Slack Integration Onboarding

Integrating Slack with Yasu brings cost optimization directly into your team's daily workflow with real-time alerts, automated reports, and collaborative optimization discussions.

Prerequisites

Before connecting Slack, ensure you have:

• Slack workspace admin permissions or ability to install apps
• A Yasu team account with cloud resources connected
• Understanding of Slack app permissions and workflows
• Team members who should receive cost notifications

Connection Methods

Yasu offers multiple integration approaches to fit your team's Slack usage patterns.

Slack App Installation (Recommended)

The official Yasu Slack app provides the richest integration experience.

Step 1: Install Yasu App from Slack App Directory

1. Open Slack App Directory: Browse to slack.com/apps
2. Search for "Yasu" and select the official app
3. Click "Add to Slack"
4. Choose your workspace and authorize permissions
5. Select initial channels for notifications

Step 2: Connect to Yasu Account

1. Run /yasu connect in any Slack channel
2. Click the authorization link provided by the bot
3. Login to your Yasu account and authorize Slack access
4. Confirm connection - you'll see a success message in Slack

Step 3: Configure Team Mapping

Map your Slack workspace to your Yasu team accounts:

/yasu teams
/yasu teams add production-team
/yasu teams add development-team

Custom Webhook Integration

For organizations preferring webhook-based notifications:

Step 1: Create Slack Webhook

1. Go to Slack API (api.slack.com/apps)
2. Create a new app for your workspace
3. Enable Incoming Webhooks
4. Add webhook to desired channel
5. Copy webhook URL

Step 2: Configure in Yasu

1. Navigate to Integrations in Yasu dashboard
2. Select "Slack Webhook"
3. Paste webhook URL
4. Configure notification types
5. Test connection

Notification Configuration

Cost Alert Types

Configure which events trigger Slack notifications:

Budget Alerts:

• Monthly budget threshold exceeded
• Projected monthly overspend
• Significant cost increase detection

Optimization Opportunities:

• New cost-saving recommendations
• Unused resource detection
• Rightsizing opportunities

Resource Monitoring:

• New expensive resources created
• Resource utilization anomalies
• Failed cost optimization attempts

Security and Compliance:

• Untagged expensive resources
• Non-compliant resource configurations
• Cost-related security recommendations

Channel Configuration

Set up dedicated channels for different notification types:

/yasu channels configure
/yasu channels set-alerts #cost-alerts
/yasu channels set-reports #weekly-reports
/yasu channels set-urgent #urgent-cost-issues
/yasu channels set-recommendations #optimization-tips

Notification Settings

Customize notification frequency and thresholds:

/yasu settings notifications
/yasu settings threshold 500  # Alert when increase > $500
/yasu settings frequency daily  # Daily summary reports
/yasu settings quiet-hours 18:00-09:00  # No alerts during off hours

Interactive Features

Slash Commands

The Yasu Slack app includes these interactive commands:

Cost Information Commands

/yasu summary                    # Current month cost summary
/yasu budget                     # Budget status and projections
/yasu top-costs [period]         # Highest cost resources
/yasu trends [timeframe]         # Cost trend analysis
/yasu compare [period1] [period2] # Period-over-period comparison

Optimization Commands

/yasu recommendations            # Latest optimization opportunities
/yasu savings                    # Potential savings summary
/yasu rightsizing               # Rightsizing recommendations
/yasu unused                     # Unused resource detection

Team and Workflow Commands

/yasu teams                      # Manage team assignments
/yasu alerts                     # Configure alert settings
/yasu reports schedule           # Set up recurring reports
/yasu help                       # Command reference

Interactive Buttons and Workflows

Cost alerts include interactive elements:

Alert Messages with Actions:

• ✅ Acknowledge - Mark alert as seen
• 🔍 Investigate - Open detailed analysis
• ⚡ Quick Fix - Apply recommended optimization
• 📋 Create Ticket - Generate optimization task

Approval Workflows:

• Cost increase approvals for large changes
• Optimization confirmations before applying changes
• Budget adjustment requests

Message Threading

Organize cost discussions with automatic threading:

• Daily summaries as thread starters
• Related alerts grouped in threads
• Optimization discussions linked to recommendations
• Progress updates on ongoing optimizations

Automated Reports

Daily Cost Summaries

Receive automated daily reports in configured channels:

🌅 Daily Cost Summary - March 15, 2024

💰 Today's Spend: $1,247.85 (+12% vs yesterday)
📊 Month to Date: $18,342.50 (75% of budget)
📈 Projected Month End: $24,456.67

🔥 Top Spenders:
1. Production EKS Cluster: $285.40
2. Data Pipeline: $198.25
3. ML Training Instances: $175.80

⚡ Quick Wins Available:
• Stop 3 idle dev instances → Save $120/day
• Rightsize RDS instance → Save $45/day

🎯 Action Required:
• Review ML training schedule (running 24/7)
• Approve pending optimization for staging environment

Weekly Executive Reports

Comprehensive weekly summaries for leadership:

• Cost trends and variance analysis
• Optimization progress and savings achieved
• Budget performance across teams/projects
• Resource efficiency metrics
• Upcoming recommendations for review

Custom Report Scheduling

Set up custom reports for different stakeholders:

/yasu reports create weekly-engineering
/yasu reports schedule weekly-engineering #engineering-leads every-monday 9:00
/yasu reports include budget,recommendations,top-costs

Team Collaboration Features

Cost Optimization Discussions

Foster team cost awareness with structured discussions:

Optimization Channels:

• Dedicated channel for cost optimization discussions
• Automatic posting of new recommendations
• Team voting on optimization priorities
• Progress tracking on implemented changes

Cross-Team Coordination:

• Tag relevant team members in cost alerts
• Share optimization wins across channels
• Coordinate scheduled maintenance for cost savings
• Escalation workflows for urgent cost issues

Integration with Existing Workflows

Connect cost optimization to your existing processes:

Incident Response:

• Automatic cost impact assessment for incidents
• Resource scaling recommendations during outages
• Post-incident cost analysis and cleanup suggestions

Release Management:

• Pre-deployment cost impact estimates
• Post-deployment cost monitoring alerts
• Rollback cost implications

Sprint Planning:

• Include cost optimization tasks in sprint boards
• Track cost-related technical debt
• Budget allocation for infrastructure improvements

Advanced Configuration

Custom Notification Rules

Create sophisticated notification logic:

# Slack notification rules configuration
notification_rules:
  - name: "critical-cost-spike"
    condition: "daily_increase > 500 AND confidence > 0.8"
    channels: ["#urgent-cost-issues", "#leadership"]
    mentions: ["@cost-team", "@engineering-leads"]
    
  - name: "optimization-opportunity"
    condition: "potential_savings > 100 AND effort = 'low'"
    channels: ["#optimization-tips"]
    frequency: "daily"
    
  - name: "budget-warning"
    condition: "monthly_projected > budget * 0.9"
    channels: ["#cost-alerts", "#finance"]
    mentions: ["@budget-owner"]

Multi-Workspace Support

For organizations using multiple Slack workspaces:

• Cross-workspace cost tracking
• Centralized alert aggregation
• Workspace-specific team mappings
• Executive summary consolidation

Integration with Other Tools

Connect Slack notifications with your existing toolchain:

Jira Integration:

• Automatically create cost optimization tickets
• Link Slack discussions to Jira issues
• Update ticket status from Slack

PagerDuty Integration:

• Escalate critical cost alerts to on-call
• Include cost context in incident notifications
• Track cost impact of infrastructure incidents

DataDog/NewRelic Integration:

• Correlate performance metrics with cost data
• Include monitoring context in cost alerts
• Cross-reference optimization recommendations

Message Formatting and Customization

Rich Message Formatting

Yasu uses Slack's rich formatting for clear, actionable messages:

Cost Alerts:

🚨 COST ALERT: Significant increase detected

📊 Impact: +$1,247.50 today (+45% vs baseline)
🎯 Source: EC2 instances in us-west-2
⏰ Duration: Started 2 hours ago

💡 Recommended Actions:
• Stop oversized t3.2xlarge instances → Save $180/day
• Scale down auto-scaling group → Save $120/day

🔗 Full Analysis: https://app.yasu.cloud/alerts/xyz123

Optimization Recommendations:

💰 OPTIMIZATION OPPORTUNITY

🎯 Potential Savings: $345/month (High Confidence)
⚡ Effort Required: Low (< 30 minutes)

📋 Action: Rightsize RDS instance
📍 Resource: prod-database-primary
🔄 Change: db.m5.xlarge → db.m5.large

✅ Approve & Apply  📊 More Details  ❌ Dismiss

Custom Message Templates

Create organization-specific message formats:

# Custom message templates
templates:
  cost_alert:
    emoji: "🚨"
    title_format: "COST ALERT: {alert_type}"
    include_fields: ["impact", "source", "duration", "recommendations"]
    
  optimization:
    emoji: "💰"
    title_format: "OPTIMIZATION: {savings_amount}/month available"
    include_fields: ["confidence", "effort", "resource", "actions"]

Security and Privacy

Data Sharing

What's Shared with Slack:

• Cost summaries and aggregated data
• Resource names and types (configurable)
• Optimization recommendations
• Alert notifications and status

What's NOT Shared:

• Detailed billing information
• Individual resource configurations
• Sensitive application data
• User access credentials

Permission Management

Control who sees cost information:

• Channel-based access control
• Team-specific data filtering
• Role-based notification routing
• Sensitive data redaction options

Compliance Features

• Data retention policies for Slack messages
• Audit trails for optimization actions
• GDPR compliance for user data
• SOC 2 certified data handling

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

App Not Responding to Commands

• Verify app is installed and authorized
• Check bot permissions in channel
• Re-authenticate if needed: /yasu connect

Missing Notifications

• Check channel configuration: /yasu channels list
• Verify notification thresholds: /yasu settings show
• Test webhook connectivity

Incorrect Cost Data

• Ensure cloud accounts are properly connected
• Check data sync status in Yasu dashboard
• Verify team mappings: /yasu teams list

Permission Errors

• Review Slack app permissions
• Check workspace admin approvals
• Verify bot access to target channels

Diagnostic Commands

/yasu status          # Check connection and sync status
/yasu test            # Send test notification
/yasu debug           # Show configuration details
/yasu logs recent     # View recent activity log

Best Practices

Channel Organization

Recommended Channel Structure:

• #cost-alerts - Immediate action required
• #cost-reports - Daily/weekly summaries
• #cost-optimization - Team discussions and recommendations
• #cost-executive - High-level summaries for leadership

Notification Strategy

• Start conservative with thresholds, adjust based on team feedback
• Use threading to keep channels organized
• Set quiet hours to respect team boundaries
• Rotate notification recipients to distribute awareness

Team Engagement

• Regular cost reviews in team meetings
• Celebrate optimization wins in team channels
• Share learning from cost investigations
• Include cost considerations in technical discussions

Next Steps

After setting up Slack integration:

1. Configure notification preferences for your team
2. Set up recurring reports for stakeholders
3. Train team members on available commands
4. Establish cost optimization workflows
5. Monitor and adjust notification settings based on usage