Check competitor mentions without opening a research rabbit hole
A competitor mention can be easy to lose in a DM. Have Exa search for relevant public information and bring back results for a quick review.
Trigger
Direct Message Received
Triggered when a new direct message (DM) is sent to a user in Slack. Catches all DMs across all DM channels.
Action
Search
Performs a web search using the exa engine, useful for queries requiring advanced filtering, specific content categories, or ai-optimized prompting.
Why this helps
Founders often note a competitor to investigate, then lose the name or the time to search for it.
- Catch competitor leads as they arrive.
- Bring relevant web results into a single run report.
- Make a quick review possible without interrupting the current task.
Setup
Build it in a few focused steps.
- 1Connect Slack and Exa to Notis once in the portal.
- 2Create an automation in the portal, or tell Notis in plain language to search Exa when a competitor is mentioned in a Slack DM.
- 3Ask the automation to return relevant public pages and a short note on what each result may clarify.
- 4Select Direct Message Received as the trigger and choose a channel for run reports.
- 5Test by sending a DM that names a competitor and a research angle.
Questions about this workflow
Does it monitor all Slack DMs?
The Direct Message Received event catches new DMs across Slack DM channels.
Does it decide whether a competitor is relevant?
The plain-language instruction can ask Notis to focus on competitor mentions and a stated research angle; review the results before making decisions.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
Supported Triggers and Actions
Notis builds workflows that link Slack to Exa. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.
Slack triggers
Exa actions
Recurring trigger
Notis starts this workflow on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or during business hours.
Generate an answer
Generates a direct, citation-backed answer to a clear natural language question or topic using exa's search, adept at both specific answers and detailed summaries for open-ended queries.
Webhook trigger
Notis starts this workflow when an external tool or custom backend sends an HTTP request.
Create Import
Tool to create a new import to upload data into a webset. use when you need to initialize an import before uploading the data file.
New Channel Created Trigger
Triggered when a new channel is created in Slack.
Create a Monitor
Tool to create a new monitor. use when you need to schedule automated updates for a webset without manual runs.
Channel Message Received
Triggered when a message is posted in a Slack channel (public, private, or multi-party IM). Does NOT match direct messages.
Create Webset
Tool to create a new webset with search, import, and enrichment setup. use when you need to configure and seed a webset in one call.
Direct Message Received
Triggered when a new direct message (DM) is sent to a user in Slack. Catches all DMs across all DM channels.
Delete import
Tool to delete an existing import. use when you need to permanently remove an import by its id.
Message Reaction Added
Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.
Delete webset
Tool to delete a webset. use after confirming the webset id to permanently remove the webset and all its items.
Message Reaction Removed
Triggered when a reaction is removed from a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.
Find similar
Finds web pages semantically similar to a given url using embeddings-based search, optionally retrieving full text, highlights, or summaries for results.
Reaction Added Trigger
DEPRECATED: use `SLACK_MESSAGE_REACTION_ADDED` instead. Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack.
Get contents from URLs or document IDs
Retrieves configurable text and highlights from a list of exa document ids or publicly accessible urls.
Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.
Slack and Exa, or any other combination from 1,000+ integrations.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
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