## Why It Matters

Channel notifications are easy to scroll past. When a candidate is waiting on *your* decision, or a vulnerability report lands during *your* on-call shift, a message in a busy channel isn't enough. Personal Slack notifications send you a direct message — only when something needs your action, never for general updates. Every DM deep-links to the exact screen where you can act: the decision form, the review, the report.

## What Triggers a DM

### Hiring stages

| Event | Who Gets the DM |
|-------|----------------|
| Decision required on a candidate | Stage leads (plus a daily reminder while the decision is overdue) |
| Review assigned | The stage's reviewers |
| Code assignment submitted | The stage's reviewers |
| Offer accepted or declined | Account admins and hiring managers |

Each hiring DM explains why you received it ("Why you: you're the stage lead for Technical Interview") and includes a **View in Kit** button that takes you straight to the relevant page.

### CSiRT on-call

If you're the on-call person for a [vulnerability disclosure program](/docs/on-call-rotation), you receive DMs for:

- **New report submitted**
- **Critical severity escalation**
- **SLA at risk** and **SLA breached**
- **Appeal received**
- **Shift started / shift ended** — every transition: scheduled rotation, manual start/end, or PagerDuty sync

These alerts go to whoever is currently on call — they follow the schedule, not a subscription.

Shift DMs carry stats: the **shift ended** message recaps what happened on your watch (new reports, status changes, researcher messages, bounties awarded, SLA breaches, and what you handed off), and the **shift started** message briefs you on the queue you're inheriting (open reports, awaiting triage, SLA at risk).

## Prerequisites

Personal DMs work when three things are true:

1. **Slack is connected** — An account admin has connected a workspace via [Integrations > Slack](/integrations/slack/connections)
2. **The connection allows DMs** — The connection's [permission level](/docs/slack-permission-levels) is **Collaboration** or **Full**
3. **Your email matches** — The email on your Kit account matches a member of the Slack workspace

If your account already uses [candidate channels](/docs/slack-candidate-channels), no reinstall or extra Slack permissions are needed — candidate channels require Full, so personal DMs work with the same connection. Connections set to **Notifications only** can't send DMs; an admin needs to upgrade the level first.

## Auto-Enrollment and Consent

You don't need to opt in before anything happens. The first time an eligible event occurs, Kit sends you the DM — and includes a one-time footer asking whether you want more:

- **Keep them coming** — Confirms you want these notifications
- **Pause** — Stops them immediately

After that first message, the footer disappears. Later hiring DMs instead carry a small **Pause these DMs** button, so opting out is always one click away.

## Pausing and Resuming

You can pause hiring-stage DMs at any time:

- Click **Pause these DMs** on any hiring DM, or
- Turn off the toggle on your [Slack notifications settings page](/account/slack_notifications)

Resuming works from the same settings page — re-enabling from the web counts as consent, so DMs start again right away.

> [!NOTE]
> **On-call DMs can't be paused.** They follow the on-call schedule: if you're on call, you get the alerts. Instead of a pause button, on-call DMs include **Hand off** and **Enable holiday mode** links. Hand off your shift to stop the alerts, or enable [Holiday Mode](/docs/holiday-mode) — which automatically advances the rotation to the next person.

Holiday Mode also pauses your hiring-stage DMs, the same way it suspends your email notifications.

## Your Settings Page

Go to **Account Settings > Slack Notifications** (in the Personal section of the sidebar, or directly at [/account/slack_notifications](/account/slack_notifications)). The page shows:

- **Slack direct messages** — The master switch for all personal DMs
- **Hiring stage updates** — Toggle for hiring DMs (decisions, reviews, code assignments, offers)
- **CSiRT on-call alerts** — Shown for information only, marked "Follows your schedule"

If Kit couldn't find your email in the connected workspace, the page shows a warning with the email it looked for — make sure your Slack account uses the same address as your Kit account.

## Admin Control

Account admins can disable personal DMs for the entire account: go to [Integrations > Slack](/integrations/slack/connections) and turn off the **Personal notifications** feature toggle. It's on by default. When disabled, no member receives personal DMs regardless of their individual settings.

If every connection is set to **Notifications only**, the toggle is disabled and shows an explanation that no connection's [permission level](/docs/slack-permission-levels) supports personal DMs.

## Quick Checklist

- [ ] Connect your Slack workspace in [Integrations](/integrations/slack/connections) (admin)
- [ ] Verify your Kit email matches your Slack email
- [ ] When your first DM arrives, click **Keep them coming** to confirm
- [ ] Review your toggles at [Account Settings > Slack Notifications](/account/slack_notifications)
- [ ] Going away? Enable [Holiday Mode](/docs/holiday-mode) — it pauses hiring DMs and hands off your on-call shift