Setup types

There are two ways to connect a Slack bot to your workspace: Quant-managed and Bring Your Own (BYO). Both provide the same AI capabilities — the difference is who owns and manages the Slack app.

Comparison

Feature	Quant-managed	BYO
Setup effort	One-click OAuth	Manual Slack app setup
Bot identity in Slack	”Quant AI”	Your custom name and icon
Slash commands	Fixed: /ask, /quant	Custom (you choose)
Signing secret management	Automatic	You provide it
Token management	Automatic via OAuth	You provide the bot token
Bots per workspace	One per workspace	Unlimited
Switching paths	Can switch at any time	Can switch at any time

Quant-managed (recommended)

Quant hosts a shared Slack app that your workspace installs via OAuth. This is the fastest way to get started.

How it works

1. Click Add to Slack in the setup wizard
2. Authorise the Quant AI app in your Slack workspace
3. The bot is live immediately

The OAuth flow requests these Slack permissions:

Scope	Purpose
chat:write	Post and update messages
app_mentions:read	Respond to @mentions
im:history	Read direct messages
channels:history	Read channel messages (for keyword monitoring and context)
commands	Handle slash commands

Limitations

• The bot appears as “Quant AI” in Slack — you cannot customise the name or icon
• Slash commands are fixed (/ask and /quant) — you cannot use custom command names
• Each Slack workspace can only have one Quant-managed bot. If you need multiple bots, use the BYO path for additional bots

Note

If your workspace already has a Quant-managed bot connected, you’ll see an error when trying to add another. Remove the existing bot first, or use the BYO path.

Bring Your Own (BYO)

Create your own Slack app at api.slack.com/apps with your preferred name, icon, and configuration. This gives you full control over the bot’s identity.

Setup steps

1. Create a new Slack app at api.slack.com
2. In the Quant dashboard, create a Slack bot and select BYO as the setup type
3. Copy the webhook URL shown in step 3 of the wizard. It looks like:

   https://api.quantcdn.io/v1/slack/events/{botId}

4. In your Slack app settings, configure:
   • Event Subscriptions — Set the Request URL to the webhook URL from step 3
   • Bot events — Subscribe to app_mention, message.im, and optionally message.channels
   • Slash commands — Point to the same webhook URL (use any command name you like)
   • OAuth scopes — Add chat:write, app_mentions:read, im:history, channels:history, commands
5. Install the app to your workspace
6. Back in the Quant dashboard, paste your Bot Token and Signing Secret into the form

Benefits

• Custom bot name and icon in Slack
• Custom slash command names (e.g. /mycompany, /helpdesk)
• Multiple bots per workspace
• Full control over the Slack app configuration

Switching between paths

You can switch a bot between Quant-managed and BYO at any time. Existing conversation sessions survive the switch — they reference the bot ID, not the Slack credentials. Only the authentication credentials change.

Credential security

Regardless of setup type, all credentials (bot tokens and signing secrets) are:

• KMS-encrypted at rest in DynamoDB
• Write-only — the API never returns decrypted tokens. Only the last 4 characters are shown for verification
• Per-bot — each bot has its own isolated credentials

Next steps

• Get started — Create your first bot
• Configuration reference — All bot settings