Pp Slack

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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:

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows: ``bash npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install slack --cli-only ``
2. Verify: slack-pp-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.6 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

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 runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Slack hides messages past the free-plan retention window and gates export behind admin. This CLI syncs conversations, users, files, and reactions into a local SQLite database with full-text search, so archive recall finds decisions Slack itself will no longer serve you. On top of the mirror it computes things no endpoint returns: catchup for what is still waiting on you, threads stale for unanswered threads, and health for which channels are dying.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI when the question is about Slack content rather than Slack app development, and when the answer benefits from history, aggregation, or repeated querying. It is the right tool for finding old decisions, summarizing what you missed, auditing which channels are alive, and resolving opaque Slack IDs into people. It is also the right tool when you hold only a bot token, because the local mirror answers search-shaped questions that Slack's own search endpoint refuses to serve bot tokens.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use this CLI to build, scaffold, or deploy a Slack app; that is what the official slackapi/slack-cli does.
• Do not use this CLI for Enterprise Grid administration; admin.* methods are deliberately excluded and would fail with a normal workspace token.
• Do not use this CLI as a real-time bot or event listener; it is a request-response tool with no Socket Mode or Events API runtime.
• Do not use this CLI to read a workspace you have not synced; every archive-backed command reports an unsynced mirror rather than silently returning empty.
• Do not use this CLI for compliance or legal export; Slack's Discovery API and admin export exist for that and carry guarantees this tool does not.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Local archive that outlives Slack

• `archive recall` — Find messages in your local archive, including ones Slack has already hidden behind the 90-day retention wall.

_Reach for this instead of search when the answer may be older than 90 days, or when you only hold a bot token, since Slack's search endpoint rejects bot tokens outright._

  slack-pp-cli archive recall "deploy" --agent --limit 20

• `archive coverage` — Show what date range your local mirror actually holds per channel, and where the gaps are.

_Check this before trusting an empty recall result, so you can tell a genuine absence from an unsynced range._

  slack-pp-cli archive coverage --json

Obligation over volume

• `catchup` — See what happened while you were away: new volume per channel, messages that mention you, and threads still waiting on your reply.

_Use this as the single call that replaces listing channels, pulling history per channel, and resolving mentions by hand._

  slack-pp-cli catchup --since 24h --agent

• `threads stale` — List threads across the archive where the last reply is not yours and nobody has answered since.

_Pick this when the question is what is unanswered, rather than what is recent._

  slack-pp-cli threads stale --days 3 --json

Workspace stewardship

• `health` — Compare your channels by messages per day, distinct posters, median first-reply latency, and days idle.

_Use this for archive-candidate decisions when you are not a workspace admin and have no export or admin console._

  slack-pp-cli health --dying --json

• `users activity` — Profile where one person posts, which threads they carry, and when they were last seen.

_Reach for this for handoff and standup context about a named teammate, not about yourself._

  slack-pp-cli users activity chris --days 30 --json

Identity resolution

• `users whois` — Turn an opaque Slack ID, handle, or email into one card with shared channels, timezone, DND state, and last-seen.

_Use this the moment a payload hands you a bare U-prefixed or C-prefixed ID, instead of calling users info per identifier._

  slack-pp-cli users whois U04AB9XYZ --agent

Command Reference

api-test — Manage api test

• slack-pp-cli api-test — Checks API calling code.

auth_api — Test and manage authentication

• slack-pp-cli auth-api revoke — Revoke the current authentication token
• slack-pp-cli auth-api test — Test the authentication token and get identity info

bots — Get information about bot users

• slack-pp-cli bots — Get information about a bot user

canvases — Create, edit, share, and delete Slack canvases

• slack-pp-cli canvases create — Create a canvas, standalone or bound to a channel
• slack-pp-cli canvases read — Read a canvas's content
• slack-pp-cli canvases edit — Apply a change to an existing canvas
• slack-pp-cli canvases delete — Delete a canvas
• slack-pp-cli canvases access-set — Grant users or channels access to a canvas
• slack-pp-cli canvases sections — Look up section IDs in a canvas, for targeted edits

Needs canvases:write + canvases:read, and files:read for read. read returns HTML, not Markdown (Slack has no get-canvas-content endpoint, so it downloads the backing file) — so create/read is not a lossless round trip. To target an edit, read the canvas and take the section id from the HTML; sections returns ids without the content they cover.

chat-delete-scheduled-message — Manage chat delete scheduled message

• slack-pp-cli chat-delete-scheduled-message — Deletes a pending scheduled message from the queue.

chat-me-message — Manage chat me message

• slack-pp-cli chat-me-message — Share a me message into a channel.

chat-post-ephemeral — Manage chat post ephemeral

• slack-pp-cli chat-post-ephemeral — Sends an ephemeral message to a user in a channel.

chat-unfurl — Manage chat unfurl

• slack-pp-cli chat-unfurl — Provide custom unfurl behavior for user-posted URLs

conversations — Read channel history, list channels, manage channel membership

• slack-pp-cli conversations archive — Archive a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations create — Create a new channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations get — Get information about a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations history — Fetch message history for a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations invite — Invite users to a channel
• slack-pp-cli conversations list — List all channels in the workspace