Emacs Slack

GNU Emacs client for Slack.

You can see some gifs on the wiki.

How to get token and cookie

If your token expires, you can use slack-refresh-token for a way to refresh interactively.

(use-package slack
  :bind (("C-c S K" . slack-stop)
         ("C-c S c" . slack-select-rooms)
         ("C-c S u" . slack-select-unread-rooms)
         ("C-c S U" . slack-user-select)
         ("C-c S s" . slack-search-from-messages)
         ("C-c S J" . slack-jump-to-browser)
         ("C-c S j" . slack-jump-to-app)
         ("C-c S e" . slack-insert-emoji)
         ("C-c S E" . slack-message-edit)
         ("C-c S r" . slack-message-add-reaction)
         ("C-c S t" . slack-thread-show-or-create)
         ("C-c S g" . slack-message-redisplay)
         ("C-c S G" . slack-conversations-list-update-quick)
         ("C-c S q" . slack-quote-and-reply)
         ("C-c S Q" . slack-quote-and-reply-with-link)
         (:map slack-mode-map
               (("@" . slack-message-embed-mention)
                ("#" . slack-message-embed-channel)))
         (:map slack-thread-message-buffer-mode-map
               (("C-c '" . slack-message-write-another-buffer)
                ("@" . slack-message-embed-mention)
                ("#" . slack-message-embed-channel)))
         (:map slack-message-buffer-mode-map
               (("C-c '" . slack-message-write-another-buffer)))
         (:map slack-message-compose-buffer-mode-map
               (("C-c '" . slack-message-send-from-buffer)))
         )
  :custom
  (slack-extra-subscribed-channels (mapcar 'intern (list "some-channel")))
  :config
  (slack-register-team
     :name "clojurians"
     :token "xoxc-sssssssssss-88888888888-hhhhhhhhhhh-jjjjjjjjjj"
     :cookie "xoxd-sssssssssss-88888888888-hhhhhhhhhhh-jjjjjjjjjj; d-s=888888888888; lc=888888888888"
     :full-and-display-names t
     :default t
     :subscribed-channels nil ;; using slack-extra-subscribed-channels because I can change it dynamically
     ))

(use-package alert
  :commands (alert)
  :init
  (setq alert-default-style 'notifier))

Use the interactive command slack-refresh-token because it has the most complete instructions to get token and cookies required for emacs-slack to work.

For further explanation, see the documentation for the emojme project: (github.com/jackellenberger/emojme)

Note that it is only possible to obtain the cookie manually, not through client-side javascript, due to it being set as HttpOnly and Secure. See OWASP HttpOnly.

If someone steals your token they can use the token to impersonate you, reading and posting to Slack as if they were you. It's important to take reasonable precautions to secure your token.

One way to do this is by using the Emacs auth-source library. Read the auth-source documentation to learn how to use it to store login information for remote services.

Then configure the auth-sources variable to select a "backend" store. The default backend is ~/.authinfo file, which is simple but also un-encrypted. A more complex option is to encrypt that .~/authinfo file with gnupg and configure auth-sources to use ~/.authinfo.gpg as the source for all passwords and secrets. Other backends exist beyond these; read the documentation for details.

How to store your slack tokens in your auth-source backend will vary depending which backend you chose. See documentation for details. The "host" and "user" fields can be whatever you like as long as they are unique; as a suggestion use "myslackteam.slack.com" for host, and use your email address for user. The "secret" or "password" field should contain the token you obtained earlier (How to get token and cookie).

Do the same for the cookie, however for the "user" field append ^cookie, so if for the token you picked user@email.com then for the cookie use user@email.com^cookie.

Then finally, in your Emacs init read the token from your auth-source:

(slack-register-team
 :name "myslackteam"
 :token (auth-source-pick-first-password
         :host "myslackteam.slack.com"
         :user "me@example.com")
 :subscribed-channels '((channel1 channel2)))

If your token starts with xoxc you'll also need to manually obtain the cookie as described in How to get token and cookie and make sure the "user" has ^cookie in it as described above in How to secure your token:

(slack-register-team
 :name "myslackteam"
 :token (auth-source-pick-first-password
         :host "myslackteam.slack.com"
         :user "me@example.com")
 :cookie (auth-source-pick-first-password
         :host "myslackteam.slack.com"
         :user "me@example.com^cookie")
 :subscribed-channels '((channel1 channel2)))

If you do not specify :cookie then you'll automatically be prompted for one if you are using an xoxc token.

I recommend to chat with slackbot for tutorial using slack-im-select.

Some terminology in the slack- functions:

• im: An IM (instant message) is a direct message between you and exactly one other Slack user.

• channel: A channel is a Slack channel which you are a member of

• group. Any chat (direct message or channel) which isn't an IM is a group.

• slack-register-team

  • set team configuration and create team.
  • :name and :token are required

• slack-change-current-team

  • change slack-current-team var

• slack-start

  • do authorize and initialize

• slack-ws-close

  • turn off websocket connection

• slack-group-select

  • select group from list

• slack-im-select

  • select direct message from list

• slack-channel-select

  • select channel from list

• slack-group-list-update

  • update group list

• slack-im-list-update

  • update direct message list

• slack-channel-list-update

  • update channel list

• slack-message-embed-mention

  • use to mention to user

• slack-message-embed-channel

  • use to mention to channel

• slack-file-upload

  • attach a file to the current message draft; it uploads when you send

• thread sync suggestion: when a thread exceeds slack-thread-suggest-sync-threshold messages (default 20) and the recent ones alternate between two or three people, the thread buffer shows a one-time hint that a quick sync might resolve things faster; turn it off with slack-thread-suggest-sync

If your Slack team has a huge number of public channels, you may find you hit your token rate limit. If that happens, set (setq slack-quick-update t): it will avoid the hit of rate limiting at expense of functionality (like you will not have all public channel available and search will not display room names when it doesn't know about them).

See alert.

slack-org-link.el provides the emacs-slack: Org link type, backed by Slack permalinks:

(require 'slack-org-link)

• org-store-link in a message, thread, search result or pinned item buffer stores an [[emacs-slack:https://myteam.slack.com/archives/...][...]] link
• following the link opens the message in emacs-slack and, when the team or room is not available, falls back to the system browser (slack-org-open-in-browser-fallback)
• exporting to HTML/Markdown emits the permalink as a real https link
• slack-org-link-at-point returns the link for the message at point, for use in org-capture-templates
• the TEAMID|ROOMID|ts:TS links written by the ol-emacs-slack package still work; the old ol/... function names are kept as obsolete aliases

slack-org-alert.el (optional) captures message alerts as Org TODO headings so you can manage messages from the Org agenda. It is disabled until you set the target file:

(require 'slack-org-alert)
(setq slack-org-alert-file "~/agenda/Slack.org")
(slack-org-alert-setup)
(add-to-org-agenda-files "~/agenda/Slack.org")

Duplicate alerts are skipped (one heading per message), and slack-org-agenda-mark-all-done marks every entry tagged with slack-org-alert-tag (default slack) done in an agenda buffer. See slack-org-alert-heading-format, slack-org-alert-tag and slack-org-alert-file for customization.

• helm-slack
• ol-emacs-slack (superseded: the Org link support now lives here, see "Org mode integration" above)

Please set (setq slack-log-level 'debug) to see useful messages that may help pin point your issue. If you plan to add that to an issue, make sure to edit out credentials.

You can also use (setq slack-log-level 'trace), but that only if you need it because it will overwhelm your minibuffer with messages.

Please open an issue or better pull request for things that trouble you.

• Alert
• circe (for the Linewise User Interface library).
• Emojify (optional)
• Oauth2
  • do package install
• request
• websocket

• https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack