How do I collect information from employees or contacts via Slack or email?

Use the data-gathering agent step to have Harriet reach out by Slack DM or email, ask follow-up questions, and return a structured summary when the conversation is complete.

Sometimes a workflow needs information that only a specific person holds—a manager's sign-off, a vendor reference number, or a colleague's availability. The data-gathering step handles this automatically and securely, contacting the right person and waiting for their reply before the workflow continues.

What it does

Harriet looks up the person's Slack DM channel or email address.
Harriet sends your message and waits for a reply—the workflow pauses at this point.
If the reply is incomplete or ambiguous, Harriet asks follow-up questions before moving on.
Harriet returns a summary of what it gathered to the next step in the workflow.

No-one manually monitors the thread. Harriet handles the conversation and passes results forward when done.

The three outcomes

The agent always resolves to one of:

All information gathered: returns a clean summary and the workflow continues.
Partial information or contact unresponsive: Harriet sends a polite closing message and hands control back to the linked ticket so your team can decide what to do next.
No information gathered: same—releases gracefully and hands back, rather than looping indefinitely.

What the contacted person experiences

They receive a direct message (Slack DM or email) from Harriet.
They reply normally—no special app or link is required.
Harriet may follow up once if the reply is incomplete.
When the conversation is complete, Harriet sends a brief closing message.

Example

Scenario: A compensation review workflow needs a manager to confirm a performance rating before generating the letter.

Data-gathering step instructions: "Reach out to {manager_email} via Slack and ask them to confirm the performance rating for {employee_name} for the period ending {review_date}."
Harriet messages the manager on Slack.
Manager replies: "Strong performer, 4/5."
Harriet returns: rating: 4/5, confirmed_by: manager@company.com, via: Slack DM.
Workflow continues to the letter-generation step.

Guardrails

Only use data gathering to contact people who are appropriate recipients for that information request. Do not use it as a bulk notification tool.
The data-gathering agent cannot access your knowledge base or employee records—it can only send messages and receive replies. This is intentional: it limits what Harriet can reveal to third parties.
If the person never replies, the workflow enters a waiting state. Ensure someone owns the linked ticket so stuck flows are noticed and can be released manually.
Email outreach requires a routable reply address to be configured by IT.