Slack MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for searching Slack channels and messages.

Features

• list_channels - List available Slack channels in the workspace
• search_messages - Search for messages across channels using text matching
• get_channel_history - Get message history from a specific channel

Installation

Using npx (Recommended)

No installation required. Add directly to your config:

Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:nikhilchintawar/slack-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code (~/.claude/settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:nikhilchintawar/slack-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Manual Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nikhilchintawar/slack-mcp.git
cd slack-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

Then add to your config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/slack-mcp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Config File Locations

• Claude Desktop (macOS): ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Claude Desktop (Windows): %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Claude Code: ~/.claude/settings.json

Environment Variables

Channel Restrictions

Use SLACK_CHANNELS to restrict which channels can be searched. When configured:

• Searches without a channel specified will search all allowed channels
• Searches with a specific channel will validate it's in the allowed list
• get_channel_history will only work with allowed channels

{
  "env": {
    "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-your-token",
    "SLACK_CHANNELS": "general,engineering,support"
  }
}

Slack App Setup

1. Create a Slack App at https://api.slack.com/apps
2. Go to "OAuth & Permissions"
3. Add the following Bot Token Scopes:
   • channels:read - List public channels
   • channels:history - Read messages from public channels
   • groups:read - List private channels (optional)
   • groups:history - Read messages from private channels (optional)
4. Install the app to your workspace
5. Copy the "Bot User OAuth Token" (starts with xoxb-)
6. Important: Add the bot to each channel you want to search (right-click channel → "Open channel details" → "Integrations" → "Add apps")

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can use natural language to interact with Slack:

• "List all channels in my Slack workspace"
• "Search for messages about deployment in #engineering"
• "Show me the last 50 messages from #general"
• "Find messages from @john about the API"
• "Search for error messages from last week"

Available Tools

list_channels

List available Slack channels in the workspace.

search_messages

Search for messages across Slack channels using text matching. Fetches channel history and filters by query.

Query examples:

• error - messages containing "error"
• error warning - messages containing both "error" AND "warning"
• error | warning - messages containing "error" OR "warning"

get_channel_history

Get message history from a specific Slack channel.

Development

# Watch mode for development
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

# Test with MCP Inspector
SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-your-token \
  npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.js

License

MIT