Tradeoffs and Non Goals

Tradeoffs and Non-Goals

slk is intentionally not a 1:1 port of the desktop client. Some Slack features are deferred or out of scope.

On the roadmap

• Slack-side search (Ctrl+/ / :search)
• File uploads and downloads
• OSC 52 clipboard yank (yy)
• Quiet hours and per-channel mute
• Custom keybinding overrides

Not planned

• Huddles, Slack Connect, Workflow Builder
• Bot/app management, slash commands, custom emoji management
• Animated reactions, link unfurls, in-app toasts

Markdown caveats

• Editing a message you originally formatted with markdown may flatten the rich_text formatting on Slack clients that prefer blocks. The mrkdwn fallback (*bold*, etc.) still renders correctly everywhere.
• Headings (# Title) and blockquotes (> quote) are passed through verbatim — Slack has no heading construct and > is already valid mrkdwn.
• Tables, footnotes, task lists, and reference-style links are not translated.

Image rendering caveats

• iTerm2 ≥ 3.5 implements kitty graphics but does not support unicode placeholders, so it falls back to half-block.
• Animated GIFs render as a static first frame.
• Threads side panel renders images inline using the same pipeline as the main messages pane, on terminals that use kitty graphics or the half-block fallback. Sixel terminals see a placeholder/sentinel block in the thread panel for v1; the actual sixel byte stream is only emitted in the main messages pane. Click-to-preview and O / v from a thread reply are messages-pane only.
• Link unfurl image previews are not yet rendered inline.

Auth caveat

Browser-cookie auth means tokens expire when you log out of the browser or Slack rotates them. Re-run --add-workspace and you're back in business. See Setup for the token-extraction walkthrough.

Unofficial / TOS caveat

slk talks to Slack via the same internal browser protocol the official web client uses. This is unofficial and not sanctioned by Slack — using it may violate Slack's API and user Terms of Service, and Slack may break the protocol or invalidate tokens at any time. Use at your own risk on workspaces where that's acceptable to you and your admins.