Channels Overview

Channels are how people actually use Dawn. Some are shared workspace bindings. Others are private conversations that stay scoped to the individual using them. The right setup depends on whether the team should see the thread or whether it should stay personal.

How channel bindings work

1. For shared channels such as Slack, Discord, and Microsoft Teams, the workspace owner connects the workspace app once.
2. After the app is connected, the workspace can create one or more bindings for the scopes it wants Dawn to serve.
3. Attach the binding to one or more agent profiles.
4. Choose how Dawn should trigger and how much recent discussion it should use as context.
5. Send a real message from that channel and confirm two things: the reply appears in the same external surface, and the conversation appears in Dawn.

Shared bindings vs private conversations

Shared bindings

Use a shared binding when a team channel, topic, or thread should route to an agent and the result should stay visible to the team.

Private conversations

Slack DMs, Telegram private chats, Teams personal chats, and Discord DMs can stay personal. These are the right place for identity linking and one-to-one conversations that should not appear in the shared workspace view.

If a user wants Dawn to recognize them consistently across a private channel and Dawn Web, they should start the link flow from that private channel by using /link.

Trigger mode and context mode

Trigger mode

• Mention or DM only: Dawn responds only when explicitly addressed.
• Always in thread: useful when Dawn should continue a working thread once introduced.
• Always in channel: only use when open channel responses are expected. This is the noisiest option.

Context mode

• Dawn only: only messages Dawn already stored in the conversation are used.
• Recent discussion: Dawn can use recent messages it actually receives in the same thread, topic, or channel as later context.
• Important: most channels do not backfill older provider history Dawn never saw. Add Dawn to the discussion early if you want it to track the thread.

Pick your first channel

• Slack: Best first shared channel for internal teams. Slack DMs with Dawn are also supported as private conversations.
• Microsoft Teams: Use for shared Team scopes or personal chats. Personal chats are also where identity linking makes sense.
• Telegram: Simple bot deployment for groups, topics, and private chats, with webhook-based delivery and no history backfill.
• Discord: Server and thread workflows plus direct messages for private one-to-one use.
• Web Widget: Embeddable customer-facing chat where Dawn owns the transcript directly.
• Generic Webhook: Programmatic inbound messages for external systems that need HTTP rather than a native channel app.

Pre-launch channel checklist

• Every required shared channel has exactly one intended binding.
• Each binding is attached to the correct agent profile.
• Inbound and outbound message flow works in a real test conversation.
• Context mode has been validated with a real follow-up message in the same thread, topic, or channel, not just a single ping.
• Private-channel identity linking has been tested if you expect users to move between external DMs and Dawn Web.
• Attachment handling has been tested where the chosen surface supports files or images.

Show me all channel bindings and whether each is attached to an agent.

Run a channel health summary and flag risky bindings.