Skip to content

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.

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

  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
  • 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

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.

  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
  • 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

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.

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