slack-cli

Interact with Slack from the command line. Send messages, read channel history, list channels and users, upload files, manage reminders, and more. Use when the user wants to communicate with Slack, check messages, or automate Slack workflows.

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Install skill "slack-cli" with this command: npx skills add michaelliv/dotskills/michaelliv-dotskills-slack-cli

Slack CLI

Interact with Slack workspaces from the command line using slack-cli and direct Slack API calls.

Assume slack-cli is already installed and configured. If the slack command is not found or returns not_inited, refer to references/INSTALLATION.md for setup instructions.

When to Use

  • User wants to send, update, or delete Slack messages
  • User wants to read channel history or search messages
  • User wants to list channels, users, or conversations
  • User wants to upload files to Slack
  • User wants to manage reminders, snooze, or presence
  • User wants to automate Slack workflows

Setup

If slack is not available or not configured, see references/INSTALLATION.md for full setup instructions.

The token is stored at the path configured in the slack binary's etcdir variable (typically /opt/homebrew/etc/slack-cli/.slack on macOS). You can also use the SLACK_CLI_TOKEN environment variable.

Credential Management with psst

Store the Slack token in the global psst vault:

psst --global set SLACK_CLI_TOKEN --tag slack

For built-in commands, inject the token via psst:

psst --global SLACK_CLI_TOKEN -- slack chat send 'Hello!' '#channel'

For direct API calls, use inline psst get:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" "https://slack.com/api/..."

Built-in Commands

The slack CLI supports these commands natively:

Chat

# Send a message
slack chat send 'Hello world!' '#channel'

# Send with rich formatting
slack chat send --text 'text' --channel '#channel' --color good --title 'Title' --pretext 'Pretext'

# Pipe content as a message
echo "some output" | slack chat send --channel '#channel'

# Update a message (requires timestamp and channel)
slack chat update 'Updated text' 1405894322.002768 '#channel'

# Delete a message
slack chat delete 1405894322.002768 '#channel'

# Chain: send, capture ts+channel, then update
slack chat send 'hello' '#general' --filter '.ts + "\n" + .channel' | \
  xargs -n2 slack chat update 'goodbye'

Files

# Upload a file
slack file upload README.md '#channel'

# Upload with metadata
slack file upload README.md '#channel' --comment 'See attached' --title 'README'

# Create a Slack post from markdown
slack file upload --file post.md --filetype post --title 'Post Title' --channels '#channel'

# List files
slack file list
slack file list --filter '[.files[] | {id, name, size}]'

# File info / delete
slack file info F2147483862
slack file delete F2147483862

Reminders

# Add a reminder
slack reminder add 'lunch' $(date -v +30M "+%s")

# List / complete / delete
slack reminder list
slack reminder complete Rm7MGABKT6
slack reminder delete Rm7MGABKT6

Snooze (Do Not Disturb)

slack snooze start 60          # Start snooze for 60 minutes
slack snooze info              # Check your snooze status
slack snooze end               # End snooze

Presence

slack presence active
slack presence away

Global Options

All commands support:

  • --filter|-f <jq-filter> — Apply a jq filter to the JSON response
  • --compact|-cp — Compact JSON output
  • --monochrome|-m — No color in jq output
  • --trace|-x — Enable bash trace for debugging

Known Limitations

  • DMs via built-in CLI don't work reliably. slack chat send 'msg' '@user' often fails with channel_not_found. Use the direct API pattern below instead.
  • Messages sent via chat:write appear as the Slack App, not as your user. This is a Slack API limitation — even with a user token, the app identity is used.

Direct API Calls

The slack CLI doesn't cover all Slack API methods. For anything beyond the built-in commands, call the Slack API directly using curl. Read the token from the CLI's config file.

Sending Direct Messages

The built-in slack chat send doesn't handle DMs well. Use the API directly:

# Step 1: Open (or find) the DM channel with a user
DM_CHANNEL=$(curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"users":"USER_ID"}' \
  "https://slack.com/api/conversations.open" | jq -r '.channel.id')

# Step 2: Send the message
curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"channel\":\"${DM_CHANNEL}\",\"text\":\"Hello!\"}" \
  "https://slack.com/api/chat.postMessage"

Requires im:write scope. Without it, conversations.open will fail. If you don't have im:write, you can work around it by finding an existing DM channel:

DM_CHANNEL=$(curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/conversations.list?types=im&limit=200" | \
  jq -r '.channels[] | select(.user == "USER_ID") | .id')

List Channels

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/conversations.list?types=public_channel,private_channel&limit=200" | \
  jq '[.channels[] | {name, id, is_private}]'

Read Channel History

# Get recent messages from a channel (use channel ID)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/conversations.history?channel=CHANNEL_ID&limit=20" | \
  jq '[.messages[] | {user, text, ts}]'

# Get messages from last 7 days
OLDEST=$(date -v -7d +%s)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/conversations.history?channel=CHANNEL_ID&oldest=${OLDEST}&limit=100" | \
  jq '[.messages[] | {user, text, ts}]'

# Get messages within a specific date range (oldest and latest are unix timestamps)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/conversations.history?channel=CHANNEL_ID&oldest=${START_TS}&latest=${END_TS}&limit=100" | \
  jq '[.messages[] | {user, text, ts}]'

List Users

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/users.list" | \
  jq '[.members[] | {name, id, real_name}]'

# Resolve multiple user IDs (no batch endpoint — fetch all and filter)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/users.list" | \
  jq '[.members[] | select(.id == "U1234" or .id == "U5678") | {id, name: .real_name}]'

Workspace Info

# Use auth.test (not team.info — team.info requires a scope we don't have)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/auth.test" | \
  jq '{team, team_id, url}'

Search Messages

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/search.messages?query=keyword&count=10" | \
  jq '[.messages.matches[] | {channel: .channel.name, text, ts}]'

Reactions

# Add a reaction
curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"channel":"CHANNEL_ID","timestamp":"1234567890.123456","name":"thumbsup"}' \
  "https://slack.com/api/reactions.add"

# Get reactions on a message
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/reactions.get?channel=CHANNEL_ID&timestamp=1234567890.123456"

Thread Replies

# Get replies in a thread (use the parent message ts)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  "https://slack.com/api/conversations.replies?channel=CHANNEL_ID&ts=1234567890.123456" | \
  jq '[.messages[] | {user, text, ts}]'

Post to a Thread

curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"channel":"CHANNEL_ID","text":"reply text","thread_ts":"1234567890.123456"}' \
  "https://slack.com/api/chat.postMessage"

Tips

  • Channel arguments accept #name format for built-in commands, but direct API calls require channel IDs (e.g. CHANNEL_ID)
  • Use --filter with any built-in command to extract specific fields via jq
  • Pipe commands together using --filter '.ts + "\n" + .channel' to chain send/update/delete
  • For direct API calls, always quote the URL to prevent shell glob expansion
  • Pagination: most list endpoints support cursor and limit parameters — check response_metadata.next_cursor in the response
  • To look up a user ID by name: curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(psst --global get SLACK_CLI_TOKEN)" "https://slack.com/api/users.list" | jq -r '.members[] | select(.real_name | test("Name"; "i")) | {name, id, real_name}'
  • Message permalinks: https://<workspace>.slack.com/archives/<channel_id>/p<ts_without_dot> — remove the dot from the message timestamp (e.g. ts 1769935497.539749 becomes p1769935497539749)

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