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Fetching channel messages

Basic usage

Fetch all top-level messages from a channel:

slackx conversations fetch 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:

slackx conversations fetch 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
slackx conversations fetch C01234 --last 3d

# Last 2 hours
slackx conversations fetch C01234 --last 2h

# Full history
slackx conversations fetch C01234 --last all

The default lookback is 1d (one day).

Showing cached channel messages

Display a channel's cached top-level messages:

slackx conversations show C01234

Thread replies are not shown; conversations show mirrors the channel as it appears in Slack. Use conversations show C01234 --ts <thread_ts> to read a specific thread.

To include thread replies, pass --with-thread-message. Replies are rendered indented and tagged with the thread they belong to:

slackx conversations show C01234 --with-thread-message

Channel general
3 message(s) (1 thread replie(s))

[2023-11-14T22:13:20+00:00] Alice
    parent

    ↳ [2023-11-14T22:15:00+00:00] Bob (thread 1700000000.000100)
        reply

[2023-11-14T22:16:40+00:00] Carol
    standalone

In JSON output each message carries thread_ts and an is_thread_reply flag.

Filter by time with --last:

slackx conversations show C01234 --last 7d

Display as JSON:

slackx conversations show C01234 --json

Channel messages are auto-fetched if the cache is empty (unless --no-fetch is given). --fetch refreshes an already-cached channel before printing. With --no-fetch the channel itself is never fetched, but resolving a channel by name still fetches the channel list when the channel cache is empty; use a channel id to guarantee no Slack calls.