How to Use Slab as a Search-First Team Wiki
Direct answer: To use Slab, create topics instead of folders, write posts with question-shaped titles, and connect Slack, Google Drive, and GitHub so one search box covers everything. Setup takes a day; the discipline takes longer.
Slab’s distinguishing idea is simple and slightly contrarian: people find knowledge by typing, not by browsing a hierarchy. So the primary interface is a search bar across all connected sources, and topics replace folders.
What is Slab and who built it?
Slab is a knowledge base product from Slab, Inc., used mostly by engineering and operations teams in the 20-300 person range. It’s closer to a well-organized internal Notion than to Confluence.
The feature that sells it is unified search: Slab indexes its own posts, plus connected Google Drive files, Slack messages, GitHub, and Dropbox. One query, results ranked across sources.
How do you set up topics instead of folders?
Topics in Slab are tags with a page. A post can belong to several, which is the point — a doc about refund policy can sit in both “Billing” and “Support playbook” without being duplicated.
- Create 8-12 topics maximum. Each gets a short description that states what belongs there.
- Allow topics to overlap. Resist the urge to make them mutually exclusive; that leads to filing debates.
- Add a topic owner. They don’t write everything, they notice when something’s missing.
- Don’t create a topic until you have three posts for it. Empty topics make the wiki look abandoned.
Twelve topics is an upper bound worth respecting. Teams with 40 topics have built a folder tree with a new name and the same navigation problems.
How should posts be written for search to work?
Search relevance depends on titles and headings, so write for the query.
- Title with the question. “How do we handle a chargeback?” outranks “Chargeback” every time.
- Summary field is not optional. Slab shows it in search results; write two sentences that answer the question independently.
- One topic per post is fine, three is fine, seven means the post is doing too much.
- Put the answer in the first paragraph, not after a “Background” section.
Slab’s search weights titles heavily, so a weak title is the most common reason good content is unfindable.
Which integrations are worth connecting?
| Source | Connect? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Slack | Yes | Turns answered Slack threads into indexable content |
| Google Drive | Yes | Most legacy docs live here; instant index coverage |
| GitHub | Only if engineers write docs in repos | Noisy if you connect every repo |
| Confluence | Yes, during migration | Read-only bridge while you move content |
| Dropbox | Rarely | Adds duplication more than value |
Connect Google Drive early — it’s the fastest way to make search feel complete on day one, before you’ve written a single Slab post. Limit GitHub to your docs repos; a full org connection buries everything in code.
What does Slab cost?
Slab’s plan structure in 2026 runs roughly $8 per user per month for Startup and $15 for Business, billed annually, with an Enterprise tier quoted. Discounts exist for nonprofits and education.
That’s cheaper than Confluence for small teams, and the reason many teams switch is less about price and more about Confluence’s search, which returns pages from six years ago with equal weight.
Where does Slab fall short?
No native mobile app worth using. Mobile web works, but writing on a phone doesn’t happen. If your team writes on the move, that’s a real gap.
Permissions are coarser than enterprise buyers want. Slab has private posts, verified topics, and workspace roles, but nothing matching Confluence’s granular space permissions. Regulated environments will notice.
And the editing experience is deliberately plain. No databases, no boards, no inline formulas. If your team has built workflows inside Notion, Slab is a step backward in capability and forward in focus. That trade is the whole product decision.
How do you keep the wiki from bloating?
Set a posting rule and enforce it: if a doc hasn’t been read in 90 days and isn’t a policy, archive it. Slab shows view counts on posts, which makes this measurable rather than a feeling.
Run an archive sweep quarterly. In our first sweep we archived 34 of 180 posts, and search quality improved noticeably — fewer stale hits above current ones.
Who should pick Slab?
Teams of 10-200 who want a wiki they’ll actually write in, with engineering-adjacent culture and lightweight permissions. Not a fit for large enterprises with compliance requirements, or teams whose documentation lives primarily in customer-facing help centers.
Quick Summary
- Slab organizes knowledge as topics, not folders; a post can live in several.
- Unified search covers connected Drive, Slack, and GitHub content.
- Question-shaped titles drive search relevance more than anything else.
- Pricing around $8-$15 per user per month; cheaper than Confluence for small teams.
- Archive anything unread for 90 days; quarterly sweeps improve search.
