Read Slack channels, threads and unreads

slackcli conversations covers channels, DMs, and group DMs: listing them, reading history and threads, fetching one message, and seeing what is unread.

Every subcommand accepts --workspace <id|name>.

conversations list

slackcli conversations list                          # everything you are in
slackcli conversations list --types=public_channel
slackcli conversations list --types=im               # DMs only
slackcli conversations list --limit=200 --exclude-archived

# Machine-readable
slackcli conversations list --json

Option	Default	Purpose
--types <types>	public_channel,private_channel,mpim,im	Comma-separated conversation types
--limit <number>	100	How many to return
--exclude-archived	off	Skip archived conversations
--cursor <cursor>	—	Fetch the next page
--json	off	JSON output with a resolved users array

DM entries are resolved to the other person’s name. When more results exist, the exact --cursor command for the next page is printed (human output) or set on next_cursor (--json; null on the last page).

conversations read

Read channel history, or one thread.

# Recent messages in a channel (oldest first)
slackcli conversations read C1234567890

# One thread
slackcli conversations read C1234567890 --thread-ts=1234567890.123456

# The thread a message link points at
slackcli conversations read --permalink="https://myteam.slack.com/archives/C1234567890/p1234567890123456"

# Top-level messages only
slackcli conversations read C1234567890 --exclude-replies

# A time window
slackcli conversations read C1234567890 --oldest=1735689600 --latest=1738368000

# Machine-readable
slackcli conversations read C1234567890 --json

Option	Default	Purpose
--thread-ts <ts>	—	Read a specific thread instead of the channel
--permalink <url>	—	Replaces the channel argument and --thread-ts
--exclude-replies	off	Drop threaded replies from channel history
--limit <number>	100	How many messages
--oldest / --latest	—	Time range bounds
--json	off	JSON output, including ts and thread_ts

Channel history comes back newest-first from Slack and is reversed so you read top to bottom. Thread replies are already chronological. --json also includes reactions, blocks, attachments, file metadata, and a resolved users array.

conversations get

Fetch one message by channel and timestamp.

slackcli conversations get C1234567890 1234567890.123456
slackcli conversations get --permalink="https://myteam.slack.com/archives/C1234567890/p1234567890123456"
slackcli conversations get C1234567890 p1234567890123456 --json

Auth-type caveat. With browser auth this resolves both top-level messages and thread replies. With a standard token it can only resolve top-level messages — looking up an arbitrary reply needs its parent’s thread_ts, and no public Slack API returns that from a reply timestamp alone. Read the thread instead: conversations read <channel> --thread-ts=<parent>.

conversations unread

slackcli conversations unread
slackcli conversations unread --types=dms          # channels, dms, groups
slackcli conversations unread --json

Conversations with mentions sort first, then alphabetically. On a workspace with many unread channels this makes one API call per channel to resolve names and may hit Slack rate limits.