slackctl

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Slack automation CLI for AI agents. Use when: - Reading a Slack message or thread (given a URL or channel+ts) - Browsing recent channel messages / channel history - Getting all unread messages across channels - Searching Slack messages or files - Sending, editing, or deleting a message; adding/removing reactions - Listing channels/conversations; creating channels and inviting users - Fetching a Slack canvas as markdown - Looking up Slack users - Marking channels/DMs as read - Opening DM or group DM channels Triggers: "slack message", "slack thread", "slack URL", "slack link", "read slack", "reply on slack", "search slack", "channel history", "recent messages", "channel messages", "latest messages", "mark as read", "mark read", "unread messages", "unread", "what did I miss"

2installs

Sourcecluas/slackctl

Added on2026-03-20

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add cluas/slackctl slackctl

SKILL.md Content

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Slack automation with

slackctl

slackctl

is a single-binary CLI on

$PATH

. Invoke directly (e.g.

slackctl user get @alice

).

Installation

If

slackctl

is not found on

$PATH

, install it:

brew tap cluas/tap && brew install slackctl

(macOS/Linux, recommended)

go install github.com/cluas/slackctl/cmd/slackctl@latest

(requires Go)

CRITICAL: Bash command formatting rules

Claude Code's permission checker has security heuristics that force manual approval prompts. Avoid these patterns to keep commands auto-allowed.

No
#
anywhere in the command string. Use bare channel names (
```
general
```
not
```
#general
```
).
No
''
(consecutive single quotes) or
""
(consecutive double quotes). Triggers "potential obfuscation" check.
Only
| jq
for filtering — no python3, no other commands.
```
jq
```
with single-quote-only expressions (no
```
"
```
inside) is safe:
- RIGHT:
```
slackctl search messages "query" | jq '.messages[] | .ts'
```
No
||
or
&&
chains. Run multiple slackctl commands as separate Bash tool calls.
No file redirects (
>
,
>>
). Process JSON output directly, don't write to files.

Quick start (auth)

Authentication is automatic on macOS (Slack Desktop first, then Chrome/Firefox fallbacks).

If credentials aren't available, run one of:

Slack Desktop import (macOS):

bash

slackctl auth import-desktop
slackctl auth test

Firefox fallback:

bash

slackctl auth import-firefox
slackctl auth test

Chrome fallback:

bash

slackctl auth import-chrome
slackctl auth test

Or set env vars:

bash

export SLACK_TOKEN="xoxc-..."
export SLACK_COOKIE_D="xoxd-..."
export SLACK_WORKSPACE_URL="https://myteam.slack.com"
slackctl auth test

Or add manually:

bash

slackctl auth add --workspace-url https://myteam.slack.com --xoxc xoxc-... --xoxd xoxd-...
slackctl auth test

Check configured workspaces:

bash

slackctl auth whoami

Canonical workflow (given a Slack message URL)

Fetch a single message:

bash

slackctl message get "https://workspace.slack.com/archives/C123/p1700000000000000"

If you need the full thread:

bash

slackctl message list "https://workspace.slack.com/archives/C123/p1700000000000000" --thread-ts 1700000000.000000

Browse recent channel messages

bash

slackctl message list "general" --limit 20
slackctl message list "C0123ABC" --limit 10

Get unread messages

List all channels with unread messages:

bash

slackctl message unread --limit 20

Also fetch the actual unread message content:

bash

slackctl message unread --fetch --max-per-channel 5

Note: For Enterprise Grid, use

--workspace

with the enterprise URL for unread counts:

bash

slackctl message unread --workspace longbridge-group --fetch

Send, edit, delete, or react

bash

slackctl message send "general" "here is the report"
slackctl message send U01AAAA "hello via DM"
slackctl message send "general" "threaded reply" --thread-ts 1700000000.000000
slackctl message edit "general" 1700000000.000000 "updated text"
slackctl message delete "general" 1700000000.000000
slackctl message react add "general" 1700000000.000000 "eyes"
slackctl message react remove "general" 1700000000.000000 "eyes"

Send to a user ID opens a DM automatically.

List channels + create/invite

bash

slackctl channel list
slackctl channel list --limit 50
slackctl channel new "incident-war-room"
slackctl channel new "incident-leads" --private
slackctl channel invite "incident-war-room" "U01AAAA,U02BBBB"

Search (messages + files)

bash

slackctl search messages "deploy failed" --limit 10
slackctl search files "report" --limit 5

Mark as read

bash

slackctl channel mark "general" 1700000000.000000

Canvas

Fetch a Slack canvas and convert to Markdown:

bash

slackctl canvas get "https://workspace.slack.com/docs/T123/F456"
slackctl canvas get F0123ABCDEF

Users

bash

slackctl user list --limit 100
slackctl user get "@alice"
slackctl user get U01AAAA

Multi-workspace

If you have multiple workspaces, pass

--workspace

to disambiguate:

bash

slackctl message list "general" --workspace "myteam" --limit 10
slackctl auth set-default https://myteam.slack.com

All output is JSON

All commands output JSON to stdout. Use

| jq

for filtering:

bash

slackctl user get U01AAAA | jq '.email'
slackctl message list "general" --limit 5 | jq '.[].text'

References

references/commands.md: full command map + all flags
references/targets.md: URL vs channel targeting rules
references/output.md: JSON output shapes

slackctl

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Slack automation with
`slackctl`

Installation

CRITICAL: Bash command formatting rules

Quick start (auth)

Canonical workflow (given a Slack message URL)

Browse recent channel messages

Get unread messages

Send, edit, delete, or react

List channels + create/invite

Search (messages + files)

Mark as read

Canvas

Users

Multi-workspace

All output is JSON

References