Migrating Open Slack Tickets to Pylon

Last updated: May 6, 2026

Overview

When you add a Slack channel to Pylon, issues are created automatically whenever a customer sends a message — including replies on existing threads. This means any thread where the customer reaches out again will surface in Pylon on its own.

However, threads that are waiting on you or waiting on the customer won't generate any new activity. These tickets won't appear in Pylon until someone takes action. To ensure a complete cutover without dropping any open tickets, you'll need to proactively bring them into Pylon.

Before You Start

1. Add the Pylon Bot to Your Channels

The Pylon bot must be present in every Slack channel you want to import tickets from.

  • Public channels: Bulk-add the bot through the Pylon UI under Add Accounts (Navigate to Customers > Top right corner).

  • Private channels: You must invite the Pylon app from within each Slack channel individually, as Slack does not allow bulk-adding bots to private channels.

2. Disable Your Automations

Turn off any automations that send an automatic message to the customer when a new issue is created. Because Pylon treats each "ticketed" issue as a new issue, these automations would fire incorrectly for old threads.

You can re-enable them once the import is complete.

3. Enable "Ticket on Mention or Reaction" in Ticket Settings

In Ticket Settings, make sure the option Ticket on mention or reaction is enabled for your customer channels. This allows you to trigger ticket creation by reacting to a Slack message with the yellow ticket emoji.

Bringing an open thread into Pylon

For each open Slack thread you want to bring into Pylon:

  1. Navigate to the top-level message of the thread in Slack (not a reply — the original message that started the conversation).

  2. React to that message with the yellow ticket emoji.

  3. The issue will be created in Pylon shortly after.

  4. Update the ticket in Pylon and reassign to the right user.

After You're Done

  1. Re-enable your automations so new tickets behave normally going forward.

  2. Revert your ticket settings if you changed them specifically for this import flow.

  3. Disconnect your old system from Slack - make sure your old system is not messaging customers (auto bumps or automated confirmation messages)

  4. Download your ticket data from your previous system for cold storage and record-keeping.

  5. [Optional] - let the Pylon team know so that they can kick off the historic backfill of data.