February 6, 2026
Bots vs. Slack cops
Show HN: Slack CLI for Agents
AI sidekick sneaks into Slack—devs swoon, enterprise admins sound alarms
TLDR: A new CLI tool lets AI act in Slack via desktop data, skipping official gateways. The crowd is split: hackers love the clever workaround, enterprise admins warn of hijack alerts, and some push a protocol-free alternative—making this a flashy shortcut with potential workplace consequences.
A new tool called “agent-slack” promises a command-line sidekick that lets AI read threads, search messages, download files, and even react with emojis—then spits out compact JSON so bots don’t burn tokens. The hook? Zero-config login if you’ve got Slack Desktop. Devs cheered the vibes, with one early tester noting it “works pretty well,” while also flagging missing usernames. Meanwhile, a chorus formed around clever rule-bending: Hansenq loved the idea of skipping paid gateways, calling it “just build your own browser so your bot becomes an actual user.”
Cue the drama. Wuzzy waved the banner for an MCP-less future—MCP here means “Model Context Protocol,” a way apps plug into AI—plugging their curl-based alternative latchkey. The room split: specialized tool for Slack versus a general approach that treats every service like a website. Then the Enterprise bombshell hit. apimade warned that big-company Slack might see this as session hijacking, lock your account, and nuke all your logins—suggesting “ghost” Chrome puppeteer to stay under the radar.
Between giddy hackers and anxious IT folks, jokes flew about “AI interns sneaking into Slack” and emoji-reacting their way into HR. The mood: excited, slightly rebellious, and very aware that Slack’s alarms might start blaring if bots type too fast.
Key Points
- •“agent-slack” is a Slack automation CLI for AI agents built with TypeScript and Bun.
- •Outputs are compact JSON with null/empty fields removed to reduce LLM token usage.
- •Zero-config authentication on macOS reads Slack Desktop data, with Chrome and env-var fallbacks.
- •Features include reading messages/threads, searching messages/files, auto-downloading attachments, writing replies, managing reactions, and fetching Slack Canvas as Markdown.
- •An agent skill is provided, compatible with Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor; install via curl or npx skills add stablyai/agent-slack.