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Slack cli

:neckbeard: Powerful Slack CLI via pure bash. Rich messaging, uploads, posts, piping, oh my!

From rockymadden·Updated June 26, 2026·View on GitHub·

A pure bash, pipe friendly, feature rich, command line interface for Slack. [Richly formatted messages](https://api.slack.com/docs/message-formatting), [file uploads](#file-upload), and even [creating Slack posts](#file-upload) are first class constructs. Deep integration with [jq](https://github.com/stedolan/jq) allows for the ability to perform advanced operations upon JSON responses, helping you perform complex queries and pipe chaining with ease. The project is written primarily in Shell, first published in 2015. It has gained significant community traction with 1,147 stars and 95 forks on GitHub. Key topics include: bash, pomodoro, slack, slack-api, slack-attachments.

slack-cli <sub><sup>| Powerful Slack CLI via pure bash</sup></sub>

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A pure bash, pipe friendly, feature rich, command line interface for Slack.
Richly formatted messages,
file uploads, and even creating Slack posts are first class
constructs. Deep integration with jq allows for the ability to
perform advanced operations upon JSON responses, helping you perform complex queries and pipe
chaining with ease.

Simple chat example:

console
$ slack chat send hi @slackbot

100% Slack-based pomodoro example:

console
$ alias pomodoro='f() { slack status edit --text="Pomodoro" --emoji=":tomato:" && slack snooze start --minutes="${1-60}" && slack reminder add "Pomodoro done!" $(date -v +${1-60}M "+%s") }; f' $ pomodoro 60

Pipe chaining example:

console
$ # Send a message, update the message, and finally delete the message: $ slack chat send hello @slackbot --filter '.ts + "\n" + .channel' | xargs -n2 slack chat update goodbye --filter '.ts + "\n" + .channel' | xargs -n2 slack chat delete

Richly formatted chat example:

console
$ slack chat send \ --actions '{"type": "button", "style": "primary", "text": "See results", "url": "http://example.com"}' \ --author 'author' \ --author-icon 'https://assets-cdn.github.com/images/modules/logos_page/Octocat.png' \ --author-link 'https://github.com/rockymadden/slack-cli' \ --channel '#channel' \ --color good \ --fields '{"title": "Environment", "value": "snapshot", "short": true}' \ --footer 'footer' \ --footer-icon 'https://assets-cdn.github.com/images/modules/logos_page/Octocat.png' \ --image 'https://assets-cdn.github.com/images/modules/logos_page/Octocat.png' \ --pretext 'pretext' \ --text 'text' \ --time 123456789 \ --title 'title' \ --title-link 'https://github.com/rockymadden/slack-cli'

Installation

Via brew

console
$ brew tap rockymadden/rockymadden $ brew install rockymadden/rockymadden/slack-cli

Via curl

console
$ curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rockymadden/slack-cli/master/src/slack $ chmod +x slack

PROTIP: You are responsible for having curl and jq on your PATH.

Via make

console
$ git clone git@github.com:rockymadden/slack-cli.git $ cd slack-cli $ make install bindir=/path/to/bin etcdir=/path/to/etc

PROTIP: You are responsible for having curl and jq on your PATH.

Configuration

If you want to post from your own account, you need a legacy API token which can be found
here. If you want to post from a
slackbot, create one here. Otherwise, you can create an
app with a Slack API token and use said API token one of the
following ways:

Via init

console
$ slack init

Via environment variable

console
$ export SLACK_CLI_TOKEN='token'

Examples and Recipes

chat send

console
$ # Send message via prompts: $ slack chat send $ $ # Send message via arguments: $ slack chat send 'Hello world!' '#channel' $ $ # Send message via options: $ slack chat send --text 'Hello world!' --channel '#channel' $ $ # Send message via short form options: $ slack chat send -tx 'Hello world!' -ch '#channel' $ $ # Send message via pipe: $ ls -al | slack chat send --channel '#channel' --pretext 'Directory:' --color good $ $ # Send message and returning just the timestamp via filter option: $ slack chat send 'Hello world!' '#channel' --filter '.ts'

PROTIP: See the Slack attachments documentation for
more information about option meanings.

chat update

console
$ # Update message via prompts: $ slack chat update $ $ # Update message via arguments: $ slack chat update 'Hello world, again!' 1405894322.002768 '#channel' $ $ # Update message via options: $ slack chat update --text 'Hello world, again!' --timestamp 1405894322.002768 --channel '#channel' $ $ # Update message via short form options: $ slack chat update -tx 'Hello world, again!' -ts 1405894322.002768 -ch '#channel' $ $ # Send message and immediately update: $ slack chat send 'Hello world!' '#channel' --filter '.ts + "\n" + .channel' | xargs -n2 slack chat update 'Goodbye world!'

PROTIP: See the Slack attachments documentation for
more information about option meanings.

chat delete

console
$ # Delete message via prompts: $ slack chat delete $ $ # Delete message via arguments: $ slack chat delete 1405894322.002768 '#channel' $ $ # Delete message via options: $ slack chat delete --timestamp 1405894322.002768 --channel '#channel' $ $ # Delete message via short form options: $ slack chat delete -ts 1405894322.002768 -ch '#channel' $ $ # Send message and immediately delete: $ slack chat send 'Hello world!' '#channel' --filter '.ts + "\n" + .channel' | xargs -n2 slack chat delete

file upload

console
$ # Upload file via prompts: $ slack file upload $ $ # Upload file via arguments: $ slack file upload README.md '#channel' $ $ # Upload file via options: $ slack file upload --file README.md --channels '#channel' $ $ # Upload file via pipe: $ ls -al | slack file upload --channels '#channel' $ $ # Upload file with rich formatting: $ slack file upload README.md '#channel' --comment 'Comment' --title 'Title' $ $ # Create a Slack post, noting the filetype option: $ slack file upload --file post.md --filetype post --title 'Post Title' --channels '#channel'

file list

console
$ # List files: $ slack file list $ $ # List files and output only ID and size: $ slack file list --filter '[.files[] | {id, size}]'

file info

console
$ # Info about file via prompts: $ slack file info $ $ # Info about file via arguments: $ slack file info F2147483862 $ $ # Info about file via options: $ slack file info --file F2147483862

file delete

console
$ # Delete file via prompts: $ slack file delete $ $ # Delete file via arguments: $ slack file delete F2147483862 $ $ # Delete file via options: $ slack file delete --file F2147483862

presence active

console
$ # Active presence: $ slack presence active

reminder list

console
$ # List reminders: $ slack reminder list

reminder add

console
$ # Add reminder via prompts: $ slack reminder add $ $ # Add reminder via arguments: $ slack reminder add 'lunch' 1526995300 $ $ # Add reminder in 10 minutes, via date on macOS, via arguments: $ slack reminder add 'lunch' $(date -v +10M "+%s") $ $ # Add reminder via options: $ slack reminder add --text="lunch" --time=1526995300

reminder complete

console
$ # Complete reminder via prompts: $ slack reminder complete $ $ # Complete reminder via arguments: $ slack reminder complete Rm7MGABKT6 $ $ # Complete reminder via options: $ slack reminder complete --reminder="Rm7MGABKT6"

reminder delete

console
$ # Complete reminder via prompts: $ slack reminder delete $ $ # Complete reminder via arguments: $ slack reminder delete "Rm7MGABKT6" $ $ # Complete reminder via options: $ slack reminder delete --reminder="Rm7MGABKT6"

reminder info

console
$ # Info about reminder via prompts: $ slack reminder info $ $ # Info about reminder via arguments: $ slack reminder info "Rm7MGABKT6" $ $ # Info about reminder via options: $ slack reminder info --reminder="Rm7MGABKT6"

presence away

console
$ # Away presence: $ slack presence away

snooze start

console
$ # Start snooze via prompts: $ slack snooze start $ $ # Start snooze via arguments: $ slack snooze start 60 $ $ # Start snooze via options: $ slack snooze start --minutes 60 $ $ # Start snooze via short form options: $ slack snooze start -mn 60

snooze info

console
$ # Info about your own snooze: $ slack snooze info $ $ # Info about another user's snooze via argument: $ slack snooze info @slackbot $ $ # Info about another user's snooze via options: $ slack snooze info --user @slackbot $ $ # Info about another user's snooze via short form options: $ slack snooze info -ur @slackbot

snooze end

console
$ # End snooze: $ slack snooze end

status edit

console
$ # Edit status: $ slack status edit $ $ # Edit status via arguments: $ slack status edit lunch :hamburger: $ $ # Edit status via options: $ slack status edit --text lunch --emoji :hamburger: $ $ # Edit status via short form options: $ slack status edit --tx lunch -em :hamburger:

Contributors

A big thank you to the following contributors who have helped add features and/or fixes:

License

text
The MIT License (MIT) Copyright (c) 2018 Rocky Madden (https://rockymadden.com/) Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Contributors

Showing top 9 contributors by commit count.

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This article is auto-generated from rockymadden/slack-cli via the GitHub API.Last fetched: 6/28/2026