User guide

Quick start

# 1. Install (macOS / Linux)
brew tap shaharia-lab/tap && brew install slackcli

# 2. Sign in — a browser opens, you sign in once
slackcli auth login-auto

# 3. Use it
slackcli conversations list
slackcli messages send --recipient-id=C1234567890 --message="Hello from the terminal"

slackcli --help lists every command under its group, with how the workspace is chosen, the SLACKCLI_* environment variables and --json. slackcli <group> <command> --help prints that command’s options, examples and notes: accepted ID and URL formats, flags that replace each other, the --json output shape, browser-only limits and the --yes rule. Help ships inside the binary, so it always matches the version you have installed. A rejected command line (an unknown option, a missing argument) ends with a pointer to the command’s --help.

Running slackcli on its own in a terminal shows a short welcome screen: the logo and version, a pointer to slackcli --help, the repository link (a star helps the project) and where to report a bug or request a feature. It prints only when stdout is a terminal. From a script, a pipe, CI or an AI agent, bare slackcli still prints the plain help to stderr and exits 1, as before. The screen uses colour unless NO_COLOR is set, and falls back to a plain title in a terminal narrower than the logo (47 columns) and to * for the star emoji where the terminal is not known to show Unicode.

Command groups

Group	What it does
`auth`	Sign in, check the active identity, list/select/remove workspaces, extract tokens
`conversations`	List channels and DMs, read history and threads, unreads, mark as read
`messages`	Send, reply, edit, delete, react, unreact, create/list drafts, schedule for later, attach files, Block Kit
`search`	Search messages, channels, and people
`team`	Read the workspace’s own name, domain, and ID
`usergroups`	List, read, and manage user groups (“subteams”)
`users`	Look up a user by ID and list users by account status
`saved`	Read your “saved for later” list; add, update, complete, reopen and remove items
`canvas`	List canvases, read them as Markdown, look up section IDs, create and edit them
`files`	Inspect, read, and download Slack-hosted files
`emoji`	List a workspace’s custom emoji and inspect one
`update`	Check for and install new versions
`logs`	Find, show (redacted) and delete the diagnostic log

Two things that apply everywhere

--workspace <id|name> — every command that talks to Slack accepts it. Without it, a command uses SLACKCLI_WORKSPACE if that is set, otherwise your default workspace. See workspaces and profiles and pin a workspace for one shell.

Paste Slack URLs instead of IDs — anywhere a channel, user, message, canvas, or file ID is expected. See Slack links and timestamps.

User guide

Quick start

Command groups

Pages

Two things that apply everywhere