Hi everyone,
We've made some changes to the Rovo app for Slack. The one you'll notice straight away: ask Rovo a question in a channel and the answer now comes back to you privately, with a button to post it to the thread.
There's a single idea behind that, and once it clicks the rest of the app follows from it.
Who can see an answer depends on whose access produced it
Every answer Rovo gives is searched using somebody's access. Whose access that was is what decides who can see the answer. So visibility isn't a separate setting you turn on and off, it follows from that.
The answer is built using | So it's visible to |
|---|
Your access to Jira, Confluence, and the tools you've connected | Just you. You read it, refine it, and choose whether to post it to the thread |
A shared account's access, set up by your organization | Everyone in the channel, because they're all getting the same answer from the same account |
In a channel, Rovo uses your access by default. That's why answers arrive privately now: something assembled from what you can see shouldn't land in front of people who can't. It's also why Rovo works in any channel straight away, with nothing to set up first.
What that looks like
Mention @rovo in a channel and the answer arrives marked Only visible to you, with two buttons:
- Refine/clarify tells Rovo what to change, and updates that private answer in place as often as you like.
- Post to thread shares the final version with everyone.
The first time Rovo is used in a channel you'll also get a short setup card, just for you, confirming which Atlassian site that channel should use.
If you'd already set Rovo up in a channel, that setup is still there. The agents you added, their triggers and keywords, and the site the channel is connected to have all carried over, and there's nothing to configure again.
Which should your channel use?
If your channel is | Use | Because |
|---|
A team or project channel, where people ask about work they're already close to | Your access, the default | Everyone gets answers scoped to what they're allowed to see, and nothing reaches the channel until someone chooses to post it |
A help, support, onboarding, or triage channel, answering questions for a wide audience | A shared account | Everyone sees the same answer, from a set of content you've deliberately chosen to be shareable, and it stays in the thread for the next person |
You're not sure yet | Your access | It's the safer starting point, you can switch whenever you like, and switching never changes anything already posted |
Switching a channel over
- For Rovo, type
/rovo manage in the channel and switch from Requesting user to Shared account. An Atlassian organization admin sets that account up once for your workspace, and gives it access to the content you're happy for the whole channel to see. - For a custom agent your organization has built, the rule is identical and only the place you change it differs. Open
/rovo manage and it'll show you: either the agent's setting sits there alongside Rovo's, or it's held with the agent itself, in which case ask its owner to switch it in Rovo Studio.
One thing doesn't change either way. Actions always run as you. Creating or updating a Jira work item is confirmed with you privately and uses your permissions, however the channel answers.
Agents and triggers
Also in /rovo manage. You can add a custom agent by searching for its name, and a channel can have up to two agents.
Triggers let an agent answer without being mentioned:
Trigger | The agent answers when |
|---|
@rovo | Someone mentions @rovo . You choose which agent receives it |
New messages | Anyone posts in the channel. One agent per channel |
Keywords | A word you pick appears in a message |
Emojis | Someone reacts with an emoji you pick |
@rovo , keywords, and emojis all work inside threads too. New messages doesn't, unless you turn on continuous replies, which keeps an agent answering follow-ups in a thread without being summoned again.
FAQs
Nobody else can see Rovo's answer. Is it broken? No. It was built with your access, so it's yours to share. Select Post to thread.
Can Rovo answer the channel directly, like before? Yes, by switching that channel to a shared account. See above.
An agent has stopped answering. Its trigger may have been renamed, or its owner may have changed its access in Rovo Studio. Check /rovo manage.
Tell us how it's going
We'd like to hear how you end up setting your channels up, and whether this works for the way your team uses Rovo. Reply here, or contact support@atlassian.com if you'd like a hand with a specific channel.
