Swarm for Slack lets your team look up warm intros without leaving Slack. Paste a LinkedIn profile or a company website, mention @Swarm, and Swarm replies in the thread with the teammates who can introduce you, strongest connection first, along with the reason they're connected.

Getting access

Swarm for Slack is in beta. To get it for your workspace, contact support@theswarm.com and we'll help you set it up.

You'll need:

A Swarm team on a Premium or Enterprise plan
A Slack workspace where you can install apps (a Slack admin, or any member if your workspace allows it)
Your team's Swarm API key, from the API page. See How do I get my API key?

Set it up (admins)

Once the app is installed in your Slack workspace:

In Slack, open Swarm in the sidebar and go to the Home tab.
Select Set up Swarm.
Paste your team's Swarm API key.
Pick the channels where Swarm should answer.

For a private channel, type /invite @Swarm in that channel first. Swarm doesn't work in Slack Connect channels (channels shared with another organisation).

Run a lookup

In a channel you picked during setup, post one of these:

@Swarm https://www.linkedin.com/in/someone to see who can introduce you to a person
@Swarm https://example.com to see who can introduce you to someone at a company (a company's LinkedIn page works too)
/swarm <link> to do the same without mentioning the bot

Swarm replies in a thread. Each result shows the teammate, how strongly they're connected, and why. If nobody is connected to the person directly, Swarm shows teammates who know people at their current company instead.

What the reactions mean

👀 Swarm is looking
✅ Found teammates who can introduce you
🟡 No direct path, but found teammates connected to people at their company
➖ Nothing found
⚠️ Something went wrong. Try again in a minute

Add what you know

Under an answer, select I know them or I know someone there to post a note in the thread saying you can help. These notes stay in Slack and aren't added to your network in Swarm.

Add someone as a connector

Run /swarm add-connector https://www.linkedin.com/in/someone. Swarm asks you to confirm before adding anyone. The new connector can then sync their LinkedIn connections with The Swarm Chrome extension.

Adding a connector uses one connector seat and 1 credit. If your team has no seats left, the person isn't added and nothing is charged.

What it costs

Swarm for Slack is included with Premium and Enterprise plans. Most lookups are free. Credits are used in two cases: when Swarm falls back to people at a person's company (1 credit each time, only if Swarm has that profile), and when you add a connector. Admins can turn the fallback off in the Home tab.

Good to know

Swarm only responds when you mention @Swarm, use /swarm, or select one of its buttons. It never reads your channel history.
Answers are visible to everyone in the channel, including Slack guests.
Credits come from your team's normal Swarm API credits.

Your data

Your API key and Slack connection are stored encrypted.
For each lookup we keep who asked, the link, how many results were found and whether it worked, but not the results. These records and notes are deleted after 90 days.
Disconnecting Swarm in the Home tab, or uninstalling the app, deletes your API key and all stored data for the workspace.

Troubleshooting

Swarm doesn't reply. Check the channel is enabled in the Home tab, and run /invite @Swarm in private channels. Slack Connect channels aren't supported.

"Nothing found" for a company website. Try the company's LinkedIn page instead.

Rate limit message. Swarm allows 60 requests per minute per API key. Wait a minute and try again.

API key rejected. Copy the full key again from the API page, and check your team is on a Premium or Enterprise plan.

Swarm for Slack (beta)