This feature is not available on Free or Starter plans. Want this and other premium features? Update your plan here.

Please note that the Slack integration does not work with Slack Enterprise Grid accounts and cannot be used.

The zeroheight AI integration for Slack brings your design system documentation directly into your team's Slack workspace. Ask questions about your styleguides and get answers without leaving your conversations.

This feature builds on our existing integration for Slack for release notes. Teams can now @mention the zeroheight bot to get answers about components, guidelines, tokens, and design system practices - plus keep the ability to send release notifications when you publish updates.

Why use this feature?

• Ask questions about your design system directly in Slack
• Reduce support requests to your design system team
• Improve design system adoption when information is accessible
• Avoid context switching between Slack and documentation

Before you start

You'll need:

• A zeroheight Enterprise plan (AI features require Enterprise access)
• Admin access to your Slack workspace
• At least one styleguide in your zeroheight account
• Your team must not be connected to Microsoft Teams (you can connect zeroheight to either Slack or Teams, but not both)

Setting up the AI integration for Slack

If you're already using our integration for Slack for release notes, you'll need to disable and re-enable it to access the AI features. This ensures you explicitly opt in to AI processing of your design system content.

Step 1: Connect your team's Slack workspace

1. From your zeroheight homepage, go to Settings → Team → Integrations
2. Click Connect
   • If you already have Slack connected, click Reconnect instead
3. To enable AI bot features, check Enable AI features in your Slack workspace
4. You'll be redirected to Slack to authorize the zeroheight app

If your Slack admin has allowed it, you can directly add the app by clicking Allow. Otherwise, you may need to request approval to add the zeroheight app to your workspace.

AI Processing Disclaimer: When you enable AI features, you'll see this notice:

This bot uses AI to answer questions about your design system. Responses may contain inaccuracies - always verify important details with your design system team. 

Your design system documentation will be processed by OpenAI's language models to provide answers. By installing, you consent to this data processing and confirm you have authority to share your team's design system information.

You must accept this disclaimer to proceed with AI features. If you only want release notes without AI, leave the AI checkbox unchecked.

Step 2: Add the bot to your Slack channels

Release notifications only work in public channels, but the AI bot can respond in both public and private channels.

To use the AI bot in a channel:

1. Go to the Slack channel where you want to use the bot
2. Type @zeroheight and send the message
3. Slack will prompt you to invite the bot to the channel
4. Click Add Them

The bot is now ready to answer questions in that channel.

Using the AI bot for Slack

Basic usage

Once the bot is added to a channel, anyone in that channel can ask questions by @mentioning the bot:

@zeroheight What are the spacing guidelines for mobile layouts?

@zeroheight When should I use the Radio component instead of Checkbox?

@zeroheight Show me the button component documentation

Getting specific answers

The bot has access to all your styleguides. For more targeted responses, mention the specific styleguide in your question:

@zeroheight In the Mobile App styleguide, what are the typography scales?

@zeroheight Find the color tokens in the Brand Guidelines styleguide

The bot also supports threaded responses, meaning that it will maintain context of the current conversation within a Slack thread. You can use this to ask follow up questions by tagging @zeroheight again.

What the bot can access

The AI bot can answer questions about:

• All content in your published styleguides (components, guidelines, tokens, patterns)
• Private styleguides (password-protected or SSO-secured)
• Private pages within styleguides
• Formatted content including code examples, tables, and embedded content

The bot cannot access:

• Analytics data
• Adoption insights
• User management features
• Billing information

Example questions for your team

For designers:

• "What are the approved color tokens for dark mode?"
• "Show me the spacing scale we use for layouts"
• "Do we have guidelines for icon sizes?"

For engineers:

• "Where can I find the button component specifications?"
• "What typography tokens should I use for mobile?"
• "Link me to the latest form component documentation"

For product managers:

• "What's the guideline for accessibility contrast ratios?"
• "Which components are ready for production use?"
• "Where are the brand guidelines for external marketing?"

For new team members:

• "What's in our design system styleguide?"
• "List the components available in our library"
• "Where's the documentation for using design tokens?"

How releases and release notes work

Your existing release notes functionality continues to work as before. When you create a release in a styleguide:

1. With AI enabled: You get both release notifications AND the ability to ask the bot questions about your content
2. Without AI enabled: You only get release notifications when releases are published

For detailed information about setting up release notifications to specific channels, see our Send release notes to Slack guide.

The key difference: Release notifications are automatically sent to configured channels, while the AI bot only responds when directly @mentioned.

AI accuracy expectations

• Response accuracy may vary. The AI is learning and improving. Always verify important details with your design system team.
• We're still actively improving the bot's understanding of design system terminology and context.

Troubleshooting

The bot isn't responding to questions

1. Check the bot is in the channel: Make sure you've invited @zeroheight to the channel
2. Verify AI features are enabled: Go to Settings → Team → Integrations and confirm the AI checkbox is checked
3. Try a different question: Rephrase your question or be more specific about what you're looking for

Release notes stopped working after enabling AI

If your release notifications aren't working after enabling AI features:

1. Go to your Styleguide settings → Integrations
2. Verify your Slack channel is still selected for notifications
3. Create a test release to confirm notifications are working

General Slack integration issues

For broader integration problems:

• Can't connect to Slack: Check with your Slack admin about app permissions
• Channels not appearing: If your workspace has many channels, you may need to provide the channel ID directly
• Permission errors: Ensure the bot has been invited to private channels where you want to use it

Microsoft Teams compatibility

The AI features are currently only available for Slack. If your team is connected to Microsoft Teams, you'll need to disconnect from Teams before setting up the AI integration for Slack.

Support for Microsoft Teams AI features is not currently planned but may be considered based on user feedback.

Getting help

If you continue to experience issues with the AI integration for Slack:

• Contact support: Visit our How do I contact support guide for the best ways to reach us
• Join our community: Connect with other zeroheight users in the zheroes Slack community for tips and best practices