slack-cli

A Go CLI tool for interacting with Slack, designed for AI agent automation. Produces compact, token-efficient JSON output.

Inspired by stablyai/agent-slack.

Build

Requires Go 1.23+.

go build -o slack-cli .

Setup

1. Create a Slack App

Go to api.slack.com/apps and create a new app for your workspace.

2. Add Bot Token Scopes

Under OAuth & Permissions > Scopes > Bot Token Scopes, add:

Scope	Purpose
channels:read	List public channels
channels:history	Read public channel messages
groups:read	List private channels
groups:history	Read private channel messages
im:read	List DMs
im:history	Read DM messages
mpim:read	List group DMs
chat:write	Send/edit/delete messages
reactions:write	Add/remove reactions
users:read	List and look up users
users.profile:read	Read user profiles
search:read	Search messages and files

3. Install to Workspace

Click Install to Workspace and authorize. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token (xoxb-...).

4. Invite the Bot

Invite the bot to channels it needs access to:

/invite @your-bot-name

5. Set Environment Variables

export SLACK_TOKEN=xoxb-your-bot-token

For browser tokens (advanced):

export SLACK_TOKEN=xoxc-your-browser-token
export SLACK_COOKIE_D=xoxd-your-cookie
export SLACK_WORKSPACE_URL=https://your-team.slack.com

6. Verify

./slack-cli auth test
./slack-cli auth whoami

Commands

slack-cli auth test                  Verify credentials
slack-cli auth whoami                Show redacted auth config

slack-cli channel list               List channels
slack-cli channel new                Create a channel
slack-cli channel invite             Invite users to a channel

slack-cli message get <target>       Fetch a single message
slack-cli message list <target>      List channel messages, thread, or activity
slack-cli message send <target>      Send a message
slack-cli message edit <target>      Edit a message
slack-cli message delete <target>    Delete a message
slack-cli message react add          Add a reaction
slack-cli message react remove       Remove a reaction

slack-cli search messages <query>    Search messages
slack-cli search files <query>       Search files
slack-cli search all <query>         Search both

slack-cli user list                  List workspace users
slack-cli user get <user>            Get user by ID, handle, or email

Run any command with --help for full flag documentation.

Agent Integration

See SLACK_CLI_USAGE.md for a guide on using this tool as an AI agent.

Project Structure

├── main.go                    Entry point
├── cmd/                       Cobra command definitions
│   ├── root.go                Root command + getClient()
│   ├── auth.go                auth test, auth whoami
│   ├── message.go             message get/list/send/edit/delete/react
│   ├── channel.go             channel list/new/invite
│   ├── search.go              search messages/files/all
│   └── user.go                user list/get
├── internal/
│   ├── api/client.go          HTTP client (auth, rate limiting, retry)
│   ├── auth/config.go         Env var auth loading
│   ├── types/types.go         Shared data types
│   ├── slack/                 Slack API operations
│   │   ├── messages.go        Message CRUD + history/thread
│   │   ├── channels.go        Channel list/create/invite/resolve
│   │   ├── users.go           User list/get/resolve
│   │   └── search.go          Search with query builder
│   ├── output/compact.go      JSON output helpers
│   └── urlparse/slackurl.go   Slack URL parsing

License

MIT