pp-slack

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Slack workspace CLI for the terminal. Send messages, search channels and DMs, list conversations, get user/bot/emoji info, analyze channel health, find stale threads, and sync the workspace locally for fast offline queries. Two auth surfaces coexist: SLACK_BOT_TOKEN (xoxb-, for workspace-wide read + post) and SLACK_USER_TOKEN (xoxp-, for user-scoped actions like DM history or search). Use when the user asks to send a Slack message, search Slack, check channel activity, summarize a digest, find who's on a team, find stale threads, analyze channel health, list users / emoji / reminders / pinned items, or wants offline-capable Slack queries.

5installs

Sourcemvanhorn/printing-press-library

Added on2026-05-08

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add mvanhorn/printing-press-library pp-slack

SKILL.md Content

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Slack - Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the

slack-pp-cli

binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

Install via the Printing Press installer:

bash

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press install slack --cli-only

Verify:
```
slack-pp-cli --version
```
Ensure
```
$GOPATH/bin
```
(or
```
$HOME/go/bin
```
) is on
```
$PATH
```
.

If the

npx

install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.23+):

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/slack/cmd/slack-pp-cli@latest

If

--version

reports "command not found" after install, the install step did not put the binary on

$PATH

. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this when the user wants:

send a Slack message to a channel or DM
search Slack across channels, DMs, and threads (live or synced)
list users, channels, usergroups, custom emoji, pinned items, or reminders
understand channel health (quiet channels, activity trends, response times, digest)
find stale or unanswered threads across the workspace
pull an activity summary for a user or channel
export channel history to JSONL for archival or migration
discover the funniest messages in public channels (local-sync-powered novelty query)

Skip it when the user wants to create Slack apps, workflows, or manage admin-only team settings beyond

team

access logs. Those surfaces are better served by the Slack web admin.

Two Auth Surfaces

Slack has two parallel token types and this CLI supports both:

Token	Scopes	When to use
`SLACK_BOT_TOKEN` (xoxb-)	workspace-scoped bot permissions	Default for post-message, read-channel, list-users, etc.
`SLACK_USER_TOKEN` (xoxp-)	user-scoped	DM history, search on behalf of a user, stars, reminders

Set whichever the workspace permits. If both are set, user-token wins for user-scoped endpoints and bot-token otherwise. Get a token at

https://api.slack.com/apps

-> your app -> OAuth & Permissions.

Argument Parsing

Parse

$ARGUMENTS

:

Empty,
help
, or
--help
-> show
```
slack-pp-cli --help
```
Starts with
install
-> ends with
```
mcp
```
-> MCP installation; otherwise -> CLI installation
Anything else -> Direct Use (map to the best command and run it)

MCP Server Installation

The CLI also ships an MCP server at

slack-pp-mcp

. Install and register:

bash

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/slack/cmd/slack-pp-mcp@latest
claude mcp add -e SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-... slack-pp-mcp -- slack-pp-mcp

Ask the user for the actual token value before running.

Direct Use

Check installed:
```
which slack-pp-cli
```
. If missing, offer CLI installation.

Discover commands:

slack-pp-cli --help

; drill into

slack-pp-cli <cmd> --help

.

Match the user query to the best command (see Notable Commands below).

Execute with

--agent

for structured output:

bash

slack-pp-cli <command> [args] --agent

The

--agent

flag sets

--json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes

.

Source routing (local vs live) is controlled by

--data-source

:

auto

(default) prefers local-synced data with live fallback;

live

always hits the API;

local

runs fully offline against the SQLite snapshot. Run

slack-pp-cli sync

first to populate the local store for analytics queries.

Notable Commands

Command	What it does
`conversations`	List channels and DMs in the workspace
`users`	List all users in the workspace
`search <query>`	Full-text search across synced messages (or live API with `--data-source live` )
`digest`	Daily/weekly activity digest from locally synced data
`health`	Channel health report (activity, engagement, stagnation)
`quiet`	Find dead or low-activity channels
`response-times`	Average first-response time in threads
`threads-stale`	Unanswered or stale threads
`activity <user-or-channel>`	Activity summary across channels from local sync
`trends`	Week-over-week channel activity trends
`sync`	Populate the local SQLite store for offline analytics
`emoji` / `reminders` / `pins` / `stars`	Workspace directory queries
`team`	Access logs (requires admin token)

Run any command with

--help

for full flag documentation.

Agent Mode

Add

--agent

to any command. Expands to:

--json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes

.

Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr
Filterable —
```
--select
```
keeps a subset of fields, with dotted-path support (see below)
Previewable —
```
--dry-run
```
shows the request without sending
Cacheable — GET responses cached for 5 minutes, bypass with
```
--no-cache
```
Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

Filtering output

--select

accepts dotted paths to descend into nested responses; arrays traverse element-wise:

bash

slack-pp-cli <command> --agent --select id,name
slack-pp-cli <command> --agent --select items.id,items.owner.name

Use this to narrow huge payloads to the fields you actually need — critical for deeply nested API responses.

Response envelope

Data-layer commands wrap output in

{"meta": {...}, "results": <data>}

. Parse

.results

for data and

.meta.source

to know whether it's

live

or local. The

N results (live)

summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a TTY; piped/agent consumers see pure JSON on stdout.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
2	Usage error (wrong arguments)
3	Resource not found (channel, user, message)
4	Authentication required (token missing or invalid)
5	API error (Slack upstream, including `not_in_channel` , `channel_not_found` )
7	Rate limited (Slack 429; CLI honors `Retry-After` )

pp-slack

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Slack - Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

When to Use This CLI

Two Auth Surfaces

Argument Parsing

MCP Server Installation

Direct Use

Notable Commands

Agent Mode

Filtering output

Response envelope

Exit Codes