slack

Slack

Search and interact with Slack workspaces from the command line.

Important: Token Security

NEVER include $SLACK_TOKEN directly in curl commands. The token will be logged and exposed.

Always use the wrapper scripts which read the token from the environment internally:

• slack send - not curl ... -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLACK_TOKEN"
• slack-api POST ... - for advanced API calls

Quick Setup (New Users)

# Add scripts to PATH
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.letta/skills/slack/scripts"

# Create Slack app with one click (opens browser)
slack-setup

This opens Slack's app creation page with all permissions pre-configured. Then:

1. Click Create to create the app
2. Go to OAuth & Permissions → Install to Workspace
3. Copy the User OAuth Token (xoxp-...) - NOT the bot token
4. Set it in your shell:

   export SLACK_TOKEN="xoxp-..."
   

Why user token? Bot tokens (xoxb-) cannot search messages (Slack limitation). User tokens can do everything bots can, plus search.

Quick Setup (Existing Token)

export SLACK_TOKEN="xoxp-..."   # User token (recommended) or xoxb- bot token
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.letta/skills/slack/scripts"

Commands

Search messages

slack search "deployment failed"
slack search "from:@caren database"
slack search "in:#engineering api"
slack search "in:#engineering after:2024-01-01 bug"

Search supports Slack's modifiers: from:, in:, to:, has:link, has:reaction, before:, after:, on:.

Send messages

slack send "#general" "Hello team!"
slack send "#alerts" ":rocket: Deployment complete"
slack send "@caren" "Quick question..."

Join a channel

The bot must be a member of a channel to read its history. Join public channels with:

slack join "#engineering"

For private channels, someone must invite the bot manually via Slack.

List channels

slack channels

Read channel history

slack history "#engineering"
slack history "#engineering" 50    # Last 50 messages

Read thread replies

slack thread "C1234567890" "1234567890.123456"
slack thread "C1234567890" "1234567890.123456" --json   # Raw JSON output

Thread timestamps (ts) come from search results or channel history.

List and view users

slack users
slack user "U1234567890"

Advanced: Direct API Access

For operations not covered by slack, use slack-api (keeps token secure):

# Post with rich formatting (blocks)
slack-api POST chat.postMessage '{"channel": "#general", "blocks": [{"type": "section", "text": {"type": "mrkdwn", "text": "*Bold* and _italic_"}}]}'

# Add reaction
slack-api POST reactions.add '{"channel": "C1234", "timestamp": "1234.5678", "name": "thumbsup"}'

# Get user info
slack-api GET "users.info?user=U1234567890"

# Reply to thread
slack-api POST chat.postMessage '{"channel": "C1234", "thread_ts": "1234.5678", "text": "Thread reply"}'

See references/api.md for more API patterns.

Permissions Included

The manifest (slack-setup) includes these bot scopes:

Category	Scopes
Search	search:read
Messaging	chat:write, chat:write.public, reactions:read, reactions:write
Public channels	channels:read, channels:history, channels:join
Private channels	groups:read, groups:history
Direct messages	im:read, im:write, im:history
Users	users:read, users:read.email
Files	files:read, files:write
Other	emoji:read, links:read