Create a random coffee program in Alfy

Add a new Alfy random coffee program from the web dashboard and choose its channels, group size, schedule, announcements and scheduling options.

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Microsoft TeamsUpdated Oct 5, 20263 min read

To create an Alfy random coffee program, open Admin › Settings in the Alfy web dashboard, click Add program, choose the channels, group size and schedule, then click Create program. A program tells Alfy who to match, how often, and how to announce the matches.

Step 1: Click Add program#

Open the web dashboard, switch to Admin and open the Settings tab. Under Programs, click Add program.

The Add program window opens. If no program exists yet, the button is called Add a program and opens the Setup Alfy page instead.

Step 2: Select the audience#

Under Select audience(s) to connect, pick one or more channels. Alfy matches their members.

The Add program window, with the audience field highlighted

One channel: people are matched within that channel.
Several channels: Alfy aims to match people from different channels. Someone in several of the channels is only matched once.

In Slack, Alfy joins public channels on its own when you save. For a private channel, type /invite @Alfy in it first. In Microsoft Teams, you can pick team channels and group chats where Alfy is installed. Shared channels aren't supported.

To leave some people out, click Exclude users from matching. See exclude people from a program.

Step 3: Choose the group size and schedule#

Field	Options	Default
`Group size`	2, 3, 4 or 5	2
`How often?`	Weekly, every few weeks, monthly, quarterly or `Custom…`	Every week on Monday
`At which time?`	15-minute steps	9:00am
`Select timezone`	Any timezone	Europe/Paris

The Add program window, with the How often? field highlighted

The group size is a minimum: leftover people join other groups, so some groups can be bigger. For every schedule option, see choose how often a program runs.

Step 4: Choose how matches are announced#

In Slack, under How would you like connections to be announced?, pick:

Post in channel: Alfy posts the list of groups in a channel.
Send group DM: Alfy opens a group DM with each group.
Both (default).

The Add program window, with the announcement field highlighted

If you post in a channel, pick it under Select the channel where announcements will be posted.

In Microsoft Teams, this question isn't shown: Alfy always posts in a channel or group chat.

Step 5: Choose the scheduling options#

Under Do you want Alfy to coordinate scheduling in DMs? (Slack) or Do you want Alfy to coordinate scheduling? (Teams), keep Yes (default) to let Alfy suggest time slots, let people vote and check Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar. Pick No to turn it off.

The Add program window, with the scheduling coordination field highlighted

With Yes, choose How long would you like each coffee chat to last?: 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. The default is 30.

To skip people who are out of office, turn on Automatically opt-out people who are set as OOO in their calendar. It's off by default. See skip people who are out of office.

The Add program window, with the out-of-office switch highlighted

Step 6: Click Create program#

Click Create program. Alfy names the program after its channels. You can rename it later.

The Add program window, with the Create program button highlighted

If you see an error#

If Alfy can't use a channel, the error names it. The most common cause is a private Slack channel Alfy hasn't been added to: type /invite @Alfy in it and try again. See troubleshoot common Alfy errors.