# Praise and badges
> How Shuffl reads your praise channel in Slack, what you see and control, badges people earn, and how administrators set it up.
Audience: Everyone using Shuffl
Kind: How-to guide
Canonical: https://shuffl.ai/docs/praise
## Giving praise
Thank someone the way you already do: post in your company’s praise channel, like #kudos, and @mention them. You never leave Slack.
Or choose Praise on a coworker’s profile, or Give praise under Praise. Shuffl suggests people you work with, offers starters and lets you tag values.
Review what the channel will see, then post; Shuffl posts it in the praise channel with both your names. A closed draft waits for you.
If a few words don’t say much yet, the composer asks what they did and what it changed. It never stops you posting.
Some people prefer private thanks. The composer says so, and Mello sends them your words as a private Slack note instead. Turn on Send as a private note at Review to do this for anyone.
In Slack, Thank back and Give praise on Mello’s messages open the same composer as a form. The channel sees your words quoted, with your name and values underneath.
Shuffl reads new top-level messages that mention someone, decides whether each is praise and tags up to three company values. Thread replies and bot messages are left alone.
When Shuffl records a message as praise, it adds a ❤️ reaction, or your administrator’s chosen emoji. Slack reactions show on the praise in Shuffl as totals.
Edit the message in Slack and Shuffl reads it again. Delete it and it is gone from Shuffl too.
Above the feed, Top values this month shows the most-praised company values of the last 30 days.
Slack message, Praise sent from Shuffl (The praise channel; When someone gives praise from Shuffl or from Slack’s Give praise):
```text
<@UJORDAN> praised <@UPRIYA> and <@UMEI>: Thank you for running the customer onboarding call while I was out. Three new teams went live without a hitch.
```
Slack message, A private thank-you (Someone who prefers private thanks, in a direct message; When someone praises a person who chose Tell me privately, or sends praise as a private note):
```text
<@UJORDAN> sent you a private thank-you: Thank you for staying with the payroll export until it balanced. Nobody else noticed, and that was the point.
```
- [Open Praise](https://shuffl.ai/app/praise)
## Praise you received
1. Hide from profile takes praise off your profile and the Everyone feed.
2. Choose Not praise? when Shuffl misread a message. It disappears from Shuffl for everyone, the Slack message stays, and the giver and administrators can do the same.
Praise → Yours lists the praise you received and gave, including from private channels you’re in, with totals only you see. Praise you received also shows on your profile and Home to people who can read its channel.
When someone praises you, Mello sends at most one Slack message a day, quoting each note with Thank back. Turn off Tell me in Slack to stop it.
Under When someone praises me, choose Share it with the team or Tell me privately.
Privately, praise from Shuffl arrives as a private note, and channel praise about you stays off your profile and the feed, including earlier praise, until you show it. Private notes are listed under Private notes, for you and the other person only.
Slack message, You were praised (The person praised, privately; Once a day, only on days they were praised):
```text
You were praised 2 times today.
```
- [Open your praise](https://shuffl.ai/app/praise/me)
## Reminders to thank people
1. Choose Give praise, write it and choose Post praise. Not now dismisses it; Stop these reminders turns them off.
2. Under Praise in your notification settings, follow your team’s choice, pick how often, or turn them off.
When your administrator turns on praise reminders, Mello sends a private Slack note if you haven’t thanked anyone in a while. It comes every 2 weeks, monthly or every 3 months, with a Give praise button. It never writes or posts praise for you.
It comes in your working hours on an allowed day, never on the same day as another Shuffl reminder or within 7 days of a badge offer.
Slack message, Praise reminder (Someone who hasn’t thanked anyone in a while, privately; When HR turns praise reminders on, at most as often as chosen):
```text
Anyone you’d like to thank? It’s been a while since you shared praise in #kudos.
```
- [Your notification settings](https://shuffl.ai/app/settings/notifications)
## Badges
1. Choose New badge, from a template or blank. Give it a name, description and picture (uploaded or AI-made), and pick its kind: Custom, Event, Program, Release, Role or Tenure.
2. Choose how people get it: Owners give it, Anyone with the claim code, or Anyone can request it and owners approve. Add owners and, if you want, moderators.
3. Give a badge with Give, claim one under Have a claim code?, or choose Request and wait for an owner.
4. Ask for this badge on a profile sends the same request. Holders can hide a badge from their profile; administrators can hide one for everyone.
5. In Slack, mention @Shuffl in a thread and say “badge this”. Mello drafts a name and picks the people, visible only to you; choose Review badge, edit and Create badge.
6. Later, “@Shuffl rename it to …” or “@Shuffl add @name” in the thread updates it.
7. When you thank three or more people in the praise channel, or name coworkers in your launch channel, Shuffl may offer you a badge for them.
8. It asks at most once a week. Don’t ask again stops it.
9. When a project or event channel you made goes quiet for two weeks, Shuffl may DM you a badge for everyone who posted, such as Atlas beta crew.
10. Review it and choose Create badge; Thank them in the channel posts one line there. It asks once per channel.
11. Badge messages in Slack show the badge’s picture.
A badge marks something a person earned or belongs to, like a program, a release or years of tenure. Badges show on profiles, in the Home feed and on Home’s Badges this week card.
Shuffl gives some badges itself: tenure, coworkers met through Connections, and a first badge for starting a community, making a badge and giving praise in a praise channel.
Being thanked earns First thanks, Thanked across teams (three departments) and Lives our values (five thanks for the same value). They count only public praise shown on your profile and never compare you with anyone.
Your own agent can draw or upload a picture for a badge you own over MCP or the API.
Slack message, Badge suggestion (Someone who thanked a group or named a launch team, privately; At most once a week, when badge suggestions are on):
```text
Turn this praise into a badge?. Help center launch
```
Slack message, Badge suggestion for a quiet channel (The person who made a project or event channel, privately; Once per channel, two weeks after its last post):
```text
#proj-atlas-beta has gone quiet. Atlas beta crew
```
Slack message, Badge made (The maker privately, then the original thread; When someone creates a badge from a suggestion):
```text
You made Help center launch for 3 people.
```
```text
<@UJORDAN> gave Help center launch to <@UPRIYA>, <@UMEI> and <@UALEX>.
```
- [Open Badges](https://shuffl.ai/app/praise/badges)
- [What your agent can do](https://shuffl.ai/docs/mcp#examples)
## Who sees what
Everyone sees praise from public channels. Praise from a private channel shows only to the people in that channel now, everywhere: the feed, Home, profiles, Praise → Yours and the daily note.
Someone thanked in a private channel they aren’t in doesn’t see it. Administrators get no exception.
Shuffl keeps each private praise channel’s member list current, rechecking every six hours. If it is removed from the channel or can’t check for a day, that channel’s praise is hidden until it can.
A private note is read only by its sender and recipient. It counts in administrators’ totals but never shows in the feed, a profile or the daily note.
Administrators see totals only, for groups of 7 or more, and there are no leaderboards.
## For administrators
1. Open Praise → Settings and turn on Read praise channels.
2. Under Company values, pick the Knowledge page with your values, or Create a company values page from the template. Mello tags praise with them.
3. Add the channels where people already thank each other, up to five.
4. Make sure Shuffl is in them: Add Shuffl to it for a public channel, /invite @Shuffl in a private one.
5. Shuffl brings in the last 12 months and Mello posts a short hello there, once.
6. Under React to praise in Slack, pick the emoji Shuffl adds to new praise, or turn it off. Older Slack connections need a reconnect by a Slack owner or admin.
7. Administrators get two more tabs, marked HR.
8. Insights shows who is recognized and who gives praise by week. Who was recognized splits the share thanked by department, team and location and marks Few thanked under 30%.
9. Groups need 7 people. Choose Stop reading to stop; praise already read stays.
10. Turn on Nudge quiet managers. Mello privately tells a manager when nobody on their team of two or more has been thanked in 60 days.
11. It nudges at most monthly and names nobody.
12. Under Reminders, turn on Send praise reminders and choose how often; each person can change or turn it off. See the message shows what they get.
13. Under Praise → Badges, Badge suggestions turns badge offers from group praise and quiet channels on or off.
14. It also picks the launch channel Shuffl watches, like #launches (Shuffl must be in it). Nothing is made until the person offered says yes.
Slack message, Praise channel hello (A channel Shuffl watches for praise; Once, when praise capture starts there):
```text
Hi, it's Mello. Shuffl now keeps the praise shared here, so the people you thank can find it on their Shuffl profile. Mention the people you are thanking with @ and I take it from there. I won’t post here again.
```
Slack message, Manager nudge (A manager, privately; When HR turns on Nudge quiet managers and nobody on their team was thanked in 60 days, at most once a month):
```text
Nobody on your team has been thanked in the last 60 days.
```
- [Open Praise settings](https://shuffl.ai/app/praise/settings)
## Related guides
- [Communities](https://shuffl.ai/docs/communities)
- [Celebrate work anniversaries and birthdays](https://shuffl.ai/docs/celebrations)
- [Review and publish knowledge](https://shuffl.ai/docs/knowledge)
Agent documentation index: https://shuffl.ai/llms.txt