Fetching channel messages

Basic usage

Fetch all top-level messages from a channel:

slack-cached fetch --channel C01234

This uses the Slack conversations.history API to retrieve top-level messages (standalone messages and thread parents). Thread replies are not included unless you use --full-threads.

Full thread expansion

Add --full-threads to also fetch all replies for every threaded conversation found in the channel:

slack-cached fetch --channel C01234 --full-threads

The summary includes thread expansion stats:

cached 42 messages for C01234 (42 fetched, 8 threads with replies fetched)

Time-bounded fetch

Use --last to limit the lookback period. Accepts duration strings like 24h, 2d5h30m, 90m, or all for full history:

# Last 3 days
slack-cached fetch --channel C01234 --last 3d

# Last 2 hours
slack-cached fetch --channel C01234 --last 2h

# Full history
slack-cached fetch --channel C01234 --last all

The default lookback is 1d (one day).

Showing cached channel messages

Display all cached messages for a channel:

slack-cached show --channel C01234

Filter by time with --last:

slack-cached show --channel C01234 --last 7d

Display as JSON:

slack-cached show --channel C01234 --json

Channel messages are auto-fetched if the cache is empty (unless --no-fetch is given).