Slack ended IRC support on May 15, 2018. So, we built our own Slack-IRC gateway.

irslackd is actively developed and used daily on a 1000+ user Slack workspace.

• TLS-encrypted IRCd
• Multiple Slack accounts/workspaces
• Channels, private channels, DMs, group DMs, threads
• Receive reactions, message edits, message deletes, attachments
• Proper en/decoding of @user, #channel, @team tags

1. Clone irslackd and run docker-compose:

   $ git clone https://github.com/adsr/irslackd.git
   $ docker-compose up
   

   Recommendation: Watch docker-compose build output for the generated certificate's fingerprint (used later for verification).

2. Connect your IRC client to irslackd which listens on 127.0.0.1:6697. See: Configure your Slack account and IRC client

1. Install Node >=8.x and npm. You can check your version of Node by running node --version.

2. Clone irslackd:

   $ git clone https://github.com/adsr/irslackd.git
   $ cd irslackd
   $ npm install    # Fetch dependencies into local `node_modules/` directory
   

3. Run ./bin/create_tls_key.sh to create a TLS key and cert. This will put a private key and cert in ~/.irslackd. Note the fingerprint.

4. Run irslackd:

   $ ./irslackd
   

   By default irslackd listens on 127.0.0.1:6697. Set the command line options -p <port> and/or -a <address> to change the listen address.

1. Follow the link below to obtain an irslackd token for your Slack workspace:

   

   Select the desired workspace in the dropdown in the upper right corner. Click 'Authorize', and copy the access token. It will look something like this:

   xoxp-012345678901-012345678901-012345678901-0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef

2. Connect to irslackd via your IRC client, e.g., WeeChat:

   /server add irslackd_workspace localhost/6697
   /set irc.server.irslackd_workspace.ssl on
   /set irc.server.irslackd_workspace.ssl_fingerprint fingerprint-from-step-3
   /set irc.server.irslackd_workspace.password access-token-from-step-5
   /connect irslackd_workspace
   

   Check the wiki for more client configuration notes.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each Slack workspace you'd like to connect to.

4. Enjoy a fresh IRC gateway experience.

This fork adds patches to use irslackd as an IRC backend for OpenClaw, an AI gateway. The changes enable irslackd to work with browser-extracted Slack tokens (xoxc- + cookie) without loading the full workspace user/channel lists on startup.

Instead of the OAuth app flow, you can extract tokens directly from a logged-in Slack browser session:

1. Open Slack in your browser and press F12 to open DevTools.
2. Go to Application → Storage → Cookies and copy the value of the d cookie (starts with xoxd-). This is your session cookie.
3. In the browser Console, run:

   JSON.parse(localStorage.localConfig_v2).teams[JSON.parse(localStorage.localConfig_v2).lastActiveTeamId].token

   Copy the result — it starts with xoxc-. This is your workspace token.
4. Combine them as the IRC password:

   xoxc-<token>|<d-cookie>
   

./irslackd --insecure --port 6667 --channels ""

• --insecure: no TLS (safe when listening on localhost only)
• --channels "": block all public Slack channels (only DMs and group DMs pass through); use --channels "#general,#dev" to allowlist specific public channels

In openclaw.json, add an IRC channel pointing to irslackd:

"irc": {
  "enabled": true,
  "host": "127.0.0.1",
  "port": 6667,
  "tls": false,
  "nick": "mybot",
  "password": "xoxc-TOKEN|COOKIE",
  "channels": ["#_openclaw"],
  "dmPolicy": "allowlist",
  "allowFrom": ["your-slack-nick"],
  "groupPolicy": "allowlist",
  "groupAllowFrom": ["your-slack-nick", "trusted-colleague"],
  "groups": {
    "#_openclaw": { "requireMention": false },
    "#mpdm-you--colleague--mybot26-1": { "requireMention": false },
    "*": { "requireMention": true }
  }
}

The #_openclaw channel is a virtual keepalive channel (no Slack backend). OpenClaw must join it — this signals irslackd to start RTM. Probe connections (OpenClaw status checks) never join #_openclaw and therefore never trigger rtm.connect, avoiding Slack rate limits.

Safe defaults: restrict DMs to yourself, list trusted users in groupAllowFrom, and require mention ("*": { "requireMention": true }) in group chats you don't fully control.

• Add more client configuration notes.
• File bug reports and feature requests via Github issues.
• Feel free to submit PRs. Make sure to include tests.

• To run all tests: npm test
• To run a single test, e.g.: npm test test_join

• https://github.com/ltworf/localslackirc (another gateway, Python)
• https://github.com/insomniacslk/irc-slack (another gateway, Go)
• https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack (a terminal client, WeeChat-based)
• https://github.com/erroneousboat/slack-term (a terminal client, Go)
• https://github.com/42wim/matterircd (an IRCd for Mattermost and Slack)
• https://github.com/dylex/slack-libpurple (Slack plugin for libpurple)

• Feel free to join the irslackd Slack workspace for testing your irslackd setup.