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When a lead replies, Chert Notifications posts a Block Kit card in the bound channel. Operators triage from the card — either by clicking through to the CRM or by replying directly in the Slack thread.

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Before You Begin

  • Chert Notifications is installed and a channel is bound.
  • notificationMethod is set to slack or both (see Configuration).

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Card anatomy

SectionPurpose
Headline:speech_balloon: Lead Name at Company replied
Context stripProject name, campaign name, phone line label, lead phone number
Conversation tailUp to the last 8 non-system messages, formatted as quoted blocks with timestamps
Suggested replyEither a campaign-templated reply or an AI-drafted draft, in a code block
Review & reply buttonOpens the lead’s conversation pane in the Chert console with the draft pre-filled
In-thread hintReminder that you can reply in-thread to direct the bot
The card ts is recorded in convo.reply_notify_slack_ts. Thread replies use this ts as the join key back to the lead. The button URL has the shape: 
https://console.trychert.com/?project=<projectId>&lead=<leadId>&draft=ready
Clicking opens the slide-over conversation panel for that lead. If a draft was attached to the notification, it is pre-filled in the reply composer.
The Chert console slide-over conversation panel that the Slack notification deep link opens

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Thread-reply triage

Replying in the card’s thread routes the message through Chert Notifications’ LLM, which classifies it as either a question or a draft.
Thread-reply flow

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Direct mention is required

The bot only reacts to thread replies that include @Chert Notifications (or whatever name the workspace gave the bot). Bare in-thread chatter between operators is ignored, so two people deliberating in a thread does not trigger anything.

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Question vs draft classification

HeuristicRouting
Reply contains a ?, or starts with what / who / when / why / where / how / did / does / is / are / any / can you / could you / tell meTreated as a question. The bot answers in-thread using the lead’s recent conversation, campaign, and phone-line context.
OtherwiseTreated as a draft. The bot polishes the body and posts a confirmation card with ✅/❌ reactions.
AmbiguousDefaults to draft with a hedge — re-ask with a ? to flip to question mode.

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Approving a drafted reply

When the bot posts a draft confirmation card, react with:
ReactionEffect
✅ :white_check_mark: or :heavy_check_mark: or :+1:Send the drafted reply to the lead.
❌ :x: or :no_entry_sign: or :-1:Cancel. Nothing is sent.
Approval is processed as soon as Slack delivers the reaction event. A fallback cron also resolves pending proposals, so a missed event still gets reconciled.

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Card refinement

If you reply again in the thread while a draft confirmation is pending, the previously pending card is auto-rejected and a fresh card is posted with the refined draft. You always see exactly one live card per thread. Examples:
Thread replyEffect
make it shorterOld card rejected. New card posted with a shorter draft.
add a calendar linkOld card rejected. New card posted with the link inserted.
same idea but mention pricingOld card rejected. New card mentions pricing.
An auto-rejected proposal records superseded by &lt;new id&gt; in the audit trail so the history of refinements is preserved.

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Webhook payload

When notificationMethod is webhook or both, every qualifying reply is also POSTed to your webhookUrl. 
{
  "event": "lead_reply",
  "event_id": "<leadid>:<sha256>",
  "timestamp": "2026-04-22T...",
  "project": { "id": "...", "name": "..." },
  "lead": {
    "id": "...", "name": "...", "phone": "...",
    "company": "...", "linkedin_url": "...",
    "custom_fields": { ... }
  },
  "inbound_message": { "text": "...", "timestamp": "..." },
  "conversation": [
    { "role": "outbound" | "inbound" | "system",
      "text": "...", "timestamp": "..." }
  ],
  "suggested_reply": "AI-drafted text or null",
  "crm_deep_link": "https://console.trychert.com/?project=...&lead=...&draft=ready",
  "meta": {
    "inbound_count": 2, "outbound_count": 1,
    "campaign_name": "...", "phone_line_label": "..."
  }
}
Headers:
HeaderPurpose
x-chert-eventAlways lead_reply
x-chert-event-idDedup key for replays
x-chert-timestampUnix seconds
x-chert-signaturev1,<ts>,<hex> HMAC-SHA256 of <ts>.<raw-body>, only when webhookSecret is configured
Retry on 5xx or network failure up to 3× with exponential backoff (1s → 2s → 4s). 4xx is terminal.

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See Also

Configuration

Notification routing and the Nth-reply filter.

Security

Signature verification and what the bot reads vs. writes.