Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Slack Automation

Interact with Slack workspaces via browser automation: check unread channels, navigate the sidebar, send messages, search conversations, extract data from messages and threads. Triggers: 'check my Slack', 'what channels have unreads', 'send a message to', 'search Slack for', 'find who said'. Connects to an existing Slack browser tab or Slack desktop (via electron-ui) on port 9222.

UncategorizedID: geggo98/dotfiles/slack-ui

Repository

geggo98/dotfiles
geggo98License: CC0-1.0
1

Install this agent skill to your local

pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/geggo98/dotfiles/tree/HEAD/modules/ai/_files/skills/slack-ui

Skill Files

Browse the full folder contents for slack-ui.

Download Skill

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modules/ai/_files/skills/slack-ui/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
slack-ui
Description
"Interact with Slack workspaces via browser automation: check unread channels, navigate the sidebar, send messages, search conversations, extract data from messages and threads. Triggers: 'check my Slack', 'what channels have unreads', 'send a message to', 'search Slack for', 'find who said'. Connects to an existing Slack browser tab or Slack desktop (via electron-ui) on port 9222."

Slack Automation

Interact with Slack workspaces to check messages, extract data, and automate common tasks. For Slack desktop, launch the app with --remote-debugging-port=9222 first (see Skill(electron-ui)); for the web client just open https://app.slack.com in a browser.

Usage

Run the script:

zsh ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh $ARGUMENTS

Important: Run the script directly. Do not prefix with bash — the script requires zsh.

Security: Never use compound commands, shell redirects, or pipes with this script. Use the built-in --silent, --head, --tail, --match, --replace flags instead.

Output Control Flags

${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh --silent close
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh --head 30 snapshot -i
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh --match "treeitem|button" snapshot -i
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh --replace "\\s+$" "" snapshot -i

Filters apply in order: match → replace → head → tail.

Quick Start

Connect to an existing Slack browser session or open Slack:

# Connect to existing session on port 9222 (typical for already-open Slack desktop)
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh connect 9222

# Or open Slack web if not already running
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh open https://app.slack.com

Then take a snapshot to see what's available:

${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh snapshot -i

The remaining examples use the bare agent-browser <subcommand> form for readability. Substitute ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/slack-ui.sh <subcommand> when running them.

Core Workflow

  1. Connect/Navigate: Open or connect to Slack
  2. Snapshot: Get interactive elements with refs (@e1, @e2, …)
  3. Navigate: Click tabs, expand sections, navigate to channels
  4. Extract/Interact: Read data or perform actions
  5. Screenshot: Capture evidence of findings
agent-browser connect 9222
agent-browser snapshot -i
# Look for "More unreads" button
agent-browser click @e21        # Ref for "More unreads"
agent-browser screenshot slack-unreads.png

Common Tasks

Checking Unread Messages

agent-browser connect 9222
agent-browser snapshot -i

# Look for:
# - "More unreads" button (usually near top of sidebar)
# - "Unreads" toggle in Activity tab (shows unread count)
# - Channel names with badges/bold text indicating unreads

# Activity tab: all unreads in one view
agent-browser click @e14
agent-browser wait 1000
agent-browser screenshot activity-unreads.png

# DMs tab
agent-browser click @e13
agent-browser screenshot dms.png

# Expand "More unreads" in sidebar
agent-browser click @e21
agent-browser wait 500
agent-browser screenshot expanded-unreads.png

Navigating to a Channel

agent-browser snapshot -i
# Find the channel in the sidebar list (e.g., "engineering")
agent-browser click @e94
agent-browser wait --load networkidle
agent-browser screenshot channel.png

Finding Messages / Threads

agent-browser snapshot -i
agent-browser click @e5             # Search button
agent-browser fill @e_search "keyword"
agent-browser press Enter
agent-browser wait --load networkidle
agent-browser screenshot search-results.png

Extracting Channel Information

# JSON snapshot for programmatic parsing
agent-browser snapshot --json > slack-snapshot.json
# Look for treeitem elements with level=2 (sub-channels under sections)

Checking Channel Details

agent-browser click @e_channel_ref
agent-browser wait 1000
agent-browser snapshot -i
agent-browser screenshot channel-details.png

agent-browser scroll down 500
agent-browser screenshot channel-messages.png

Capturing State

agent-browser screenshot --annotate slack-state.png  # numbered labels
agent-browser screenshot --full slack-full.png
agent-browser get url
agent-browser get title

See references/slack-tasks.md for more task-specific recipes.

Sidebar Structure

- Threads
- Huddles
- Drafts & sent
- Directories
- [Section Headers — External connections, Starred, Channels, …]
  - [Channels listed as treeitems]
- Direct Messages
  - [DMs listed]
- Apps
  - [App shortcuts]
- [More unreads] button (toggles unread channels list)

Typical refs (vary per session — always re-snapshot):

  • @e12 — Home tab
  • @e13 — DMs tab
  • @e14 — Activity tab
  • @e5 — Search button
  • @e21 — More unreads button

Tabs in Slack

After clicking on a channel:

  • Messages — Channel conversation
  • Files — Shared files
  • Pins — Pinned messages
  • Add canvas — Collaborative canvas

Extracting Data

Get Text Content

agent-browser get text @e_message_ref

Parse the Accessibility Tree

agent-browser snapshot --json > output.json

# Look for:
# - Channel names (name field in treeitem)
# - Message content (in listitem/document elements)
# - User names (button elements with user info)
# - Timestamps (link elements with time info)

Count Unreads (rough)

agent-browser snapshot -i --match "treeitem" --tail 100
# Each treeitem with a channel name in the unreads section is one unread

Best Practices

  • Connect to existing sessions — connect 9222 is faster than opening a new browser.
  • Take snapshots before clicking — always snapshot -i to identify refs.
  • Re-snapshot after navigation — refs change on every page change.
  • Use JSON snapshots for parsing — snapshot --json is machine-readable.
  • Pace interactions — add sleep 1 between rapid clicks/types.
  • Scroll the sidebar — agent-browser scroll down 300 --selector ".p-sidebar" if the channel list is long.

Limitations

  • No Slack API: this is browser automation. No OAuth, webhooks, or bot tokens needed — but no rate-limit-friendly API access either.
  • Session-specific: snapshots tie to the current browser session.
  • Rate limiting: Slack may throttle rapid interactions; add delays.
  • Workspace-specific: only your own workspace, no cross-workspace.

Debugging

agent-browser console
agent-browser errors
agent-browser get url
agent-browser get title
agent-browser screenshot page-state.png

Templates

| Template | Purpose | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------| | templates/slack-report-template.md | Starter report for capturing findings from a Slack scan |

References