Meet your team where they already work#
Channels connect Sidekick to external messaging platforms. Once connected, Sidekick can send governed messages and receive inbound conversations through the platforms your team already uses.
Open Sidekick > Channels to manage connections.
Supported providers#
| Provider | Capabilities | Auth method |
|---|---|---|
| Slack | Send governed messages, receive inbound | OAuth |
| Discord | Send governed messages, receive inbound | Bot token |
| Telegram | Send governed messages, receive inbound | Bot token |
| Custom webhook | Send outbound payloads to any endpoint | Shared secret |
Connecting a channel#
- Open Sidekick > Channels
- Find the provider card and click Connect
- Complete the OAuth or token flow
- Once connected, the card shows a green "Connected" status with the channel hint (e.g. #general for Slack)
Channel hints#
A channel hint tells Sidekick which specific channel or chat to use by default. For Slack, this might be a channel name. For Telegram, it is a chat ID.
You can change the channel hint at any time without disconnecting and reconnecting.
Governed messaging#
All outbound messages through channels go through the same governance pipeline as any other Sidekick action. Governance rules, approval gates, and audit logging apply identically.
info Custom webhooks are useful for connecting platforms not yet natively supported — Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, SMS gateways, or internal tools.
Disconnecting#
To remove a channel, find the provider card and click Disconnect. Sidekick immediately stops sending and receiving through that channel. Historical messages remain in the audit trail.
warning Disconnecting a channel does not disable routines that reference it. Those routines will fail on the next run unless you update their configuration or connect a replacement channel.
Next step#
Extend Sidekick's capabilities with external tool servers in MCP Servers.