nori-slack-cli

A CLI for the Slack Web API, designed for coding agents.

nori-slack-cli is a thin command-line wrapper around the Slack Web API that maps 1:1 to Bolt (@slack/web-api). Every method Bolt exposes is reachable through a single dynamic command — there is no curated subset, no opinionated abstraction layer, and no business logic. If Bolt can call it, this CLI can call it.

Why this exists

Bolt is built for human developers writing TypeScript. This CLI is built for coding agents that need to drive Slack from a shell. That shapes every design decision:

• No interactive prompts, no ASCII art. Every successful response is a single line of JSON on stdout. Errors are JSON on stdout and a human-readable line on stderr.
• Exhaustive surface. The agent has access to the full Slack Web API — not a hand-picked subset. Capability boundaries are enforced through bot token scopes, not through code.
• Bot tokens only. Uses SLACK_BOT_TOKEN exclusively. There is no user-OAuth flow because there is no human in the loop.
• Self-locating errors. Every error response includes a source field with the on-disk path to the CLI, so an agent can read the source code to debug.
• Install from npm. npm install -g nori-slack-cli puts nori-slack on your PATH. Cloning and building from source is also supported for contributors.

Install

From npm:

npm install -g nori-slack-cli

From source (for contributors):

git clone https://github.com/tilework-tech/nori-slack-cli.git
cd nori-slack-cli
npm install
npm run build
npm link   # makes `nori-slack` available globally

Then set your bot token:

export SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-...

Usage

The general shape is nori-slack <method> [--param value ...], where <method> is any Slack Web API method (e.g. chat.postMessage, conversations.list, users.info).

# Send a message
nori-slack chat.postMessage --channel C123 --text "Hello"

# List channels
nori-slack conversations.list --limit 10

# Auto-paginate and merge results
nori-slack conversations.list --paginate

# Pipe parameters in as JSON
echo '{"channel":"C123","text":"hi"}' | nori-slack chat.postMessage --json-input

# Preview a request without sending it (no token required)
nori-slack chat.postMessage --channel C123 --text "Hello" --dry-run

Flags are converted from --kebab-case to snake_case to match Slack's parameter names. Values are auto-coerced (true/false → boolean, numerics → number, inline JSON → object/array). A bare --flag with no value is treated as boolean true.

Discovery (no token required)

# List every known method, optionally filtered by namespace
nori-slack list-methods --namespace chat
nori-slack list-methods --descriptions

# Get parameter docs, required/optional fields, pagination support, and docs URL for a method
nori-slack describe chat.postMessage

Top-level flags

| Flag | Purpose | | --- | --- | | --json-input | Read parameters as JSON from stdin (CLI flags override stdin values). | | --paginate | Use cursor pagination and return a single merged JSON response. | | --dry-run | Resolve params and print the planned request without calling the API. |

Exit codes

• 0 — success
• 1 — Slack API error or missing token
• 2 — bad CLI usage (missing args, invalid stdin JSON)

Authentication

Set SLACK_BOT_TOKEN in the environment. The CLI does not read tokens from any other source. To control what the agent can do, scope the bot token in the Slack app's OAuth & Permissions page — the CLI itself imposes no method-level restrictions.

License

See LICENSE and LICENSE-ADDENDUM.txt.

Created and maintained by Nori.