Spark is Torch’s AI leadership coach. With the Spark app for Slack, the people in your organization can have a coaching conversation without leaving the place they already work, and pick that same conversation back up in Torch whenever they want to.
This page explains what the app does, how it behaves inside Slack, and how to install it in your workspace.
What Spark solves
Coaching usually happens on a schedule. The moments that need it do not: a difficult message lands, a 1:1 is in twenty minutes, a decision has to be made before the end of the day.
Spark closes that gap. It is available in Slack the moment the situation comes up, and it carries the context of your Torch programs — your growth plan, your organization’s learning content, and your earlier conversations — into whatever you are working through.
Spark supports reflection, preparation, and practice. It does not replace live coaching with a Torch coach.
How Spark works in Slack
Once the app is installed and a person has connected their Torch account, Spark appears as a direct message in Slack.
- Start a conversation. Open the Spark DM and type, or pick one of the suggested prompts on the app’s home tab. Spark replies in the same thread.
- Have a real coaching exchange. Spark asks questions rather than handing over answers: what outcome you want, what you have already tried, what is making the situation hard. It draws on your Torch growth plan and your organization’s learning content so its suggestions fit your role.
- Continue in Torch. Every Slack conversation also appears in Spark on the Torch web app, under the Spark section. Open it there and the full history from Slack is already in place.
- Come back to Slack. When you return to the Slack thread, Spark posts a short note that the conversation continued in Torch, and it can refer to what you added there. Messages you write in Torch are not posted into Slack.
- Pick up where you left off. After a long gap, Spark starts a fresh session but keeps the context it has built about you.
What your workspace admins can see
This is the most important thing to tell your people before they start.
Conversations with Spark in Slack live in Slack. They follow your organization’s Slack data and confidentiality policies, not Torch’s, and your Slack workspace admins may be able to see them, depending on your Slack plan and settings.
Conversations in the Torch web app keep Torch’s privacy protections: individual transcripts are never visible to company admins or coaches.
Spark shows this notice to every person in four places, so nobody is surprised:
- In Spark’s greeting in Slack.
- On the Spark app’s home tab in Slack.
- In Torch, under Settings → Integrations → Slack, before they connect.
- In Torch, on any Slack conversation they open.
See Torch coaching privacy overview for the full picture.
Install Spark in your Slack workspace
You need to be a Torch admin for your organization, and you need permission to install apps in your Slack workspace. If app installs in your workspace require approval, your Slack admin will receive the request.
- In Torch, open Settings → Integrations.
- Under Slack Workspace (Admin), select Add to Slack.
- Slack asks you to confirm the permissions Spark needs. Review them and select Allow.
- You are returned to Torch, and the Integrations page confirms the workspace is installed and active.
That is the whole installation. It connects your Slack workspace to your Torch organization; it does not yet connect any individual person.
What Spark asks for, and why
| Permission | Why Spark needs it |
|---|---|
| Send messages | To reply to you in your direct message thread |
| Read direct messages | To read the messages you send Spark in that thread, and nothing else |
| View people’s names and email addresses | To match a Slack account to the right Torch account |
| Act as an AI assistant | To appear in Slack’s assistant panel with suggested prompts |
Spark is never added to channels and cannot read them. It only ever sees the direct message thread between you and Spark.
Connect your own Torch account
Each person connects once, for themselves.
- In Torch, open Settings → Integrations.
- Under Slack, read the note about Slack confidentiality, then select Connect Slack.
- Confirm in Slack. You are returned to Torch, and the page shows your account as connected.
In most cases Spark can also match you automatically when your Slack email address is the same as your Torch email address. If it cannot, it will ask you to connect before the first coaching reply.
Start using Spark
- In Slack, open the Spark direct message in your sidebar.
- Type what is on your mind, or pick one of the suggested prompts:
- Get the most from Spark
- Be more effective
- Work through a situation
- Spark replies in the same thread. Keep going for as long as it is useful.
- To continue the same conversation with more room, open Spark in the Torch web app and find it in your conversation list.
A good first message is a real situation, with enough detail to work with. For example: “I have a 1:1 tomorrow with someone on my team who has been missing deadlines. How should I open it?”
Remove Spark
- One person: in Torch, Settings → Integrations → Slack → Disconnect. Your Slack account is unlinked from Torch. Spark stops replying to you in Slack.
- Whole workspace: in Torch, Settings → Integrations → Slack Workspace (Admin), remove the workspace. You can also remove the app from the Slack side, under Apps in your workspace settings.
Troubleshooting
I do not see the Integrations tab in Torch. Spark for Slack is not enabled for your organization yet. Contact your Torch account team.
Spark does not reply in Slack. Check that your Torch account is connected under Settings → Integrations. If Spark asked you to connect and you dismissed it, send any message in the thread and the prompt comes back.
I connected the wrong Slack account. Disconnect under Settings → Integrations → Slack, then connect again from the Slack account you want.
Privacy and support
Still stuck? Reach out to your Torch account team, or contact us at experience@torch.io.