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SlackCLI

Slack links and timestamps

Anywhere the CLI takes a channel, user, canvas, or file ID, you can paste the Slack URL instead — the form “Copy link” actually gives you. Bare IDs keep working exactly as before.

Terminal window
# Equivalent
slackcli conversations read C1234567890
slackcli conversations read https://myteam.slack.com/archives/C1234567890
Pasted value Understood as
https://myteam.slack.com/archives/C1234567890 channel C1234567890
https://myteam.slack.com/archives/D0987654321 DM D0987654321
https://myteam.slack.com/team/U9876543210 user U9876543210
https://myteam.slack.com/docs/T012AB/F1234567890 canvas F1234567890
https://myteam.slack.com/files/U9876543210/F1234567890/report.txt file F1234567890
https://files.slack.com/files-pri/T012AB-F1234567890/download/report.txt file F1234567890

Timestamps work the same way — the permalink form is accepted wherever the dotted API form is:

Pasted value Understood as
p1234567890123456 1234567890.123456
1234567890123456 1234567890.123456
1234567890.123456 unchanged

--permalink

Section titled “--permalink”

For commands that target one specific message, --permalink replaces the channel and the timestamp in one go:

Terminal window
# Instead of this
slackcli messages react --channel-id=C1234567890 --timestamp=1234567890.123456 --emoji=heart


# Just paste the link
slackcli messages react --permalink="https://myteam.slack.com/archives/C1234567890/p1234567890123456" --emoji=heart

Available on messages send, messages react, messages edit, messages draft, conversations read, and conversations get.

Rules worth knowing:

  • Pass either --permalink or the explicit inputs, not both.
  • When the link points at a threaded reply, commands that take a --thread-ts correctly use the parent message, so a reply link makes you reply in the right thread rather than starting a new one.
  • If the pasted link’s workspace subdomain does not match the workspace the command will actually call, SlackCLI warns you up front instead of letting Slack answer with a confusing message_not_found. (This check only applies to browser-authenticated workspaces, which are the ones that store a URL.)

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