Slack (Read-Only)

Query Slack channels, search messages, and fetch user information using the slack CLI.

Instructions

You are helping query Slack data. Auth is handled via environment variables loaded from ~/.dots/sys/env:

• SLACK_XOXP_TOKEN — user token for search, history, thread, dms
• SLACK_XOXB_TOKEN — bot token for channels, users

Operations

# Test authentication
slack auth-test

# Channel operations
slack channels                                # List all channels
slack find-channel releases                   # Find channel by name

# Message history
slack history C04M5PG7P7T                     # By channel ID
slack history releases --limit 50             # By name, limit 50
slack history releases --days 7               # Last 7 days

# Thread replies
slack thread C04M5PG7P7T 1234567890.123456

# Search messages
slack search "deployment failed"              # Full search
slack search "urgent" --days 1                # Last 24 hours
slack search "from:@darren" --days 7 --full   # Full message text

# User operations
slack users                                   # List all users
slack find-user darren                        # Find by name

# DMs
slack dms                                     # List DM conversations

# JSON output (for programmatic use)
slack channels --json

Common Tasks

Get recent channel history

slack history releases --days 7

Search for mentions of a topic

slack search "outage" --days 7

Find who posted about something

slack search "from:@darren deployment" --days 30

Get activity from a specific person

# First find their user ID
slack find-user "john"
# Then search their messages
slack search "from:@john" --days 7

Full-Text Search

By default, search truncates messages to 200 chars. Use --full for complete message text:

slack search "from:@aaron" --days 7 --full

Token Types & Required Scopes

Required User Token Scopes: channels:history, channels:read, groups:history, groups:read, im:history, im:read, mpim:history, mpim:read, search:read, users:read

Required Bot Token Scopes: channels:read, groups:read, users:read, users:read.email

API Rate Limits

Slack has rate limits:

• Tier 1 methods (chat.postMessage): 1 request/second
• Tier 2 methods (conversations.history): 20 requests/minute
• Tier 3 methods (search.messages): 20 requests/minute

If rate limited, wait for the retry_after period.

Error Handling

Common errors:

• channel_not_found — Channel doesn't exist or bot/user not in channel
• not_in_channel — Need to join the channel first
• ratelimited — Too many requests, check retry_after
• invalid_auth — Token is expired or invalid
• missing_scope — Token lacks required OAuth scopes

Capabilities

• Channel listing: Public and private channels the user has access to
• Channel history: Messages from any channel (with proper permissions)
• Thread replies: Full thread contents
• Message search: Full-text search with date filters
• User lookup: Find users by name, display name, or email
• DM listing: List direct message conversations

Limitations

• Read-only — Cannot send messages. When asked to send/DM someone, draft the message as copyable text instead.
• Cannot access channels the user/bot isn't in
• Search results are truncated to 200 chars by default. Use --full for complete text.
• Rate limited by Slack's API tier system