How to Use Carly in Slack

Carly works in Slack just like she works over email — you can ask her to check your calendar, schedule meetings, and coordinate with teammates. Here's how to get started and the different ways teams can use her.

Getting Started

1. Install the Carly Slack App

An admin on your Slack workspace can install Carly from the integrations page on your Carly dashboard. Once installed, Carly is available to everyone in the workspace.

2. Link Your Account

If you haven't signed up yet, head to Carly and connect your calendar.

Once you have an account, go to your Carly dashboard, open the Integrations tab, and click Connect to Slack.

3. Talk to Carly

You can talk to Carly in two ways:

• @mention in a channel: @Carly what's on my calendar tomorrow?
• Direct message: Just DM her directly — no @mention needed.

Carly responds in a thread so she doesn't clutter your channels.

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What You Can Do

Check Your Calendar

@Carly what does my week look like?

@Carly do I have anything Wednesday afternoon?

@Carly when is my next meeting with Sophie?

These all check your own calendar — the same calendars you've connected in your Carly dashboard.

Create Events

@Carly schedule a team standup tomorrow at 10am

@Carly block off Friday afternoon for focus time

Find Free Time

@Carly when am I free this week for a 1-hour meeting?

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Scheduling With Teammates

This is where it gets interesting. There are a few ways to find time with other people, depending on your setup.

Option 1: @mention a Teammate (Availability Polls)

The simplest way — just mention them:

@Carly find time with @Robert for a 30-minute call this week

Carly will recognize Robert from the @mention and look up his email. If Robert is also a Carly user, she can automatically check his calendar and suggest times that work for both of you — no back-and-forth needed.

If Robert isn't a Carly user, Carly will create an availability poll and send him a link to indicate when he's free.

Option 2: Queryable Calendars (Instant Cross-Calendar Checks)

For teams that work together every day, this is the fastest setup. It lets Carly directly read a teammate's calendar to check their availability — no polls, no waiting.

How to set it up:

1. Go to your Carly dashboard → Accounts tab
2. Click "Advanced" at the bottom of the page
3. Find the calendars you want Carly to be able to check (e.g., a teammate's calendar that's been shared with you, or a conference room) on an on-demand basis (won't count against your availability)
4. Mark it as Queryable
5. Add a line in your Preferences document to explain how to use it

"When I ask to find time with Mark, use check_calendar for Mark Miller's calendar."

Or for conference rooms:

"When I ask to find a free room, use check_calendar to check the conference room calendars and pick one that's free, then set the location to that room."

Now when you say:

@Carly find 30 minutes with Mark this week

Carly checks both your calendar and Mark's queryable calendar directly and gives you times instantly — no poll, no delay.

Queryable calendars are calendars Carly can look at on demand but that don't count against your own free/busy time. This is the key distinction — they're reference calendars, not your personal schedule.

This works great for:

• Small teams where everyone has shared their calendars with each other
• Office managers booking conference rooms
• Executive assistants managing multiple people's schedules

Option 3: Availability Polls (Works With Anyone)

For scheduling with people outside your immediate team — clients, external collaborators, or anyone who hasn't shared their calendar:

@Carly set up an availability poll with [email protected] and @Robert for a 1-hour meeting next week

Carly creates a poll, auto-fetches calendars for any participants who are Carly users, and sends a poll link to everyone else. Once everyone responds, Carly can suggest the best times.

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Tips for Teams

Share Calendars + Set Up Queryable Access

If your team uses Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, share your calendars with each other through your calendar app, then mark those shared calendars as "queryable" in Carly. This gives you instant cross-calendar scheduling without any polls.

Write Good Preferences

The more context you give Carly, the better she works. In your Preferences on the dashboard, tell her things like:

• "I prefer morning meetings."
• "Don't schedule anything during my focus blocks."
• "When scheduling with the engineering team, use check_calendar for their calendars."

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How It All Fits Together

What you want	What to say	What Carly does
Check your own schedule	"What's on my calendar Friday?"	Reads your connected calendars
Find your own free time	"When am I free this week?"	Checks your calendars for open slots
Schedule with a teammate (quick)	"Find time with @Robert"	Uses queryable calendars if set up, otherwise finds mutually available times if Robert is a Carly user
Book a conference room	"Book a room for tomorrow at 2pm"	Checks queryable room calendars, picks a free one
Create a simple event	"Block off 3-4pm Friday"	Creates the event on your calendar

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FAQ

Does everyone on my team need a Carly account? To use Carly directly in Slack, yes — each person needs their own account with their Slack email. But for scheduling with someone, they don't need an account — as long as they have shared their calendar with you, there's no need for them to have an account.

Can Carly see my teammates' calendars? Only if they've shared their calendar with you (through Google/Microsoft) and you've marked it as queryable in Carly. I can see my teammates' availability in Google Calendar when I schedule with them, but their calendars don't show up in Carly. Google Calendar can sometimes show coworkers' free/busy when you add them as guests, even if you haven't actually added their calendars to your own list.

To be able to have Carly check their availability, open Google Calendar on the web and:

• Click the "Other calendars" + button and choose "Subscribe to calendar" (or "Browse resources" / "Add coworker's calendar" in Google Workspace)
• Search for your teammate and add their calendar so it appears under "Other calendars"

Once you've done that, go back to the Carly Accounts tab, click Advanced, and mark that newly added calendar as Queryable so Carly can use it when finding time.

What if two people have similar names? Carly will ask you to clarify. If you @mention someone in Slack, Carly uses their exact email from Slack — no ambiguity.

Does Carly work in group channels? Yes — just @mention her. She'll respond in a thread to keep things tidy.