Search Slack messages, channels and people

slackcli search covers messages, channels, and people. Every subcommand accepts --workspace <id|name> and --json.

search messages

slackcli search messages "deployment failed"
slackcli search messages "release" --in=engineering --from=rafael
slackcli search messages "incident" --limit=50 --sort=score
slackcli search messages "after:2026-07-01 has:link" --json

Option	Default	Purpose
--in <channel>	—	Shorthand for the in: operator
--from <user>	—	Shorthand for the from: operator
--limit <number>	20	Results per page
--page <number>	1	Which page
--sort <field>	timestamp	score or timestamp
--sort-dir <dir>	desc	asc or desc

The query is passed to Slack, so all of its search operators work: in:, from:, before:, after:, on:, during:, has:, is:, with:. --in and --from are just conveniences appended to the query.

When more pages exist, the next-page command is printed. In --json mode the page and pages fields carry the same information.

Standard bot tokens (xoxb-*) cannot call search.messages at all — Slack restricts it to user tokens. Use a xoxp-* token or browser auth.

search channels

slackcli search channels platform
slackcli search channels incident --limit=50 --json

Matches on channel name, topic, and purpose.

With browser auth this hits Slack’s own search backend and is fast. With a standard token there is no equivalent API, so SlackCLI lists up to 1000 non-archived channels and filters them locally — correct, but slower on large workspaces, and capped at that 1000.

search people

slackcli search people rafael
slackcli search people "@example.com" --limit=50

Matches on username, real name, display name, and email.

The same auth-type split applies: browser auth uses Slack’s search backend; standard auth lists up to 1000 users and filters locally, skipping deactivated accounts and bots.