showcase/shell-docs/src/content/docs/channels/index.mdx
Channels brings your agent into the conversations where work already happens. Your agent still runs in your infrastructure. CopilotKit Intelligence owns the channel connection (Slack, Teams, Discord, etc.), delivers each turn to your Channels SDK listener, and sends the response back as native channel UI.
Channels connects the agent and application logic you run to the provider connection managed by CopilotKit Intelligence. The diagram shows the boundaries between those systems and the path each message takes.
<Image src="/images/channels/channels-architecture-light.png" alt="Channels architecture showing agent frameworks connected through AG-UI and the CopilotKit Runtime to the Channels SDK, with the channel runner — Enterprise Intelligence's managed runner or your own — connecting to Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Discord, and more." width={4000} height={2608} className="block dark:hidden my-8 w-full rounded-xl" /> <Image src="/images/channels/channels-architecture-light.png" alt="Channels architecture showing agent frameworks connected through AG-UI and the CopilotKit Runtime to the Channels SDK, with the channel runner — Enterprise Intelligence's managed runner or your own — connecting to Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Discord, and more." width={4000} height={2608} className="hidden dark:block my-8 w-full rounded-xl" />
As explained in the Enterprise Intelligence overview, the dividing line between CopilotKit open source and CopilotKit Intelligence is durable data: functionality that runs without it is open source, while functionality built on connections to durable data — databases and the state kept in them — is part of CopilotKit Intelligence. A channel runner needs durable data to run correctly in production: simultaneous participants, race conditions, retries, and delivery guarantees all depend on it. CopilotKit Intelligence provides the managed channel runner, and channels running on it also get the rest of CopilotKit Intelligence, including product analytics, automatic learning, and governance. You can absolutely build and operate your own channel runner on the open-source Channels SDK — you implement the durable-data layer yourself.
<OpsPlatformCTA variant="inline" title="More channels are on the way" body="Managed Slack is available now. Managed Teams is a controlled integration target. Direct SDK adapters also support Teams, Discord, WhatsApp, and Telegram." ctaLabel="Book time with an engineer" surface="docs_channels_more_channels_contact" href="https://copilotkit.ai/talk-to-an-engineer" analyticsEvent="talk_to_us_clicked" />
Each message moves through the same five stages:
This split keeps platform credentials out of your agent process without moving your agent, tools, or business logic into CopilotKit.
| You run | CopilotKit Intelligence manages |
|---|---|
| The agent and its model credentials | Slack and Teams platform credentials |
| A long-running Channels SDK listener | Platform ingress and credentialed delivery |
| Tools and approval business logic | Runtime registration, health, and reconnects |
| Deployment, logs, and application auth | Conversation-history delivery to the listener |
Production self-hosting keeps your Channels configuration, provider credentials, delivery state, and platform operations inside your network, giving your organization control over data residency, security, and infrastructure. You can fully self-host the Channels SDK. Onboarding guides are coming soon; in the meantime, if you're comfortable with Docker and Kubernetes, go right ahead — and we're happy to help. <DocsTrackedLink href="https://copilotkit.ai/talk-to-an-engineer" surface="docs_channels_self_hosting_contact">Book time with a CopilotKit engineer</DocsTrackedLink>.
Continue to Configure the Channel in Intelligence to create the managed Slack connection.
</FrontendOnly> <FrontendOnly frontend="teams">Continue to Configure the Channel in Intelligence to create the managed Microsoft Teams connection.
</FrontendOnly>