Use OnCallManager from Slack without guessing where each action lives
This guide follows the same layout your team sees in Slack App Home. Create schedules from the top action row, create a shared Google calendar from each rotation, manage each rotation directly from its action buttons, and turn on AI auto-answering with the same workflow.
Top action row
Create schedules and open this guide from Slack App Home
New Schedule
Open the schedule wizard, choose the rotation cadence, add responders, and publish your first handoff.
Guide
Open this page any time someone on the team needs a quick walkthrough of the Slack workflow.
Per-rotation actions
What each button under a schedule is for
Shared Google Calendar
Open a rotation’s Google Calendar action to create its private shared calendar. The owner shares it with Google users or groups using “See all event details”; teammates then subscribe without connecting Google to OnCallManager.
Edit
Update members, cadence, handoff timing, or notification settings without recreating the rotation.
Override
Handle PTO, shift swaps, or emergency coverage changes while keeping the active owner accurate in Slack.
Manage Knowledge Base
Link Google Docs and keep a rotation-specific runbook that responders can maintain over time. That same knowledge base is what AI auto-answering uses when someone asks the rotation a question in Slack.
AI auto-answering
What it does and how to make it useful
How it gets triggered
A teammate mentions the rotation handle in Slack with an operational question. OnCallManager answers in the same thread so the conversation stays where the work is happening.
What it uses
Answers are grounded in the rotation's knowledge base: linked Google Docs, prior team conversations, and thread context for the current question.
What to manage
Use Manage Knowledge Base to connect the runbooks, SOPs, and incident notes you want the AI to search before it replies.
Recommended workflow
The sequence most teams use after install
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1
Create the first schedule
Start with the rotation your team pages most often so the current owner becomes obvious right away.
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2
Shared Google Calendar
Create one private calendar per rotation, grant teammates access in Google Calendar, then share its subscription link. Existing ICS subscriptions remain a separate calendar feed.
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3
Build the knowledge base
Add the runbooks, SOPs, and incident notes your team actually uses so each rotation has usable context attached to it and AI auto-answering can retrieve the right instructions.
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4
Use overrides when reality changes
Temporary ownership changes should go through the override flow so the app home and notifications stay aligned.