Here is what I remember.
Three places a note can live
Private to you, shared with one channel, or shared with the whole workspace. The list says which, next to every note.
Who can see a note
- Private. Only you can see it in a list. But Bob uses your private notes in any job you start, including in a channel, so one can come up in a reply everyone there sees. In a direct message, Bob keeps things private by default. He goes wider only when you ask, such as “remember this for everyone”.
- Channel. Shared with anyone working with Bob in that channel.
- Workspace. Facts that hold for the whole company, shared with everyone who uses Bob. In a channel, “remember this” goes here unless you say otherwise.
How Bob learns
Two ways. You tell him, for example “remember that I prefer concise answers”. Or, after a conversation you started in Slack, he picks out lasting facts, like how you bill or who owns what.
- He learns only from conversations a person started by mentioning him or messaging him. Never from schedules or other automations.
- He does not learn from a job where you denied one of his approvals.
- Put “don’t remember this” in the message that starts a job and he will not learn from that job.
- He also keeps his own working notes on how he used his tools, so he does better next time. These are never shown to anyone and are not in any list.
- An admin can switch off learning on his own in Settings. He can still save a fact you ask him to save.
See it, fix it, delete it
Type /bob memory. In a direct message you see your private notes and the workspace notes. In a channel you see the workspace notes and that channel’s. You can also ask him what he remembers. The Memory page in the HeyBob console, the website where you sign in with Slack to see and manage Bob, shows you your private notes, and shows admins every workspace and channel note too, including channels they are not in.
- Each note is labelled private, channel or workspace, and says who taught it or that he picked it up on his own.
- Edit rewrites a note. Delete removes it, and asks you to confirm first. Older versions that the note replaced stay stored but hidden, and are not shown or used.
- Anyone can edit or delete workspace and channel notes. A private note can only be changed by its owner.
- When he uses notes in a job, the receipt says how many.
What Bob reads
Bob acts on messages sent to him: an @mention, a direct message, or a reply in a thread you started with him. He can also read recent messages in a channel he has been added to when you ask him to, for context on a task. The security page lists the Slack permissions he asks for and why.
There is one optional extra, off by default. If an admin turns on looking around on its own, Bob checks channels he is already in, at most four times a day, for a question nobody answered. He can send the person who asked one direct message, never more than one unprompted message to a person in a week. He cannot post in a channel or change anything while he looks. Something from a private channel is only ever offered back to a member of that channel. The text of a question he is weighing is shown to the AI model service Bob runs on, as any request is.
Looking around is not free. A look that finds no unanswered question costs nothing. When Bob does stop to weigh one, that look costs half the credits of the smallest request. If you take him up on his offer, that work is billed like any other request. How credits work.
How long records are kept
The step-by-step timeline of each job and its memory receipts are kept for up to 90 days, and an admin can shorten that in Settings. The activity log of who ran what, and when, is kept whatever you set, until a deletion request clears it. Our privacy policy covers training, deletion requests and the rest.