> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.incident.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Importing existing incident channels to incident.io

You may start using [incident.io](https://incident.io/) after having already run incidents within Slack in the past. If so, you'll want to bring all the data with you when starting to use our product to make sure your team has the relevant information to hand, and to track trends in your incidents using our Insights.

## How to import

You'll be using our API following the same steps outlined in the [Creating your first incident using the API](/integrations/api-create-incident) help article

When making the API call to create the incident, make sure to:

* Set `mode` within the request payload to `"retrospective"`
* Set `retrospective_incident_options.slack_channel_id` within the request payload to the Slack channel ID

For example, the payload might look like:

```json theme={null}
{
  "mode": "retrospective",
  "retrospective_incident_options": {
    "slack_channel_id": "C01DZSENFFT"
  },
  "custom_field_values": [],
  "severity_id": "01G0J1EXE7AXZ2C93K61WBPYEH"
}
```

After the incident has been created, the main events that occurred in the Slack channel will be used to generate the [incident timeline](/post-incident/timeline), and your insights will be updated within an hour.

## FAQs

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="What if the Slack channel is archived?">
    Bots can't view the contents of archived channels, so you'll need to enable [privileged Slack access](/getting-started/slack-privileged-access), which lets us temporarily unarchive the channel and read its contents. We'll re-archive it once the import is complete.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I convert an existing Slack channel into an incident channel?">
    No. incident.io creates a dedicated channel for each incident — there's no way to convert an existing channel into one. To capture what happened in an existing channel, use the API import described above. To start a new incident from a specific message, use the [three-dot menu shortcut](/incidents/create-from-slack).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>