Spotter in Slack

You can now ask questions to Spotter right within Slack. Install the ThoughtSpot Slack app, add it to a Slack channel, and you will be able to ask questions on your data sources in natural language. ThoughtSpot answers in chart format.

Note that Slackbot is currently not available for TSE, GCP clusters, and in the EU region.
ThoughtSpot for Slack is in beta and off by default. To enable this feature, contact ThoughtSpot Support.

Features of Spotter

Answering Data Questions

Users can ask data questions by entering queries in a natural language format.

  • This functionality requires adding the Spotter to a channel and pinning a Worksheet/Model.

  • Note: Spotter will only work if the end user has Can download data and Can use Sage privileges.

  • For example, typing @Spotter show me the top 10 products for this quarter will prompt the bot to process the query and return results in a visual format (provided the appropriate dataset is selected).

This feature enables users to access data insights directly from Slack, streamlining workflows without switching applications.

Set up Spotter for Slack

To set up ThoughtSpot for Slack, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to ThoughtSpot and open your user profile by clicking the user icon and selecting Profile.

    Select Profile

  2. Click the Connect to Slack button. A permissions screen appears.

    Connect to Slack

    Permissions for ThoughtSpot

  3. Click Allow.

You can now get answers to your data questions without leaving Slack. Simply enter the command /spot-help in a channel and ask your question in natural language. The answer appears as a visualization.

ThoughtSpot Slack app

Add Spotter to a channel

After connecting to Spotter for Slack:

  1. Add the bot to a channel to start asking.

  2. Use the following commands:

    • /spotter-help to get help on using Spotter.

    • /spotter-show-models to see the top Worksheets in your ThoughtSpot account.

    • /spotter-show-columns to see columns in the Worksheet pinned to the channel.

  3. Pin a Worksheet/Model to the channel by selecting it and clicking Pin Worksheet/Model. After pinning, you can query the worksheet using commands like @Spotter <question>.

  4. Follow-up questions can be asked in the same thread, with the bot maintaining context for coherent responses.

Context Handling:

  • The bot will display a loading message for each question until an answer is generated.

  • Users cannot ask additional questions in the same thread until the previous answer is displayed.

  • Only the user who initiated the conversation will be able to ask follow-up questions.

Notifications

Once connected, users will receive all notifications from ThoughtSpot directly in the Slack app. You can select which notifications you want to receive, allowing you to customize your experience and stay updated on relevant activities and changes within your ThoughtSpot environment.

Spotter Slack notification preferences

Link unfurling

If the Spotter app is connected, it will unfurl any shared links for the ThoughtSpot cluster and display an image of the object, providing a visual context to your shared content.

Automatic disconnection

Please note that Slack may occasionally get disconnected automatically due to various reasons, such as token expiration or network issues. In such cases, users will need to reconnect to restore functionality.

Disconnect from Slack

You can disconnect from Slack at any time by going to your user profile in ThoughtSpot and clicking Disconnect from Slack.

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