slack

Slack CLI

A CLI for reading Slack content, searching messages, browsing users, and working with files.

Installation

If slack-cli is not on PATH, install it:

brew install --cask lox/tap/slack-cli

Or: go install github.com/lox/slack-cli@latest

See https://github.com/lox/slack-cli for setup instructions (Slack app creation and OAuth).

Available Commands

slack-cli view <url>          # View any Slack URL (message, thread, or channel)
slack-cli search <query>      # Search messages
slack-cli channel list        # List channels you're a member of
slack-cli channel read        # Read recent messages from a channel name, ID, or URL
slack-cli channel info        # Show channel information by name, ID, or URL
slack-cli file list           # List recent files
slack-cli file info           # Show file metadata
slack-cli file download       # Download a file by ID
slack-cli file upload         # Upload and share a file
slack-cli file delete         # Delete a file by ID
slack-cli thread read         # Read a thread by URL or channel+timestamp (supports --markdown)
slack-cli user list           # List users in the workspace
slack-cli user info           # Show user information
slack-cli auth login          # Authenticate with Slack via OAuth
slack-cli auth status         # Show authentication status

Common Patterns

View a Slack URL the user shared

slack-cli view "https://workspace.slack.com/archives/C123/p1234567890" --markdown

Search for messages

slack-cli search "from:@username keyword"
slack-cli search "in:#channel-name keyword"

Read a channel

slack-cli channel read "#general" --limit 50
slack-cli channel read "https://workspace.slack.com/archives/C123" --markdown

Upload a file

slack-cli file upload "#general" ./report.txt
slack-cli file upload @alice ./report.txt --comment "latest version"

Filter by date

search supports calendar filters: --after, --before, and --on. channel read and thread read also support rolling windows with --last. Dates are interpreted in UTC and accept unambiguous calendar-day formats such as YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD, 18 Apr 2026, and Apr 18 2026. Timestamps, partial dates, and other inputs with times are rejected.

slack-cli search "deploy" --after 2026-04-01 --before 2026-04-30
slack-cli search "incident" --on "Apr 18 2026"
slack-cli channel read "#general" --last 2w
slack-cli thread read "$URL" --on "18 Apr 2026" --json

Machine-readable output (--json / --jsonl)

These commands support --json (pretty array or object) and --jsonl (one record per line): search, channel read, channel list, channel info, file list, file info, thread read, user list, user info.

Message records emit a full normalized shape for machines: ts, thread_ts (when Slack provides it), type, subtype (when set, e.g. bot_message, channel_join, channel_archive, huddle_thread), user, user_id, text (resolver-formatted), text_raw, channel, workspace, permalink, reply_count, and files when those fields are available. When Slack channel metadata is available, channel.type is one of channel, private_channel, im, or mpim.

slack-cli search "deploy" --limit 20 --jsonl | jq -c 'select(.channel.type == "channel")'
slack-cli channel read "#general" --limit 50 --json
slack-cli file list --limit 20 --jsonl
slack-cli thread read "$URL" --json
slack-cli channel list --json
slack-cli user list --json
slack-cli channel info C123 --json

Discovering Options

To see available subcommands and flags, run --help on any command:

slack-cli --help
slack-cli view --help
slack-cli search --help

Notes

Use --markdown with view, thread read, or channel read when you need structured terminal output
file upload accepts channel names, conversation IDs, @username, or U123
Use --json / --jsonl for agent consumption; --jsonl pipes cleanly into jq -c
Thread URLs with thread_ts parameter are automatically detected
Channel names can include or omit the # prefix
If you see channel_not_found and multiple workspaces are configured, retry with --workspace <workspace>
User lookup accepts both user IDs (U123ABC) and email addresses