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SlackCLI

Use several Slack workspaces from one CLI

Every authenticated Slack workspace is stored under a profile key in ~/.config/slackcli/workspaces.json. The first workspace you add automatically becomes the default; every command uses the default unless you pass --workspace.

Terminal window
slackcli auth list                              # what is stored, and which is default
slackcli conversations list --workspace=T1234567
slackcli conversations list --workspace="My Team"

--workspace is accepted by every command that talks to Slack.

Several identities in one workspace

Section titled “Several identities in one workspace”

By default each workspace is stored once. To keep more than one identity for the same workspace — say a browser-authenticated user for search and drafts, alongside a bot token for unattended jobs — name each login with --profile:

Terminal window
# A user identity (browser auth)
slackcli auth login-browser \
  --xoxd=xoxd-... --xoxc=xoxc-... \
  --workspace-url=https://example.slack.com \
  --profile=rafael


# A bot identity in the same workspace
slackcli auth login \
  --token=xoxb-... \
  --workspace-name=example \
  --profile=automation-bot

Then select one anywhere --workspace is accepted:

Terminal window
slackcli search messages "after:2026-07-01" --workspace=rafael --json
slackcli messages send --recipient-id=C123 --message="Done" --workspace=automation-bot

How keys are chosen

Section titled “How keys are chosen”
  • First identity for a team keeps the historical team_id as its key, so existing configs and scripts are unaffected.
  • Re-authenticating the same identity (same team, same auth type, same user) refreshes its tokens in place — it keeps its key, its default status, and any name you gave it. This is what makes auth login-auto --headless usable as a token refresh.
  • A second identity without --profile is saved under an auto-generated key such as T1234567-2 rather than overwriting the first. The key that was used is printed after login.
  • --profile naming an existing key that belongs to a different team is refused, so you cannot clobber an unrelated record by reusing a name.

How a selector is resolved

Section titled “How a selector is resolved”

--workspace, auth set-default, and auth remove all accept the same kinds of value, tried in this order:

  1. An exact profile key
  2. An explicit --profile name
  3. A workspace ID (T…)
  4. A workspace name

If a bare ID or name matches more than one stored profile, SlackCLI stops and asks you to disambiguate with a profile name instead of silently picking one.

"example" matches multiple profiles: T1234567, rafael.
Re-run with --workspace=<profile> (see "slackcli auth list").

Config file

Section titled “Config file”

~/.config/slackcli/workspaces.json, mode 0600:

{
  "default_workspace": "T1234567",
  "workspaces": {
    "T1234567": {
      "workspace_id": "T1234567",
      "workspace_name": "example",
      "auth_type": "browser",
      "workspace_url": "https://example.slack.com",
      "xoxd_token": "xoxd-...",
      "xoxc_token": "xoxc-..."
    },
    "automation-bot": {
      "workspace_id": "T1234567",
      "workspace_name": "example",
      "profile": "automation-bot",
      "auth_type": "standard",
      "token": "xoxb-...",
      "token_type": "bot"
    }
  }
}

It holds live credentials. Do not commit it, sync it, or hand it around.

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