Collaboration services - Force Slack channel creation

[Karobolas]

I have installed Collaboration Services and integrated it with Slack to enable Sidebar Discussions.

Currently, a Slack channel is only created automatically when at least one participant exists only in Slack (i.e., not in ServiceNow).

What I want to achieve

I want a Slack channel to be created every time a Sidebar Discussion is started, regardless of whether participants exist only in ServiceNow.

What I’ve done

In our development environment, I managed to force channel creation by:

• Adding a record per user in the sys_cs_collab_config table

• Setting the flag create_external_conversation = true

This works as expected in Dev.

However, when I apply the exact same configuration in production, it does not create the Slack channel.

Additionally, I have:

• Set create_external_conversation = true on the sys_cs_collab_user table

• Verified that the integration itself works

• Confirmed that it works if external_user = true on sys_cs_collab_user

The issue with setting external_user = true is that it results in a separate duplicate user being shown in the chat participants dropdown, which is not desirable.

My question

Does anyone know:

• If there are additional properties, plugins, or ACL differences between environments that could affect this behavior?

• If there is another supported way to force Slack channel creation for all Sidebar Discussions?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!