Portrait in Slack

The Portrait Slack app lets a linked Portrait user send Easel requests from a direct message or channel mention. Responses can use supported sources available to that account and include citations where source and licence permit.

Each Slack conversation maps to a Portrait research session. Each person connects their own Portrait account, whose usage limits and data entitlements apply.

Install the app

Install Portrait once in each Slack workspace where you want to use it. Slack decides who can install apps: members can install by default, but a Workspace Owner can require approval or restrict an app. If approval is required, ask your Workspace Owner or app manager to approve Portrait. See Slack's app approval guidance.

1. Open Install Portrait in Slack.
2. Select the intended workspace in Slack's authorization screen. Check this even if you are already signed in to Slack.
3. Review the requested permissions and complete the installation, or request approval if Slack offers that option. If the app is restricted or no request option appears, contact your Workspace Owner.
4. When the page says Portrait installed, return to that workspace and open Portrait from Slack's apps. Continue with the account connection below.

To use Portrait in a channel, invite it there with /invite @Portrait. Installation in the workspace does not add it to every channel. A member of a private channel must add it there. See Slack's guide to adding apps to channels.

The requested permissions let Portrait receive mentions and direct messages, read the earlier messages in a mentioned thread, display the identity being connected, reply, and upload supported chart images. Connecting your Portrait account is a separate step; installing the Slack app does not connect everyone in the workspace.

Connect your Portrait account

1. Send Hello in a direct message to Portrait.
2. Select Connect Portrait in its reply.
3. On the connection page, check that the Slack user and workspace are yours. Select Continue to Portrait sign-in and sign in with the Portrait account you want to use for research.
4. Wait for the browser page to say Connected, then return to Slack. Portrait also attempts to send a confirmation DM; that DM can fail even when the connection succeeds.
5. Send your question again. Linking the account does not run the message that prompted the connection.

Use the link from your own DM, not a colleague's forwarded link: it connects the Slack identity shown on the page to the Portrait account you sign in with. If the page says Link expired, send another message to get a fresh link. If your connection later expires or is revoked, Portrait prompts you to reconnect.

To change the connected Portrait account, send sign out in your DM, message Portrait again, and sign in with the intended account.

Ask from a direct message

Send your question. Portrait sets a status while it works and streams the answer into the thread as it is written.

Reply in that thread to keep going — the thread continues one conversation and uses its retained context. A new top-level research question in a connected direct message, or a new @mentioned channel research thread, starts a fresh session when Portrait accepts its first research turn.

Portrait also has an App Home tab in Slack with instructions and example questions, and Slack's assistant pane offers suggested prompts to get you started. Send help in any conversation to get the same instructions and examples back.

Two more commands work in any conversation. feedback followed by a note — "feedback the segment tables are great" — sends it straight to the Portrait team, and Portrait echoes back what it recorded. sign out disconnects your Portrait account from Slack and attempts to close sessions started through this integration; in a channel only you see the confirmation, and messaging Portrait again presents the connection prompt. Session closure can fail while disconnection succeeds. If work was active, check its state in Portrait; the sign-out confirmation does not establish that it stopped.

Ask in a channel

In a channel you must @mention Portrait — "@Portrait What did Microsoft management say about AI capex on the last three earnings calls?" A message that does not mention it starts nothing, whatever thread it lands in.

Three things follow from that:

• Mentioning Portrait inside an existing channel thread lets it read that thread's earlier messages for that turn, including messages not addressed to Portrait. Do not mention it in a thread whose prior content should not be sent to Portrait.
• The first person who starts a Portrait research session in a thread owns that session. This can be someone other than the person who posted the channel's original message. Once the session is bound, another person's research mention does not run; only that person sees a note asking them to start their own thread or DM the app. Follow-up research uses the owner's connected Portrait account and retained session context.
• The answer is posted in the channel thread and is visible under that channel's access rules. Use a direct message for work that should not be shared, and do not request account-entitled output in a channel whose participants should not receive it.

Thread history is a limited, best-effort context window: up to 30 earlier messages, 1,000 characters per message and 6,000 characters in total. If reading the thread fails, times out, or exceeds the fetch limit of five pages of up to 200 messages, the question can run without that history. Include the material facts in your own mention; a returned answer does not prove that Portrait read every earlier message.

Good to know

• A conversation can be open in one place at a time. If Portrait says the conversation is currently open in the Portrait app, close it there and ask again.
• Answer formatting varies between Slack views. A long or wide table can read better in the Portrait app. Available source links open either the Portrait item or the originating website; display, linking, and access remain subject to the source and licence.
• Portrait cannot read files you share in Slack. Upload the file in My Library instead and Portrait can work from it there.
• Long answers arrive as more than one message, split on paragraph boundaries.
• Supported charts can arrive as images. Portrait uploads up to 10 PNG charts per turn, subject to an 8 MB per-chart and 20 MB combined limit; the answer keeps a Portrait link when a chart is ineligible or Slack rejects the upload. If eligible charts repeatedly arrive as links only, ask an admin to re-run the install once so the workspace grants file upload permission.
• Removing the app revokes the workspace integration when Portrait processes the uninstall event. It is not confirmation that an Easel turn already running has been cancelled. Check the conversation in Portrait if work must stop, and verify its state before sending the request again. Reinstall and reconnect to use the integration again.

Verify the connection

1. Send a simple research question in a direct message, such as Summarize Apple's latest earnings release and include sources. This runs research and uses your Portrait allowance; help only checks that the app can reply.
2. Confirm that the answer arrives in that message's thread. Follow one source link and check that you can open the expected material.
3. If you plan to use a channel, invite Portrait and send a new @Portrait question there. A successful DM does not confirm channel membership or channel permissions.

If Slack does not respond

Installation and sign-in

What you see	What to do
Slack requests approval, blocks the app, or offers no installation option	Ask the Workspace Owner or app manager to check the workspace's app policy. Portrait account access cannot override Slack's installation restrictions.
Portrait is installed, but you cannot find it	Check that you are in the workspace selected during installation. Open Slack's apps and search for Portrait.
Installation not completed or Installation failed	Start again from the install link above. If it fails again, give your workspace administrator the error text and time of the attempt.
Link expired or Linking not completed	Message Portrait to obtain a new connection link and complete sign-in from that link. Reopening an old link will not repair it.
Browser says Connected, but no confirmation DM arrives	Send a question in your DM. The confirmation message can fail independently of account linking.
Portrait asks you to reconnect, or uses the wrong account	Use the new Connect Portrait prompt. To change accounts, send sign out first and check the identity during sign-in.

Questions and answers

• No channel reply: confirm Portrait is a channel member and select the actual @Portrait mention when composing the message. Mention it again on follow-ups. Try a DM to distinguish channel setup from account access.
• A thread belongs to another user: start a new top-level research thread or DM Portrait. Connecting your own account does not take over another person's thread.
• Account not enabled: ask your Portrait administrator or Portrait support to check full Easel access. Reinstalling the Slack app does not grant it.
• Conversation open in Portrait: close it in the Portrait app, then retry. For usage or concurrent-work limits, see Usage and limits.
• Temporarily unavailable, too many requests, or an answer took too long: wait before retrying. If you already saw progress or a partial answer, check the work in Portrait first so you do not submit it twice.
• Missing chart images or newer assistant controls: ask the person responsible for the workspace installation to reauthorize through the install link. Older installations can lack permissions added since they were installed.
• A file or source is missing: Slack attachments are not read. Add files through My Library and use them in Portrait; check source access in the web app before treating it as a Slack connection failure.

If the problem continues, contact the team with the workspace name, whether it affects a DM or channel, the exact error, and the approximate time and time zone. Include a redacted screenshot if useful; do not forward account connection links or credentials.