# Slack Connect channels



<Note>
  **Beta.** Shared-channel access is new. If something reads wrong, tell us. The
  default is deliberately the cautious one.
</Note>

A Slack Connect channel has two companies in it, so there are two separate
questions. SAM splits them:

|                                 | Default |                                                                                                    |
| ------------------------------- | ------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Your team asks, SAM answers** | ✅ On    | You can see who's in the room; an answer you asked for is yours to post                            |
| **The other company asks**      | ❌ Off   | Steering an agent pointed at your Surface data is a grant, not a side effect of being in a channel |

Guests read your answers either way.

<SlackThread channel="#acme-surface">
  <SlackMessage from="Dana" time="16:30">
    @SAM how many leads came through the demo form this month?
  </SlackMessage>

  <SlackMessage from="sam" time="16:30">
    In this channel I only take questions from the Acme team. You'll still see
    my answers to them. Someone there can open it up to everyone here with
    `/surface shared open`.
  </SlackMessage>
</SlackThread>

## Opening a channel [#opening-a-channel]

Run this **in the shared channel**, from your own workspace:

```text
/surface shared open
```

Anyone in the channel can now ask it things. To take it back:

```text
/surface shared close
```

Run `/surface shared` bare and it tells you which state the channel is in, plus
both commands.

<Info>
  Invite SAM to the channel first with `/invite @Surface Marketing Agent`, or
  `open` will tell you to. Only members of the workspace that installed the app
  can run these commands.
</Info>

## What an open channel does *not* grant [#what-an-open-channel-does-not-grant]

Guests can ask questions. That's the whole grant. Nothing they do outlives the
conversation:

* ❌ Approving a change to your Surface data
* ❌ Teaching it anything: no [memory](/docs/sam/memory), workspace or channel
* ❌ Starting a background job
* ❌ Leaving a [schedule](/docs/sam/schedules) behind

Buttons carry the same rule. A click from the other side of a Connect channel
(Approve, Save in Vault, Run in the background, Stop, Disconnect) is checked
against who clicked it, not just against the channel.

## Seeing what you've opened [#seeing-what-youve-opened]

Opening a channel is a decision someone makes in one channel on one day. The
**Home** tab lists every shared channel currently open, so it can be found and
undone months later.

<Warning>
  An open channel means the other company can put questions to an agent reading
  **your** Surface environment, and the answers post in a channel they can read.
  Open the channels where that's the point, such as a shared project channel.
  Not by default.
</Warning>