Minor Slack polish: room-declaration confirmation, ephemeral help, connector signature
Kind: polish · Source: e2e Slack test 2026-09-19 (O1, O4, O5) · Not fixed in issue-393 · Filed: issue-397, spec docs/specs/issue-397/
Three small observations from the e2e test, grouped because each is a few lines of work. Split into separate issues if any is picked up on its own.
O1 — declaring a room is silent until the item starts
add-channel was accepted on the ticket (🎉) but the room heard nothing until the-loop start, when the "Every update about … is posted in this channel" message appeared. A person who declared the room from the ticket gets no confirmation in the room itself that it is now the conversation.
Suggestion: post the room-opened confirmation when the room is declared, not only on the first update — or a one-line "this room is now #<id>'s conversation; updates start when it does."
O4 — the help answer is ephemeral
help replies ephemerally, so it is invisible to any integration acting on a person's behalf (including the MCP connector the test drove). Fine for a human at a keyboard; worth knowing, and worth a non-ephemeral option for automated callers.
O5 — the Slack connector appends "Sent using @Claude"
The connector adds a "Sent using @Claude" second line to every message. the-loop's keyword parser reads the first line only, so this never interfered — recorded for completeness. Likely no action needed; keep only if the parser ever grows to read beyond the first line.
Acceptance
- O1: a room gets a confirmation when it is declared, not only when the item starts.
- O4:
helpcan reach a non-human caller (a non-ephemeral form, or documented). - O5: no action unless the keyword parser starts reading past the first line.