview
The Spike app for Slack delivers incident and on-call alerts to the channels you choose and lets responders act on them in place: acknowledge, resolve, add notes, spin up an incident channel, pull the activity log, inspect the full payload, and open a linked Statuspage incident. It unfurls Spike incident links into an editable preview and includes @Spike, an AI assistant that declares incidents, manages responders and on-call overrides, and answers questions about your account from a mention. This page covers:
Install and connect
Install the app once per Slack workspace. You need admin access to your Spike account and permission to add apps to your Slack workspace.
Land back in Spike
After authorization you return to Integrations, where the workspace now shows as connected. You can then select channels for on-call alerts and add Slack as a step in your escalation policies to route incident alerts.
Anyone on your team can link their personal Slack account to the app by sending the Spike bot a direct message and following the prompt. A linked account is what lets Spike attribute actions to a person and show them private channels they belong to.
OAuth scopes requested
The app requests the following scopes. Each maps to a specific capability; the app does not use scopes beyond what these features need.
chat:write
Posting incident and on-call alerts, updating those messages in place, and sending action results.
commands
Receiving interactions from buttons and actions on alert messages.
app_mentions:read
Detecting @Spike mentions so the assistant can respond.
assistant:write
Powering the @Spike AI assistant experience in threads and channels.
channels:read / groups:read
Listing public and private channels so you can pick alert destinations.
channels:manage / groups:write
Creating a dedicated incident channel from an alert.
channels:history / groups:history
Reading a thread's messages only when you ask @Spike to create an incident from that thread, so it can carry the context forward.
links:read / links:write
Detecting Spike incident links and rendering the unfurled preview.
users:read / users:read.email
Matching Slack users to Spike responders when you link a personal account.
im:write
Sending direct messages, including the personal-account connection flow.
Reconnecting an existing workspace
The Slack app was rebuilt and now requests additional scopes. Workspaces installed on the previous app keep working for existing features but must reconnect before any of the new capabilities become available.
Before you reconnect, on the old app:
Incident and on-call alerts continue to be delivered to your existing channels.
Acknowledge and resolve on existing alerts continue to work.
Does not work until you reconnect:
@Spike, the AI assistant.Link unfurling of incident links.
Add a note, create an incident channel, fetch the activity log, view the full payload, and create a Statuspage incident from an alert.
Adding an on-call override directly from an on-call alert.
Steps to reconnect
What survives a reconnect
Channel mappings (alert destinations)
Yes. Preserved as-is.
Escalation routing (Slack steps in policies)
Yes. Preserved as-is.
Notification rules (on-call channel selections and shift settings)
Yes. Preserved as-is.
Reconnecting re-authorizes the existing installation and adds scopes; it does not reset your configuration.
Reconnecting is not restricted to the original installer. Any Spike admin with permission to add apps to the Slack workspace can reconnect. The person who reconnects becomes the current authorizing user for the installation.
Incident alerts in Slack
Add Slack as a step in an escalation policy to send incident alerts to a channel. Each alert message shows the incident title, current status, priority and severity, the triggering integration, assigned responders, and a link back to the incident in Spike. Status changes made anywhere — Slack, phone, SMS, email, or the dashboard — update the message in place, so the channel always sees the current state.
Actions on an alert
Acknowledge
Marks the incident acknowledged in Spike and stops further escalation. Updates the message for everyone.
Channel
Linked account recommended so the ack is attributed to you
Resolve
Marks the incident resolved in Spike. Updates the message for everyone. If it was already resolved elsewhere, the app tells you.
Channel
Linked account recommended for attribution
Add a note
Opens a dialog to write a note; the note is saved to the incident's timeline in Spike.
Channel
Linked account for attribution
Create an incident channel
Creates a dedicated channel for the incident and posts a link to it on the alert. Only the person who clicked is added initially; others can join.
Channel (the new channel link is posted)
channels:manage / groups:write
Fetch the activity log
Pulls the incident's activity log from Spike and shows it to you.
Only you (ephemeral)
—
View the full incident payload
Shows the complete raw payload that triggered the incident.
Only you (ephemeral)
—
Create a Statuspage incident
Creates an incident on your connected Statuspage and links it to the Spike incident, so status updates stay associated.
Channel
A connected Statuspage integration
On-call alerts in Slack
Go to Integrations to choose the channels that receive on-call alerts. Alerts can be sent when a shift starts and when a shift ends. The message names the schedule, who is going on or off call, and the shift window.
Add an on-call override from the alert
The alert includes an Add override action so you can arrange short-term coverage without opening the dashboard.
Fields: the team member who will cover, and the start and end time of the coverage. An optional comment can be added for context.
What it writes: the override is written to the same on-call schedule the alert came from — the exact schedule and rotation, not a separate one.
How long it lasts: the override applies only for the start-to-end window you set. It is a one-time, non-recurring adjustment and does not change the underlying schedule. When the window ends, the normal rotation resumes.
Editing or removing it: manage it from the on-call schedule in the dashboard — open the schedule, find the override, and edit its times or delete it. See On-call overrides for details. Anyone without a Viewer role can add or delete overrides.
Link unfurling
Paste a Spike incident link into a channel and the app renders an inline preview of that incident instead of a plain URL.
The preview shows:
Incident title
Status
Priority and severity
Assigned responders
The triggering integration
A link to open the incident in Spike
Fields you can edit inline from the preview:
Status — acknowledge or resolve the incident.
Responders — add or remove people from the incident.
Editing from the preview changes the incident in Spike and is reflected everywhere the incident appears.
Unfurling requires the app to be present in the channel where the link is pasted. In a channel the app has not been added to, the link stays a plain URL. Add the app with /invite @Spike in that channel.
@Spike, the AI assistant
@Spike responds to mentions in channels and threads. Mention it in plain language to run incident and on-call actions or ask about your account.
What it can do
Declare a new incident
@Spike declare a new incident: checkout returning 500s
Creates the incident in Spike and replies with a link and its status.
Create an incident from the current thread
@Spike turn this thread into an incident
Reads the thread, creates an incident that carries the thread's context into the description, and replies with a link.
Add responders
@Spike add @maya and @chen to INC-1043
Adds those users as responders and confirms who was added.
Remove responders
@Spike remove @chen from INC-1043
Removes the responder and confirms.
Add an on-call override
@Spike put @maya on call for payments from 6pm to 10pm
Writes a one-time override to that schedule for the window and confirms the coverage.
Show who is on call
@Spike who's on call for payments right now?
Replies with the current on-call responder(s) for the schedule.
List open incidents
@Spike list open incidents
Replies with the current open incidents and their status.
Answer questions about the account
@Spike which escalation policy does the API service use?
Answers from your Spike account data.
Boundaries
What it cannot do:
@Spikedoes not delete incidents or schedules, change billing, alter account settings, or take destructive actions. It acts within the same permissions your Spike account exposes and asks for clarification when a request is ambiguous.Scope of an action: an action applies to the incident named in the request. It does not act on unrelated incidents or on incidents it was not mentioned about, and it does not take action on its own without a mention.
Whose permissions apply: an action runs under the permissions of the person who invoked it — the linked Spike user who sent the mention — not the app installer. If that person is not linked or lacks permission for the action,
@Spikedeclines and says so. Link your account by sending the Spike bot a direct message.Activity log and attribution: actions
@Spiketakes are recorded in the incident's activity log like any other action, and are attributed to the person who invoked them, noted as performed via@Spike.
Availability
@Spike is available in every workspace running the current app. It becomes active once the workspace has been installed — or reconnected — with the current scopes; workspaces still on the previous app must reconnect before @Spike will respond.
FAQs
Do I have to reconnect if everything still works?
Alerts and acknowledge/resolve keep working on the old app, but the new actions, unfurling, and @Spike stay off until you reconnect.
I can't find a channel in the dropdown. What should I do?
Paste the channel ID. Open the channel in Slack, go to the About section, and copy the unique ID.
Why can't I see a private channel when picking a destination?
You must be a member of the private channel, have a linked Slack account, and have added the app to that channel with /invite @Spike. Private channel names are visible only to linked members of that channel.
Can non-Spike users use @Spike or join an incident channel?
Anyone in the workspace can be invited to an incident channel. For @Spike actions that change data, the person must have a linked Spike account with sufficient permission; otherwise @Spike declines.
Can the same incident channel be reused for another incident?
No. A new channel is created per incident. Archive it after the incident is resolved to keep your workspace tidy.
Does Spike read our messages?
No. The app reads a thread's contents only when you explicitly ask @Spike to create an incident from that thread. It does not otherwise read channel messages.
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