Turn selected Slack history into cited operational memory.
Timeline preserves the messages, threads, file-share metadata, reactions, and edits you choose, then places them beside work from other systems. Ask what was decided and inspect the conversation behind the answer.
Timeline captures history from selected channels as immutable, citable events. Its separate Slack conversation mode handles direct agent chats, explicit capture, /ask, and @Timeline replies.
Slack remains
Slack remains the place where messages are sent, channels are managed, and workspace permissions are administered. Timeline does not replace or modify those Slack workflows.
Questions
Ask the operating question, not a search query.
01What did the team decide about pricing last week?
02Which customer promises are still open in #accounts?
03Summarize the launch discussion and link every source.
04What changed after the incident thread started?
Example
Fictional Acme example, not customer data.
A decision stops disappearing into a thread
The Acme rollout changes across a channel message, a reply thread, and a shared risk document. Two days later, leadership asks for the final decision.
1
Timeline syncs #acme-rollout and keeps the message and reply context together.
2
The shared launch-risk file remains adjacent evidence without implying that Timeline read its attachment body.
3
The answer resolves the staged-launch decision in time order and links to the exact Slack records.
Result
Leadership can verify the beta-cohort decision without asking the channel to reconstruct it.
What Timeline saves
What enters the Timeline
01
Messages in selected public channels where the Slack app is a member
02
Messages in selected private channels where the bot is present
03
Thread roots and replies
04
File shares and file metadata
05
First-observed reaction aggregates anchored to message time, with their initial count and user snapshot
06
Message edits observed during reconciliation
Use it with
Better when the silos meet
Decision to delivery
Connect the discussion to the issue and pull request that implemented it.
Slack+Linear+GitHub
Client handoff
Combine client-channel decisions with the latest supporting documents.
Slack+Google Drive
Incident narrative
Place the response thread beside the error lifecycle and the code fix.
Slack+Sentry+GitHub
Setup and privacy
Setup overview
01Connect the Slack workspace with a person-owned OAuth connection.
02Choose from channels returned to the Slack bot, then invite the app to every selected public or private channel before syncing. A listed public channel can still fail with not_in_channel when the bot is not a member.
03Have a team admin activate the shared channel sources.
04Let hourly reconciliation capture history; configure the separate Slack app flow for /ask and conversational capture.
Permissions and privacy
Timeline requests channel and group read/history access, plus file, reaction, and user read access.
A selected public or private channel is readable only when the Slack app is a member; the native connector does not intersect bot access with the authorizing person’s own channel membership.
The OAuth installation is initiated by a person, but native history sync uses the workspace bot token. Only explicitly shared channels can be activated by the team, and every selected channel still requires bot membership for history reads.
Previously captured evidence remains team-scoped if a connection later needs attention.
Limits
Honest limitations
Review these capture and recovery boundaries before connecting your account.
Slack file shares contribute the title, filename, MIME type, and private source URL. This native history path does not download or inspect attachment bodies.
Native workspace ingestion reconciles selected channels hourly; it is not a real-time mirror of every workspace event.
After the initial history backfill, reconciliation looks back 14 days. Edits and reactions on older messages, along with new replies whose thread root is older than that window, may not be observed.
Each incremental channel scan reads at most 25 history pages, or 5,000 messages at the requested page size, inside that 14-day window. The current recent scan advances to the newest returned message without persisting a continuation for an unprocessed gap, so activity beyond the page cap can be omitted and later age out of the lookback.
A single Slack thread is capped at the first 2,000 replies returned. The current sync does not persist a reply-page continuation, so replies beyond that cap remain absent on later runs.
A reaction row is immutable, keyed by message plus emoji, and uses the source message timestamp rather than the time someone reacted. Later users or count changes for an already captured emoji do not update that row, so its count and user list remain the first-observed snapshot.
The source picker returns at most 2,000 non-archived channels, but does not preserve Slack’s membership flag. A listed public channel still requires the bot to be invited, private channels without the app are absent, and channels beyond the listing cap cannot be selected.
Timeline does not send, edit, delete, archive, or administer Slack messages through this native history sync.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Does Timeline index our entire Slack workspace?+
No. A connection owner shares specific channels, a team admin activates only the sources the team wants in Timeline, and the Slack app must be a member of each selected public or private channel before history sync can read it.
Can Timeline read private Slack channels?+
It can read selected private channels where the Slack app is present. Access follows the bot token and is not intersected with the authorizing person’s current membership, so the bot can retain access after that person leaves a channel.
Is Slack search being replaced?+
No. Slack still searches Slack. Timeline connects selected Slack evidence to chronology and work from other systems, then produces cited cross-tool answers.
Is /ask part of this sync?+
The same Slack app can support both, but they are distinct modes. Native ingestion passively syncs selected channel history; conversation mode handles /ask, @Timeline, and explicit capture.
