mcporter-slack-cli

Superseded by slacker.sh. Use that instead.

A portable, zero-dependency Slack CLI. No Go, Node, Bun, or other runtime needed — just a single binary.

Built with mcporter wrapping korotovsky/slack-mcp-server.

Prerequisites

You need a Slack User OAuth Token (xoxp-...) before using the CLI. See the Setup Guide for instructions.

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CJHwong/mcporter-slack-cli/main/install.sh | sh

Or download a tarball from Releases, extract, and add to your PATH.

Install or update the Agent skill into a project's .agents/skills/:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CJHwong/mcporter-slack-cli/main/install-skill.sh | sh

Override target with SKILL_DIR=path/to/skills.

Quick Start

# List channels
slack-cli channels-list --channel-types public_channel

# Read recent messages
slack-cli conversations-history --channel-id '#general' --limit 1d

# Search messages
slack-cli conversations-search-messages --search-query "deploy"

Available Commands

Command	Description
channels-list	List channels (public, private, DM, group DM)
conversations-history	Get messages from a channel or DM
conversations-replies	Get thread replies
conversations-search-messages	Search messages with filters
conversations-add-message	Post a message (requires SLACK_MCP_ADD_MESSAGE_TOOL)
users-search	Search users by name, email, or display name
usergroups-list	List user groups (@-mention groups)
usergroups-me	List/join/leave user groups for current user
usergroups-create	Create a new user group
usergroups-update	Update user group metadata
usergroups-users-update	Replace all members of a user group
reactions-add	Add emoji reaction (requires SLACK_MCP_REACTION_TOOL)
reactions-remove	Remove emoji reaction (requires SLACK_MCP_REACTION_TOOL)
attachment-get-data	Download attachment (requires SLACK_MCP_ATTACHMENT_TOOL)

How It Works

The CLI ships three files: slack-cli (wrapper), slack-cli-bin (compiled CLI), and slack-mcp-server (MCP server wrapping the Slack API). No external dependencies needed.

On your first command, the wrapper automatically starts slack-mcp-server as a background daemon in SSE mode on localhost:13080. It waits for the server to sync its cache (~1-10s depending on workspace size), then runs your command. Subsequent commands find the daemon already running and execute in ~1s.

The daemon auto-shuts down after 30 minutes of inactivity to avoid wasting memory (~28MB RSS). It restarts automatically on the next CLI call.

Daemon Management

slack-cli server status    # check if daemon is running
slack-cli server stop      # stop the daemon manually
slack-cli server start     # pre-start the daemon (e.g. in shell profile)

Claude Code Integration: Skill vs MCP

This CLI can be used with Claude Code in two ways:

• Skill — A Claude Code skill (.claude/skills/slack-cli/SKILL.md) that calls slack-cli via Bash. Zero setup for anyone who clones the repo.
• MCP — Connect Claude Code directly to the slack-mcp-server daemon via SSE. Structured tool calls with no shell layer.

Both use the same underlying server. MCP is more efficient for simple, isolated operations (fewer turns per task). Skill is cheaper for complex multi-step workflows and long-running sessions — the skill doc guides the agent and prevents over-exploration, while MCP's verbose tool responses accumulate into heavier context over time.

Use Skill for portability, complex tasks, and long sessions. Use MCP for simple one-shot operations or non-Claude Code clients. See benchmarks/token-efficiency for details.

Documentation

• Setup Guide — Slack App configuration and environment variables
• Usage Guide — Flags, formats, and detailed examples
• Development — Building from source and releasing

License

MIT