Runbear just got smarter—it now remembers your specific instructions and adapts accordingly. For example, tell it "Be more polite," "Always summarize in bullet points," or even "Always fetch pricing details from the web," and it'll personalize future conversations based on what it has learned about you. Give it a try!
Note: This feature is available by default on Claude and still improving. Memory management tools aren't available yet, but your assistant is always learning behind the scenes. Stay tuned—more updates coming soon!
Switch to the New Slack AI App
We’re excited to launch Slack AI App support for custom bots! You can now add AI agents directly to your Slack’s top navigation bar — the fastest way to bring your assistant closer to your team.
Follow this guide to enable the Slack AI App and make it even easier to get the most out of Runbear!
Smart Reply Now Supports Targeted Responses
Smart Reply now gives you more control — you can choose exactly which users or groups should receive the AI Agent's response.
For instance, if you'd like your customer service team to review customer inquiries before replying to the customer, just set them as the recipients. It's an easy way to keep things efficient and accurate.
This update gives you more flexibility to tailor Smart Reply to your team’s needs and workflows.
Track Changes to Your Agent’s Instructions
You can now view and compare changes to your assistant’s instructions over time.
Whether you’re tracking tweaks or debugging behavior, this gives you better visibility into your assistant’s evolution.
Other Changes
Support GPT 4.1
Improved Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Stabilized KB sync
MCP Support, Smart Reply, and More!
April’s here—time to turn the page and start strong! No jokes here—we've genuinely released some incredible new features. We're thrilled to share these exciting updates and preview the important milestones on our horizon!
Model Context Protocol (MCP) Support
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is revolutionizing the AI landscape! We're thrilled to announce that Runbear now supports MCP integrations. This breakthrough transforms your AI agents from simple conversational tools into powerful autonomous systems capable of taking meaningful actions in real-time.
Smart Reply makes your AI Agent feel like a true teammate—always ready to jump in with helpful suggestions without needing to be explicitly mentioned. When someone posts a message in Slack that your agent can help with, it quietly suggests a response just for you. You can then choose to share it with the thread or dismiss it with a click.
No commands, no tags—just seamless intelligence embedded in your team’s workflow.
Use cases
Sales team: “Does anyone know the contact at Acme?” → Agent suggests the correct contact info pulled from your CRM
HR team: “Did our PTO policy change this month?” → Agent links to the updated Notion doc
IT team: “Where’s the VPN setup guide again?” → Agent surfaces the Confluence page instantly
Support team: “Who should we escalate this to?” → Agent provides escalation steps based on your internal documentation
How to set up
Smart Reply is automatically enabled for all newly created AI Agents. For existing Agents, you can enable Smart Reply in the Channels > Trigger tab within the Runbear dashboard.
We’ve polished the knowledge source integration experience to be faster, more seamless, and more reliable.
Now, you don’t have to wait for all your files to finish uploading when creating a new agent—just keep going, and we’ll handle the rest in the background.
We’ve also added Notion document search during sync, so it’s easier than ever to find exactly what your agent needs.
Smarter Agents, Now Easier to Test
AI Agents Responding to User Mentions
Enable your AI agent to jump in with answers when someone is mentioned in a question—if it has the relevant knowledge to help. Don't worry; only the people involved in the conversation will see the response, privately. Want to share it with everyone? Just hit the "Share to thread" button!
To enable this feature, go to your assistant's Channels tab and toggle on "Trigger on User Mention".
Playground
We’re excited to launch the Playground! Now you can test your AI agents directly in your web browser—no more switching back and forth between tools. It’s all in one place for maximum convenience.
Privacy Policy Update
Removed clauses in the Privacy Policy related to sharing user information with business partners and other users from December 30th, 2024.
Improved Knowledge Base Integration Flow, and More!
Improved Knowledge Base Integration Flow
We’ve made syncing with Google Drive and Confluence easier!
For Google Drive, setup is now much simpler. Instead of creating a service account and sharing files manually, you can authorize the integration and select files to sync. Existing setups will still work, but switching requires disconnecting and reconnecting.
Note: Folder sync isn’t supported with the new method. Use the service account option if you need to sync entire folders.
For Confluence, no more manual API keys or URLs—just authorize access and select the pages to sync. It’s faster and more straightforward.
For Slack, syncing is now even more flexible! You can set a starting point for message sync, so only conversations from that point onward will be included. Plus, you’re no longer limited to the default Runbear bot—custom bots are now supported for integration.
Other changes
Improved Slack message summarization quality: Enhanced the assistant's conversation understanding and summary generation capabilities
Fixed annotation mapping: Fixed failed annotation mappings in assistant responses
Perplexity Integration & Updates
Introducing Perplexity Integration for Real-Time Search
We’re excited to announce that Runbear now supports the Perplexity API, bringing real-time search capabilities directly to your workspace. This integration allows you to summon assistants built with Perplexity to perform instant searches, seamlessly enhancing your productivity within your existing workflow.
Key use cases:
Market Research: Access the latest market trends, competitor analyses, and industry insights without leaving your workspace.
Customer Research for Sales Teams: Quickly gather up-to-date information on potential clients to tailor your sales strategies effectively.
To get started, simply select the Perplexity type and enter your Perplexity API key when creating a new assistant. We’re always here to help, so feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need assistance.
Simpler Confluence Integration with Easy Navigation
We’ve enhanced the Confluence page integration experience to make it more intuitive and user-friendly. The new tree view interface allows users to easily explore the structure of an entire Confluence space and select specific pages or subpages for integration with just a few clicks.
Other changes
Embedded images: We've launched the embedded image feature! This enhancement allows images to be seamlessly included within messages, providing more context and ensuring you stay on track while chatting with Runbear.
Faster Notion Loading: We’ve made the Notion tree view load faster! Explore your changelog more smoothly and efficiently than before.
Slack as a Knowledge Base, Annotations, and More
Using Slack as a Knowledge Base
We're excited to introduce a new way to leverage your team's Slack conversations. This integration enables your AI assistant to answer recurring questions by learning from your team's historical discussions.
What's New
Transform your Slack channels into a searchable knowledge base
Let your AI assistant handle repeated questions automatically
Save your team's time by reducing redundant explanations
Keep knowledge base fresh with automatic conversation syncing
Comparison with Message Fetch ActionWhile Message Fetch is perfect for daily recaps or accessing recent messages (last 30 days), the new Knowledge Base integration builds a comprehensive, searchable archive of your team's knowledge.
Check out our guide for detailed setup instructions.
Annotations in Generated Answers
We’ve enhanced our answer generation with Annotations, which includes references to the knowledge sources used. This feature helps users trace back to the original information sources, making the answers more transparent and reliable.
To enable annotations, go to the Assistant page, select the Channel tab, and open the Preferences section. For a step-by-step walkthrough, follow this interactive guide.
LaserAway Success Story
LaserAway, a leader in aesthetic services, sought a streamlined way to provide timely support for its growing team. By implementing AI assistants in Slack using Runbear, they automated responses to common inquiries, enhancing internal communication and improving productivity. Check out this case study to learn how LaserAway leveraged AI assistants using Runbear to transform their support experience.
Other changes
Improved error handling when OpenAI API key has insufficient permissions.
Streamlined the connection process when importing OpenAI assistants.
Assistant Integration Flow
Assistant Slack Connection Flow Update
We’ve updated the Slack integration flow, allowing each assistant to connect with a dedicated bot featuring custom names and logos, making connections more intuitive and aligned with user preferences.
What's Changed
Create Slack chatbots with custom @Names and logo images, enabling each AI assistant to have a unique, dedicated identity in their workspace.
Enjoy a clear and streamlined user experience for the connection workflow.
Easily manage multiple assistants without any conflicts.
OpenAPI Call Debugging
We've added visibility into API tool calls made by OpenAI Assistants, making it easier to debug function calling integrations.
What's New
New logging interface for tracking API tool calls within conversation threads
Detailed context for each tool call execution and its results
How to Access
Go to the Assistants page
Navigate to the 'Threads' tab
Click on a specific thread
Click the tool call logs icon to view the execution logs
This enhancement significantly improves the debugging experience when using OpenAI Assistants with external tool integrations.
Other changes
Improved document loading speed during Notion integration.
Fixed an issue where Slack Search action couldn't read formatted bot messages.
Fixed a bug where image interpretation setting would automatically re-enable itself.
Notion Integration & Slack Search
Notion Knowledge Base is Now Available
We're excited to announce that Notion Sync is now available in beta. This allows you to keep your OpenAI Assistant up-to-date with the latest changes in your Notion documents automatically. No more manual uploads needed to ensure your assistant uses the most current information.
To synchronize is super simple:
Connect your Notion workspace to Runbear
Select the pages you want to sync
Runbear will automatically upload the content to the OpenAI platform
Tip: Initially loading all documents can be time-consuming. We recommend starting with only essential pages for a quicker setup.
Organization-wide Analytics Dashboard
We're thrilled to launch our Organization-wide Analytics Dashboard. This new feature allows you to monitor the overall performance and usage of AI assistants across your entire organization.
While starting with these functionalities, we plan to expand the dashboard with more comprehensive analytics and insights in the future, including token usage data and more detailed performance metrics.
Renewed Slack Search
We've made significant improvements to our Slack Search functionality based on user feedback, making it more intuitive and user-friendly:
Default Behavior Change: The Assistant now automatically searches the history of the channel where the query is made, rather than pre-selected channels.
Expanded Search Capability: To search other channels, users can now simply tag the desired channel names in their query (make sure the Slack bot is invited to these channels).
How it works:
Ask a question in any channel where the Assistant is active - it will search that channel's history by default.
To include other channels in your search, just tag them in your query (e.g., "What was discussed about project X in #general and #project-y?")
These updates make the Slack Search more intuitive and accessible for all team members, regardless of who set up the Assistant.
Note for existing users: Your current setup will continue to work as before. To benefit from these new features, simply update your Assistant.
We're continuously working to improve Runbear based on your feedback. As always, we welcome your suggestions for further enhancements.
Other Changes
We fixed an issue where some Google Drive docx files were not uploading properly.
We resolved a problem where Custom Slack Bots weren't automatically triggering in threads.
Slack Conversation Search, and More
Slack Conversation Search
We're excited to introduce our new Slack Conversation Search feature, empowering your AI Assistant with the ability to retrieve and analyze conversation history from specific Slack channels.
Getting Started:
Enable the Slack Search action for your Assistant.
Select the Slack channels you want your Assistant to have access to.
Invite the Slack bot to the selected channels.
Start asking your Assistant questions about past conversations, decisions, or updates.
Key Benefits:
Quickly catch up on missed discussions
Track project progress and milestones
Recall important decisions without digging through conversation history
It's crucial to understand that this feature is distinct from Slack as a knowledge base functionality. The Assistant doesn't incorporate or store Slack conversation history as part of its knowledge base. Instead, it performs targeted, real-time searches of specified Slack channels only when you ask a specific question.
This approach ensures that the Assistant accesses only the most relevant information when needed. For this reason, we recommend connecting only the essential channels that contain the information you're likely to query.
Other Changes
Resolved synchronization issues with Confluence knowledge base, ensuring more reliable data updates.
Fixed an issue where Runbear occasionally did not post comments when tickets were created in Zendesk.
