Pp Slack

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Slack — Printing Press CLI

Created by @mvanhorn (Matt Van Horn). Contributors: @ChrisGutierrezNet (Chris G. | AI Automation), @cathrynlavery (Cathryn Lavery).

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the slack-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install slack --cli-only

2. Verify: slack-pp-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.6 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/slack/cmd/slack-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Slack hides messages past the free-plan retention window and gates export behind admin. This CLI syncs conversations, users, files, and reactions into a local SQLite database with full-text search, so archive recall finds decisions Slack itself will no longer serve you. On top of the mirror it computes things no endpoint returns: catchup for what is still waiting on you, threads stale for unanswered threads, and health for which channels are dying.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI when the question is about Slack content rather than Slack app development, and when the answer benefits from history, aggregation, or repeated querying. It is the right tool for finding old decisions, summarizing what you missed, auditing which channels are alive, and resolving opaque Slack IDs into people. It is also the right tool when you hold only a bot token, because the local mirror answers search-shaped questions that Slack's own search endpoint refuses to serve bot tokens.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use this CLI to build, scaffold, or deploy a Slack app; that is what the official slackapi/slack-cli does.
• Do not use this CLI for Enterprise Grid administration; admin.* methods are deliberately excluded and would fail with a normal workspace token.
• Do not use this CLI as a real-time bot or event listener; it is a request-response tool with no Socket Mode or Events API runtime.
• Do not use this CLI to read a workspace you have not synced; every archive-backed command reports an unsynced mirror rather than silently returning empty.
• Do not use this CLI for compliance or legal export; Slack's Discovery API and admin export exist for that and carry guarantees this tool does not.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Local archive that outlives Slack

• archive recall — Find messages in your local archive, including ones Slack has already hidden behind the 90-day retention wall.

  Reach for this instead of search when the answer may be older than 90 days, or when you only hold a bot token, since Slack's search endpoint rejects bot tokens outright.

  slack-pp-cli archive recall "deploy" --agent --limit 20

• archive coverage — Show what date range your local mirror actually holds per channel, and where the gaps are.

  Check this before trusting an empty recall result, so you can tell a genuine absence from an unsynced range.

  slack-pp-cli archive coverage --json

Obligation over volume

• catchup — See what happened while you were away: new volume per channel, messages that mention you, and threads still waiting on your reply.

  Use this as the single call that replaces listing channels, pulling history per channel, and resolving mentions by hand.

  slack-pp-cli catchup --since 24h --agent

• threads stale — List threads across the archive where the last reply is not yours and nobody has answered since.

  Pick this when the question is what is unanswered, rather than what is recent.

  slack-pp-cli threads stale --days 3 --json

Workspace stewardship

• health — Compare your channels by messages per day, distinct posters, median first-reply latency, and days idle.

  Use this for archive-candidate decisions when you are not a workspace admin and have no export or admin console.

  slack-pp-cli health --dying --json

• users activity — Profile where one person posts, which threads they carry, and when they were last seen.

  Reach for this for handoff and standup context about a named teammate, not about yourself.

  slack-pp-cli users activity chris --days 30 --json

Identity resolution

• users whois — Turn an opaque Slack ID, handle, or email into one card with shared channels, timezone, DND state, and last-seen.

  Use this the moment a payload hands you a bare U-prefixed or C-prefixed ID, instead of calling users info per identifier.

  slack-pp-cli users whois U04AB9XYZ --agent

Command Reference

api-test — Manage api test

• slack-pp-cli api-test — Checks API calling code.

auth_api — Test and manage authentication

• slack-pp-cli auth-api revoke — Revoke the current authentication token
• slack-pp-cli auth-api test — Test the authentication token and get identity info

bots — Get information about bot users

• slack-pp-cli bots — Get information about a bot user

canvases — Create, edit, share, and delete Slack canvases

• slack-pp-cli canvases create — Create a canvas, standalone or bound to a channel
• slack-pp-cli canvases read — Read a canvas's content
• slack-pp-cli canvases edit — Apply a change to an existing canvas
• slack-pp-cli canvases delete — Delete a canvas
• slack-pp-cli canvases access-set — Grant users or channels access to a canvas
• slack-pp-cli canvases sections — Look up section IDs in a canvas, for targeted edits

Needs canvases:write + canvases:read, and files:read for read. read returns HTML, not Markdown (Slack has no get-canvas-content endpoint, so it downloads the backing file) — so create/read is not a lossless round trip. To target an edit, read the canvas and take the section id from the HTML; sections returns ids without the content they cover.

chat-delete-scheduled-message — Manage chat delete scheduled message

• slack-pp-cli chat-delete-scheduled-message — Deletes a pending scheduled message from the queue.

chat-me-message — Manage chat me message

• slack-pp-cli chat-me-message — Share a me message into a channel.

chat-post-ephemeral — Manage chat post ephemeral

• slack-pp-cli chat-post-ephemeral — Sends an ephemeral message to a user in a channel.

chat-unfurl — Manage chat unfurl

• slack-pp-cli chat-unfurl — Provide custom unfurl behavior for user-posted URLs

conversations — Read channel history, list channels, manage channel membership

• slack-pp-cli conversations archive — Archive a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations create — Create a new channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations get — Get information about a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations history — Fetch channel history with --channel ID, or read an existing DM with --user USER_ID and SLACK_USER_TOKEN. DM lookup does not create a conversation and needs live access; --data-source local is rejected for D-prefixed channels and --user.
• slack-pp-cli conversations invite — Invite users to a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations list — List all channels in the workspace
• slack-pp-cli conversations mark — Mark a channel as read up to a specific message
• slack-pp-cli conversations members — List members of a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations replies — Fetch replies in a thread
• slack-pp-cli conversations set-purpose — Set the purpose for a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations set-topic — Set the topic for a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations unarchive — Unarchive a channel

conversations-close — Manage conversations close

• slack-pp-cli conversations-close — Closes a direct message or multi-person direct message.

conversations-join — Manage conversations join

• slack-pp-cli conversations-join — Joins an existing conversation.

conversations-kick — Manage conversations kick

• slack-pp-cli conversations-kick — Removes a user from a conversation.

conversations-leave — Manage conversations leave

• slack-pp-cli conversations-leave — Leaves a conversation.

conversations-open — Manage conversations open

• slack-pp-cli conversations-open — Opens or resumes a direct message or multi-person direct message.

conversations-rename — Manage conversations rename

• slack-pp-cli conversations-rename — Renames a conversation.

dnd — Manage Do Not Disturb settings

• slack-pp-cli dnd end-dnd — End the current Do Not Disturb session immediately
• slack-pp-cli dnd end-snooze — End the current Do Not Disturb session
• slack-pp-cli dnd get — Get DND status for the authenticated user
• slack-pp-cli dnd set-snooze — Turn on Do Not Disturb for a specified number of minutes
• slack-pp-cli dnd team-info — Get DND status for multiple users

emoji — List custom emoji in the workspace

• slack-pp-cli emoji — List all custom emoji for the workspace

files — Upload, list, and manage files

• slack-pp-cli files delete — Delete a file
• slack-pp-cli files get — Get information about a file
• slack-pp-cli files list — List files in the workspace
• slack-pp-cli files upload — Upload a file to Slack. --file <path>, or --content with --filename for inline text; --channel shares it, --thread-ts puts it in a thread. Runs the external upload flow (the old files.upload is retired). --channels takes one channel only.

files-comments-delete — Manage files comments delete

• slack-pp-cli files-comments-delete — Deletes an existing comment on a file.

files-remote-add — Manage files remote add

• slack-pp-cli files-remote-add — Adds a file from a remote service

files-remote-info — Manage files remote info

• slack-pp-cli files-remote-info — Retrieve information about a remote file added to Slack

files-remote-list — Manage files remote list

• slack-pp-cli files-remote-list — Retrieve information about a remote file added to Slack

files-remote-remove — Manage files remote remove

• slack-pp-cli files-remote-remove — Remove a remote file.

files-remote-share — Manage files remote share

• slack-pp-cli files-remote-share — Share a remote file into a channel.

files-remote-update — Manage files remote update

• slack-pp-cli files-remote-update — Updates an existing remote file.

files-revoke-public-url — Manage files revoke public url

• slack-pp-cli files-revoke-public-url — Revokes public/external sharing access for a file

files-shared-public-url — Manage files shared public url

• slack-pp-cli files-shared-public-url — Enables a file for public/external sharing.

messages — Send, read, update, and delete messages in channels and DMs

• slack-pp-cli messages delete-message — Delete a message
• slack-pp-cli messages get-permalink — Get a permalink URL for a message
• slack-pp-cli messages list-scheduled — List scheduled messages
• slack-pp-cli messages post-message — Send a message to a channel, DM, or thread. The older post_message spelling remains an alias.
• slack-pp-cli messages schedule-message — Schedule a message for later delivery
• slack-pp-cli messages update-message — Update an existing message

pins — Pin and unpin messages in channels

• slack-pp-cli pins add — Pin a message to a channel
• slack-pp-cli pins list — List pinned items in a channel
• slack-pp-cli pins remove — Unpin a message from a channel

reactions — Add and remove emoji reactions on messages

• slack-pp-cli reactions add — Add an emoji reaction to a message
• slack-pp-cli reactions get — Get reactions for a message
• slack-pp-cli reactions list — List reactions made by the authenticated user
• slack-pp-cli reactions remove — Remove an emoji reaction from a message

reminders — Create and manage personal reminders

• slack-pp-cli reminders add — Create a new reminder
• slack-pp-cli reminders complete — Mark a reminder as complete
• slack-pp-cli reminders delete — Delete a reminder
• slack-pp-cli reminders get — Get info about a reminder
• slack-pp-cli reminders list — List all reminders for the authenticated user

search_api — Search messages and files across the workspace

• slack-pp-cli search-api — Search for messages matching a query

stars — Star and unstar messages and files

• slack-pp-cli stars add — Star a message, file, or channel
• slack-pp-cli stars list — List starred items
• slack-pp-cli stars remove — Remove a star from an item

team — Get workspace information

• slack-pp-cli team access-logs — Get workspace access logs (requires admin)
• slack-pp-cli team billable-info — Get billable information for workspace users
• slack-pp-cli team get — Get information about the workspace

team-integration-logs — Manage team integration logs

• slack-pp-cli team-integration-logs — Gets the integration logs for the current team.

team-profile-get — Manage team profile get

• slack-pp-cli team-profile-get — Retrieve a team's profile.

usergroups — Manage workspace user groups

• slack-pp-cli usergroups create — Create a new user group
• slack-pp-cli usergroups list — List all user groups in the workspace
• slack-pp-cli usergroups update — Update an existing user group
• slack-pp-cli usergroups users-list — List users in a user group
• slack-pp-cli usergroups users-update — Update the members of a user group

usergroups-disable — Manage usergroups disable

• slack-pp-cli usergroups-disable — Disable an existing User Group

usergroups-enable — Manage usergroups enable

• slack-pp-cli usergroups-enable — Enable a User Group

users — List and look up workspace users

• slack-pp-cli users get — Get information about a user
• slack-pp-cli users get-presence — Get a user's online presence status
• slack-pp-cli users list — List all users in the workspace
• slack-pp-cli users lookup-by-email — Find a user by their email address
• slack-pp-cli users profile-get — Get a user's profile information
• slack-pp-cli users profile-set — Set the user's profile fields
• slack-pp-cli users set-presence — Set the user's presence status

users-conversations — Manage users conversations

• slack-pp-cli users-conversations — List conversations the calling user may access.

users-delete-photo — Manage users delete photo

• slack-pp-cli users-delete-photo — Delete the user profile photo

users-identity — Manage users identity

• slack-pp-cli users-identity — Get a user's identity.

users-set-active — Manage users set active

• slack-pp-cli users-set-active — Marked a user as active. Deprecated and non-functional.

users-set-photo — Manage users set photo

• slack-pp-cli users-set-photo — Set the user profile photo

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

slack-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Find a decision Slack has forgotten

slack-pp-cli archive recall "deploy" --agent --select results.channel,results.user,results.ts,results.text

Searches the local mirror and narrows the payload to just the fields worth reading, so an agent does not burn context on full message objects.

Morning obligation check

slack-pp-cli catchup --since 24h --json

Returns new volume per channel, messages mentioning you, and threads whose last reply is not yours.

Find archive candidates without admin access

slack-pp-cli health --dying --json

Ranks your channels by idle days and posting volume so you can propose archives with evidence.

Resolve an opaque ID from a payload

slack-pp-cli users whois U04AB9XYZ --agent

Turns a bare Slack user ID into shared channels, timezone, DND state, and last-seen in one call.

Confirm the mirror before trusting an empty result

slack-pp-cli archive coverage --json

Shows the mirrored timestamp range per channel so an empty recall can be read as a sync gap rather than an absence.

Auth Setup

Authentication is a bearer token, but Slack splits capability across two token types and no scope grant crosses that line. A bot token (xoxb-, set as SLACK_BOT_TOKEN) reaches conversations, users, files, reactions, usergroups, emoji, team, dnd, and bots. A user token (xoxp-, set as SLACK_USER_TOKEN) is required for the search, stars, and reminders families, which return not_allowed_token_type for bot tokens no matter which scopes you add. Run doctor to see which token types are configured and therefore which command families are reachable. Note also that Slack moved conversations.history and conversations.replies to a far stricter rate limit for apps redistributed outside the Marketplace; internal apps you create and install in your own workspace keep the original limits.

Run slack-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

• Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

• Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

  slack-pp-cli bots --bot example-value --agent --select id,name,status

• Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

• Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

• Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

• Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.

Paths and state

Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:

• Use --home <dir> for one invocation, or set SLACK_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.

• Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: SLACK_CONFIG_DIR, SLACK_DATA_DIR, SLACK_STATE_DIR, SLACK_CACHE_DIR.

• Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, SLACK_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults.

• config contains settings like config.toml and profiles. data contains credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars. state contains persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log. cache contains regenerable HTTP/cache files.

• Stored secrets live in credentials.toml under the data dir. Existing legacy config.toml secrets are read for compatibility and leave config.toml on the first auth write.

• Run slack-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path and credential-location warnings. agent-context exposes a schema v4 paths block for agents that need the resolved dirs.

• For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:

  {
    "mcpServers": {
      "slack": {
        "command": "slack-pp-mcp",
        "env": {
          "SLACK_HOME": "/srv/slack"
        }
      }
    }
  }

Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use SLACK_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing SLACK_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.