slack

name	slack
description	Interact with Slack via its Web API — read messages, post to channels, search channels, read threads, look up users, view activity/notifications, manage Slack support requests, and watch channels for new messages in real time. Supports multiple workspaces with auto-detection from the active tab. Use when the user wants to check Slack messages, post a Slack message, search Slack channels, read Slack threads, get Slack user info, view Slack notifications or activity feed, manage Slack support tickets/help requests, watch a channel for updates, or automate any Slack task. Triggers on mentions of Slack, channels, DMs, threads, messages, Slackbot, notifications, activity, support requests, help requests, or watching/monitoring.
allowed-tools	bash

Slack

Direct API access to Slack via the browser session. Uses XHR from the Slack page context (same-origin) with the user's xoxc-* token from localStorage. Supports multiple workspaces — the active workspace is auto-detected from the Slack tab URL, or can be specified explicitly with --workspace.

Quick start

# List available workspaces
slack workspaces

# View activity feed (notifications)
slack activity

# Admin notifications only (channel archiving, etc.)
slack --ws=E06V3987PMY activity --type=admin

# Unread mentions
slack activity --type=mentions --unread

# App DMs (invite requests, Google Drive, etc.)
slack activity --type=apps

# List pending approval requests
slack --ws=E06V3987PMY pending

# Approve or deny a request by timestamp
slack --ws=E06V3987PMY approve 1774846849.585479
slack --ws=E06V3987PMY deny 1770698762.931619

# Read recent messages from a channel (uses active workspace)
slack history C087NCG774J

# Use a specific workspace
slack --workspace=T06DUTYDQ channels --search=helix

# Shorthand
slack --ws=T06DUTYDQ history C06ABC123

# Post a message to a channel
slack post C087NCG774J "Hello from SLICC!"

# DM a user directly (opens DM automatically)
slack post W5BPKRLUA "Hey, quick question..."

# Search for channels
slack channels --search=one-aem

# Read a thread
slack thread C087NCG774J 1774539502.747989

# Look up a user
slack user W5BPKRLUA

# Watch a channel for new messages (real-time!)
slack watch C087NCG774J --scoop=my-monitor

# Watch a specific thread
slack watch C087NCG774J --scoop=my-monitor --thread=1774539502.747989

# List active watches
slack watches

# Stop watching
slack unwatch C087NCG774J

Authentication

The token is extracted automatically from localStorage key localConfig_v2 in the Slack browser tab. The workspace ID (team or enterprise ID) determines which token to use. The localConfig_v2.teams object maps workspace IDs to { name, domain, url, token } — keys are either enterprise IDs (E...) or team IDs (T...).

Workspace resolution order:

1. --workspace=<ID> or --ws=<ID> flag if provided
2. Auto-detected from the active Slack tab URL (/client/<ID>/...)

All API calls execute via XHR from the Slack page context so cookies are included automatically. Requires an open Slack tab at app.slack.com. If no Slack tab is found, the script reports an error and asks the user to open Slack.

Global flags

--workspace=<ID>, --ws=<ID>

Specify which workspace to use by team or enterprise ID. If omitted, the workspace is auto-detected from the currently active Slack tab URL. Run slack workspaces to see all available IDs. The flag can appear before or after the command name:

slack --ws=E23RE8G4F history C087NCG774J
slack history C087NCG774J --workspace=E23RE8G4F

Available commands

slack workspaces

List all workspaces the user is signed into. Shows the workspace ID, name, and domain. The currently active workspace (from the tab URL) is marked with *.

slack activity [--type=TYPE] [--unread] [--limit=N] [--cursor=CURSOR]

View the activity feed (notifications). Resolves user and channel names inline. For app DM bundles (invite requests, Google Drive, etc.), fetches the latest messages from the DM channel to show actual content.

Type filters:

• all (default) — everything
• admin — system alerts (channel archived, workspace changes)
• mentions — @user, @usergroup, @channel, @everyone, unjoined channel mentions
• threads — thread replies
• reactions — emoji reactions on your messages
• invites — channel invitations (internal and Slack Connect)
• apps — bot/app DM bundles (invite requests, Google Drive, etc.)

Flags:

• --unread — show only unread items
• --limit=N — number of items (default 20)
• --cursor=CURSOR — pagination cursor for next page

Output format:

[2026-04-15 16:19:41 UTC] ADMIN: Amol Anand archived the channel #aem-volvo-redesign *
[2026-04-15 15:54:02 UTC] App DM (5 unread): slackbot: Request to join a Slack Connect channel... *
[2026-04-13 16:24:47 UTC] @mention by Stefan Guggisberg in #mpdm-roman-...

Items marked with * are unread.

slack pending [--pages=N] [--json] [--channel=<id>]

List pending approval requests (Slack Connect invites, workspace invites) that have live Approve/Deny action buttons. Pages through the Slackbot DM history, filters out already-processed requests, and shows a formatted table with timestamps you can pass directly to slack approve or slack deny.

Flags:

• --pages=N — max pages to search (default 10, each page is 100 messages)
• --json — output raw JSON instead of a table
• --channel=<id> — override the Slackbot DM channel (auto-detected by default)

slack approve <message_ts> [--channel=<id>]

Approve an interactive message action (e.g. Slack Connect invite request, workspace invite). The message_ts is the timestamp of the Slackbot notification message containing the Approve/Deny buttons. Defaults to the Slackbot DM channel; use --channel to override.

Uses the chat.attachmentAction API to programmatically click the Approve button.

slack deny <message_ts> [--channel=<id>]

Deny an interactive message action. Same as approve but clicks the Deny button.

Approve/deny workflow

Action buttons expire (often within minutes to hours) and expired clicks may silently no-op. Always verify by re-listing pending requests after acting:

# 1. List pending requests — note the timestamp of the target
slack --ws=E06V3987PMY pending

# 2. Approve by timestamp
slack --ws=E06V3987PMY approve 1774846849.585479

# 2b. Or deny by timestamp (use the full command form, not just `deny <ts>`)
slack --ws=E06V3987PMY deny 1770698762.931619

# 3. Verify — the entry should no longer appear in pending
slack --ws=E06V3987PMY pending

If step 3 still shows the same entry, the action button has expired. Re-trigger the request from the original source (e.g. ask the inviter to resend) rather than retrying the same message_ts.

slack history <channel_id> [--limit=N]

Fetch recent messages from a channel. Default limit is 20.

slack post <channel_or_user_id> <message>

Post a message to a channel, DM, or user. Accepts channel IDs (C..., D..., G...) directly, or user IDs (U..., W...) — in which case a DM is opened automatically.

# Post to a channel
slack post C087NCG774J "Hello channel!"

# DM a user by user ID (opens DM automatically)
slack post W5BPKRLUA "Hey, quick question..."

# Reply in a thread
slack post C087NCG774J "Got it" --thread_ts=1774539502.747989

slack channels [--search=term]

Search for channels by name. Uses search.modules API (the standard conversations.list is restricted on enterprise grids). Returns channel ID, name, member count, and purpose.

slack thread <channel_id> <thread_ts> [--limit=N]

Read thread replies. Provide the channel ID and the thread's parent timestamp. Default limit is 50.

slack user <user_id>

Look up user information by user ID. Returns name, display name, title, timezone, and status.

slack info <channel_id>

Get channel metadata (name, purpose, topic, member count).

slack slackbot

Opens/finds the Slackbot DM channel and prints its ID.

slack watch <channel_id> --scoop=<name> [--thread=<ts>] [--force]

Watch a channel or thread for new messages in real time. Each new message is delivered as a lick event to the specified scoop within seconds.

Options:

• --scoop=<name> — (required) the scoop that receives lick events
• --thread=<thread_ts> — watch a specific thread instead of the whole channel
• --force — replace an existing watch on the same target

How it works:

1. Creates a SLICC webhook routed to the target scoop
2. Registers a declarative WebSocket observer on the Slack browser tab via the sanctioned browser.websocket runtime API (no page-context code injection, no prototype patching)
3. Slack's wss://*.slack.com/ connections carry all real-time events (messages, typing indicators, etc.)
4. The observer filters for type: "message" frames matching the watched channel (and thread if specified)
5. Matching frames are forwarded to the webhook → delivered as licks to the scoop

Lick payload: the raw Slack message frame that matched the filter, e.g.:

{
  "type": "message",
  "channel": "C087NCG774J",
  "thread_ts": null,
  "ts": "1776097845.451319",
  "user": "W5BPKRLUA",
  "text": "Hello world!",
  "subtype": null
}

The watched channel/thread is implicit in the subscription, and the complete Slack frame is delivered (any additional Slack fields are preserved).

Duplicate prevention: The watch ID is deterministic from channel + thread. You cannot create two watches on the same target without --force.

Durability: The observer lives in the Slack tab. If the page reloads, use slack reinject to re-register the observers for all active watches.

slack unwatch <channel_id> [--thread=<thread_ts>]

Stop watching a channel or thread. Deletes the webhook and removes the watch state.

slack watches

List all active Slack watches with their targets and scoops.

slack reinject

Re-register the WebSocket observers on the Slack tab. Use after a page reload or if watches stop firing. This reads all active watch state files and re-registers an observer for each.

Watch architecture

Slack servers → wss://*.slack.com/ → Browser WebSocket
    ↓
Runtime WebSocket observer (declarative filter: type=message + channel/thread)
    ↓
forward → SLICC webhook (closed-enum sink)
    ↓
SLICC delivers lick event to target scoop

Operational notes:

• State files: /workspace/skills/slack/.watch-<id>.json (webhook IDs + config)
• One SLICC webhook per watch routes events to the target scoop
• After a page reload, run slack reinject to re-register the observers

Enterprise grid notes

Some Slack workspaces use Enterprise Grid (e.g. Adobe's E23RE8G4F). Some standard Web API methods like conversations.list and users.conversations return enterprise_is_restricted on these workspaces. The skill uses search.modules (module=channels) for channel discovery and conversations.open for DM channel lookup instead.

Slack Support Portal

The slack-support script manages help requests on Adobe's Slack Support Portal (adobe-dx-support.enterprise.slack.com). It scrapes the server-rendered portal using playwright-cli — no REST API is available. Requires an open browser tab at the support portal domain.

Quick start

# List all help requests
slack-support list

# List only open requests
slack-support list --status=open

# View a specific request with comments
slack-support view 6750592

# Reply to a request
slack-support reply 6750592 "Thanks, that fixed it."

# Create a new request
slack-support create --topic=slack-connect --title="Connect issue" "Cannot invite external user"

# Resolve a request
slack-support resolve 6750592

Available commands

slack-support list [--status=open|closed|all]

List help requests. Default shows all. Displays request ID, status, title, and last updated date.

slack-support view <id>

View a request's details and comment thread.

slack-support reply <id> <message>

Add a reply to an existing request.

slack-support create --topic=<topic> --title=<title> <message>

Create a new help request. Available topics: audio-video, billing-plans, connection-trouble, managing-channels, managing-members, notifications, signing-in, slack-connect, workflow-builder, workspace-migration.

slack-support resolve <id>

Mark a request as resolved.

Authentication

Uses cookie-based auth via the existing browser session at adobe-dx-support.enterprise.slack.com. No separate token is needed — the playwright-cli commands execute in the browser tab context.

Endpoints reference

See references/endpoints.md for the full endpoint documentation.