Incident Bot

AI-powered incident response assistant that maintains shared context across your team in Slack incident channels. Every responder's question builds on prior discoveries, so nobody wastes time re-explaining context to the bot.

Overview

The Incident Bot extends the Slack integration with a fork-from-trunk session architecture designed for incident channels:

• A persistent trunk session accumulates incident knowledge as the investigation progresses
• Each @mention forks from the trunk for a parallel, context-rich response
• Discoveries are extracted and propagated back to the trunk so subsequent questions see prior findings

No additional Slack permissions are required beyond the standard Slack integration.

How It Works

Automatic Detection

Incident channels are detected by name prefix. Any channel whose name starts with one of these prefixes is treated as an incident channel:

Prefix	Example
incident-	#incident-api-outage
inc-	#inc-db-failover

These prefixes are configurable. Contact Oodle support or use the help chat widget in the sidebar to set custom prefixes for your organization.

When the bot is mentioned in an incident channel, it automatically switches to incident mode with shared context.

Fork-from-Trunk Architecture

Trunk Session (persistent)
├── Accumulates incident knowledge
├── Channel history & context
└── Extracted discoveries from all forks

Fork 1 (@mention by Alice)
├── Inherits full trunk context
├── Investigates Alice's question
└── Discoveries propagated back to trunk

Fork 2 (@mention by Bob)
├── Inherits trunk context + Alice's discoveries
├── Investigates Bob's question
└── Discoveries propagated back to trunk

Each fork runs in parallel, so multiple responders can ask questions simultaneously without blocking each other.

Prerequisites

• An active Slack integration with at least one connected workspace
• The @Oodle bot invited to the incident channel

Getting Started

Step 1: Install the Slack Integration

If you haven't already, install the Slack integration by following the Slack setup guide.

Step 2: Create an Incident Channel

Create a Slack channel with a recognized prefix (defaults: incident-, inc-):

#incident-api-outage
#inc-database-failover

tip

Need different prefixes? Contact Oodle support or use the help chat widget in the sidebar to configure custom prefixes for your organization.

Step 3: Invite the Bot

Invite @Oodle to the incident channel:

/invite @Oodle

The bot detects the incident channel prefix and activates incident mode automatically.

Step 4: Start Investigating

Mention @Oodle with your questions. The bot will use the full channel context and any prior discoveries to give context-rich answers.

Usage Examples

Initial Investigation

@Oodle What errors are showing in the logs for the
payments service in the last 30 minutes?

Building on Prior Context

After the first question surfaces relevant findings, subsequent questions automatically include those discoveries:

@Oodle Based on what we've found so far, what metrics
correlate with the error spike?

Cross-Team Collaboration

Multiple responders can ask questions simultaneously. Each response includes context from all prior findings:

Alice: @Oodle What changed in the last deploy?
Bob:   @Oodle Are there any upstream dependency issues?
Carol: @Oodle Summarize what we know so far

Incident Summary

@Oodle Give me a timeline of what happened in this
incident based on our investigation

Best Practices

Channel Naming

Use consistent prefixes across your organization so the bot reliably detects incident channels. The default prefixes are incident- and inc-, but these can be customized — reach out to Oodle support to change them.

Early Invitation

Invite @Oodle to the incident channel as early as possible. The trunk session starts accumulating context from the moment the bot joins, so earlier invitation means richer context for all questions.

Specificity

Be specific in your questions. Include service names, time ranges, and what you're looking for:

@Oodle Show me error logs from checkout-service
between 14:00 and 14:30 UTC

Building Context

Ask follow-up questions that build on prior findings. The trunk accumulates discoveries, so questions like "based on what we've found" leverage the full investigation history.

Troubleshooting

Bot Not Using Incident Mode

Verify the channel name starts with a recognized prefix (incident- or inc- by default). The detection is based on the channel name prefix only. If your organization uses custom prefixes, check with your Oodle admin or contact support.

Missing Context from Earlier Questions

The trunk session persists for the lifetime of the incident channel. If context seems missing, the bot may not have been present when earlier messages were sent. Invite @Oodle as early as possible.