Before you start

Two things to check:

Your Plane role must be Admin or Manager. Plane Agent supports only Admin and Manager accounts today.
Your Slack email must match your Plane email. Plane Agent uses your Slack email to identify you.

Ways to talk to Plane Agent

There are two places in Slack where you can talk to Plane Agent.

In the Slack Plane app

Find Plane in your Slack sidebar (if you've used it recently) or under More > Tools > Apps. Once you open it, you can start chatting with Plane Agent.

Use New Chat (top right) to start a fresh topic, or History to scroll back through previous conversations.

In a channel

Start your message with @Plane, then ask your question.

Unlike in the Plane app, you need to mention the agent every time, including on follow-up replies inside a thread you and the agent are already chatting in. Without the mention, the agent won't see your message. It's the most common thing people forget.

If Plane Agent isn't a member of the channel, Slack offers to invite it on the first mention, just like when you mention any other person not already in the channel.

Permissions

Plane Agent answers questions based on each person's Plane permissions. But anything you ask in a channel is visible to everyone there, including the agent's reply. For sensitive questions, the Slack Plane app or a private channel is a safer place to ask.

Your first conversation

Once you're in the Plane app or in a channel with @Plane, try one of these to see what a real response looks like:

"Who's starting in the next 30 days?"
"What payrolls need my attention?"
"What's the status of Alex Chen's contractor payment?"
"Which contractors are missing W-8 or W-9 forms?"

A typical reply has three parts: a short summary of what the agent found, the supporting detail (often as a table), and one or two suggested follow-ups like "Want me to email them?" You can take the follow-up by replying yes, or just keep asking new questions.

Be specific

The more specific you can be, the easier it is for Plane Agent to give you a useful answer the first time. Including the time range, team, country, or worker type you care about helps the agent get there in one reply instead of asking clarifying questions.

Installing the Plane app for Slack

Plane Agent runs as a Slack app, so it needs to be installed in your Slack workspace before anyone can use it. This is a one-time setup done by an admin in Plane.

To install:

As a Plane admin, go to manage.plane.com/apps.
Click the Slack app, then click Connect.
Slack will open and ask you to choose the Slack workspace and review the permissions Plane needs.

What happens next depends on your Slack workspace's app-approval settings and your role in Slack. You'll see one of three outcomes:

The app can be installed immediately. This happens if the Plane app is already installed in Slack, it's been pre-approved for your Slack workspace, or you're authorized to install new apps. Click Allow to finish.
Slack asks you to submit a request. Your Slack workspace requires app approval and Plane isn't pre-approved. Slack shows a Request to install screen where you can add a short message for your Slack admin to review. Once they approve, the install completes.
Slack shows a "not authorized" page. Your Slack workspace has restricted Plane (or apps in its category). Reach out to a Slack Workspace Owner or App Manager to ask them to approve Plane for your Slack workspace.