slk

A blazingly fast Slack TUI. Keyboard-driven, beautifully themed, and under 20MB. One static binary. No Electron required.

slk is a daily-driver replacement for the official Slack desktop client, built in Go with bubbletea and lipgloss.

Why slk?

• Fast. Cold start in milliseconds. Render-cached messages. SQLite-backed scrollback. Real-time over WebSocket.
• Tiny. ~19 MB on disk. ~60 MB RSS for a live multi-workspace session vs. 500 MB–1.5 GB for the official client. No node_modules, no Chromium, no 1Gb RAM tax.
• Keyboard-first. Vim-style modal editing. j/k, h/l, i, Esc
• Pretty. 12 built-in themes, lipgloss-styled panels, half-block pixel-art avatars, emoji shortcodes, day separators, and pill-style reactions.
• Multi-workspace. All your workspaces stay connected in parallel. 1–9 to instantly jump between them, with live unread badges in the rail.
• Yours. TOML config, custom themes, custom channel sections via glob, XDG-compliant paths.

Features

Messaging

• Real-time messages, edits, deletes, reactions, and typing indicators over WebSocket
• Edit your own messages (E) — reuses the compose box with stash/restore for any in-progress draft
• Delete your own messages (D) — centered confirmation overlay with message preview
• Slack markdown rendering (bold, italic, strikethrough, code, blockquotes, links, mentions)
• Emoji shortcodes (:rocket: → 🚀)
• Day separators (Today, Yesterday, Monday, full date)
• Infinite scroll backfill into SQLite cache
• New-message landmark (red ── new ── line at the unread boundary)
• Mark-as-read synced to Slack on channel entry
• Edited / threaded message indicators
• ANSI-aware wrapping and truncation (no broken color codes mid-line)
• Drag-to-copy: drag the mouse across messages to highlight them; release to copy plain text to the system clipboard via OSC 52

Compose

• Multi-line input, Shift+Enter for newlines
• Inline @mention autocomplete (resolves to <@UserID> on send)
• Special mentions: @here, @channel, @everyone
• Bracketed paste — paste multi-line text from the system clipboard without it being interpreted as keystrokes
• Smart paste (Ctrl+V) — pastes a clipboard image as an attachment, or a copied file path as an attached file, or falls through to text. Multiple attachments + caption send together via Slack's V2 file-upload API.

Threads

• Side panel (35% width), opened with Enter, toggled with Ctrl+]
• Live thread reply routing, real-time updates
• Auto-closes on channel switch or narrow terminals
• Threads view (⚑ Threads at top of sidebar): scrollable list of every thread you authored, replied to, or were @-mentioned in for the active workspace. Unread first, then newest activity. Selecting a thread opens it in the side panel; the list re-ranks live as new replies arrive. v1 is computed from the local SQLite cache, so threads from channels you have not yet opened in slk will not appear until they are seen.

Reactions

• Search-first picker overlay (r) with frecent emoji
• Quick-toggle nav across existing pills (R, then h/l/Enter)
• Pill-style display (green = yours, gray = others)
• Optimistic UI, deduped against the WebSocket echo

Channels & Workspaces

• Three-panel layout: workspace rail, channel sidebar, message pane
• Public (#), private (◆), DM (●/○ for presence), and group DM channels
• Custom channel sections via glob patterns in config
• Unread dots and counts (via Slack's client.counts API)
• Fuzzy channel finder (Ctrl+t / Ctrl+p)
• Workspace picker (Ctrl+w) and direct jump (1–9)
• All workspaces stay connected in parallel for live unread badges

Notifications

• OS-level desktop notifications via beeep
• Triggers on DMs, mentions, and configurable keywords
• Suppressed when you're focused on the relevant channel
• Suppressed entirely while you're in DND/snooze

Status & DND

• Set self presence (Active / Away) and DND/snooze from Ctrl+S
• Standard snooze durations (20m / 1h / 2h / 4h / 8h / 24h / until tomorrow morning) plus custom minutes
• Live status segment in the status bar with snooze countdown
• Reflects external state changes — set from the official Slack client or via your own API scripts — in real time over the WebSocket

Connectivity

• Browser-cookie auth (xoxc + d) — works as any user, no Slack App required
• Direct connection to Slack's internal browser WebSocket protocol
• Auto-reconnect with exponential backoff (1s → 30s)
• Three-state connection indicator in the status bar

Customization

• 12 built-in modern-looking themes
• Drop-in custom themes (~/.config/slk/themes/*.toml)
• Live theme switcher (Ctrl+y)
• TOML config for appearance, animations, notifications, and channel sections

Tradeoffs & 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
• Inline image rendering (Kitty graphics → Sixel → fallback)
• 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

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.

Install

Grab a prebuilt binary from the latest release, or use one of the methods below.

The shell snippets resolve the latest version automatically:

Linux

Debian / Ubuntu:

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.deb"
sudo dpkg -i "slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.deb"

Fedora / RHEL:

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
sudo rpm -i "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.rpm"

Alpine:

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.apk"
sudo apk add --allow-untrusted "slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.apk"

Tarball (any distro, swap x86_64 for arm64 on ARM):

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_linux_x86_64.tar.gz" | tar xz
sudo mv slk /usr/local/bin/

macOS

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
# Apple Silicon
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_darwin_arm64.tar.gz" | tar xz
# Intel
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_darwin_x86_64.tar.gz" | tar xz

sudo mv slk /usr/local/bin/

Windows

Download the windows_x86_64.zip from the latest release, extract slk.exe, and add it to your PATH.

Go

go install github.com/gammons/slk/cmd/slk@latest

Build from source

Requires Go 1.22+.

On Linux, Ctrl+V paste-to-upload needs slightly different setup depending on your session type.

X11 sessions use the golang.design/x/clipboard library, which requires X11 development headers at build time:

• Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install -y libx11-dev
• Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install -y libX11-devel
• Arch: included in xorg-server

Wayland sessions bypass the X11 library entirely and shell out to wl-paste from the wl-clipboard package — install it for paste-to-upload to work:

• Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install -y wl-clipboard
• Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install -y wl-clipboard
• Arch: sudo pacman -S wl-clipboard

slk auto-detects the session via WAYLAND_DISPLAY at startup. On headless Linux (or when neither dependency is met), slk runs but Ctrl+V smart-paste is disabled.

git clone https://github.com/gammons/slk.git
cd slk
make build       # binary at bin/slk

Verify your download

curl -fsSLO https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/checksums.txt
sha256sum -c checksums.txt --ignore-missing

Setup

1. Log into Slack in your browser

Open https://app.slack.com and sign into your workspace. Open the browser version of your slack workspace.

2. Grab your browser tokens

The d cookie:

• DevTools (F12 / Cmd+Option+I) → Application → Cookies → https://app.slack.com
• Copy the value of the cookie named d

The xoxc token: in the DevTools Console, run:

Object.entries(JSON.parse(localStorage.localConfig_v2).teams).forEach(([id,t]) => console.log(t.name, t.token))

Copy the xoxc-… token for the workspace you want.

3. Add the workspace

./bin/slk --add-workspace

Or just run ./bin/slk. Onboarding launches automatically when no workspaces are configured.

Keybindings

Key	Mode	Action
j / k	Normal	Move down/up in channel list or messages
h / l	Normal	Switch focus between panels
Tab / Shift+Tab	Normal	Cycle focus
Enter	Normal (sidebar)	Open selected channel
Enter	Normal (message)	Open thread
i	Normal	Enter insert mode
Esc	Insert / Command	Return to normal mode
Enter	Insert	Send message
Shift+Enter	Insert	Newline
Ctrl+V	Insert	Smart paste — image / file path / text
gg / G	Normal	Jump to top / bottom
Ctrl+b	Any	Toggle sidebar
Ctrl+]	Any	Toggle thread panel
Ctrl+t / Ctrl+p	Any	Fuzzy channel finder
Ctrl+w	Any	Workspace picker
1–9	Normal	Jump to workspace N
r	Normal (message)	Open reaction picker
R	Normal (message)	Quick-toggle existing reactions
E	Normal (message)	Edit your own message
D	Normal (message)	Delete your own message (with confirmation)
Y / C	Normal (message)	Copy message permalink
Ctrl+y	Any	Switch theme
Ctrl+s	Any	Set status (Active / Away / DND snooze)
Ctrl+c	Any	Quit

Configuration

Config lives at ~/.config/slk/config.toml:

[general]
default_workspace = "myteam"

[appearance]
theme = "dracula"
timestamp_format = "3:04 PM"

[animations]
enabled = true
smooth_scrolling = true
typing_indicators = true

[notifications]
enabled = true
on_mention = true
on_dm = true
on_keyword = ["deploy", "incident"]
quiet_hours = "22:00-08:00"   # planned

[cache]
message_retention_days = 30
max_db_size_mb = 500

# Custom channel sections (glob patterns)
[sections.Alerts]
channels = ["alerts", "ops", "*-alerts"]
order = 1

[sections.Engineering]
channels = ["eng-*", "deploys", "bugs"]
order = 2

# Inline color overrides on top of the active theme
[theme]
primary = "#4A9EFF"
accent = "#50C878"
background = "#1A1A2E"
text = "#E0E0E0"

Custom themes

Drop .toml files into ~/.config/slk/themes/:

name = "My Theme"

[colors]
primary      = "#BD93F9"
accent       = "#50FA7B"
warning      = "#FFB86C"
error        = "#FF5555"
background   = "#282A36"
surface      = "#343746"
surface_dark = "#21222C"
text         = "#F8F8F2"
text_muted   = "#6272A4"
border       = "#44475A"

# Optional sidebar/rail overrides — lets you have a darker sidebar with a
# lighter message pane (Slack's default look). Fall back to
# background/text/text_muted/surface_dark when omitted.
sidebar_background = "#19171D"
sidebar_text       = "#D1D2D3"
sidebar_text_muted = "#9A9B9E"
rail_background    = "#19171D"

Data paths (XDG)

Path	Contents
~/.config/slk/	Configuration, custom themes
~/.local/share/slk/	SQLite cache, tokens
~/.cache/slk/	Avatars, image cache

Architecture

Service-oriented, four layers:

UI Layer (bubbletea)   workspace rail · sidebar · messages · thread · compose · status bar
Service Layer          WorkspaceManager · MessageService · ConnectionManager
Client Layer           Slack Web API + browser-protocol WebSocket
Data Layer             SQLite cache · TOML config · token storage

• ~9,300 lines of Go across 31 source files and 24 test files
• SQLite is a cache, not the source of truth — Slack remains authoritative
• Render cache + bubbles/viewport for snappy scrolling
• muesli/reflow everywhere for ANSI-correct wrapping and truncation

See docs/superpowers/specs/ for design specs and docs/STATUS.md for the live implementation status.

Clipboard / OSC 52 caveats

slk writes the system clipboard via the OSC 52 escape. Most modern terminal emulators (alacritty, kitty, wezterm, foot, iterm2, recent gnome-terminal) accept these writes by default. A few need explicit opt-in:

• tmux: set -g set-clipboard on in your tmux config.
• screen: has no working OSC 52 path; consider switching to tmux.
• kitty (older versions): clipboard_control write-clipboard in kitty.conf.

If Copied N chars shows in the status bar but nothing lands in your clipboard, your terminal is silently dropping the OSC 52 write. There is no reliable round-trip to detect this from inside slk.

License

MIT © Grant Ammons