python-slackclient

A basic client for Slack.com, which can optionally connect to the Slack Real Time Messaging (RTM) API.

Overview

Whether you're building a custom app for your team, or integrating a third party service into your Slack workflows, Slack Developer Kit for Python allows you to leverage the flexibility of Python to get your project up and running as quickly as possible.

Requirements and Installation

Slack Developer Kit for Python currently works with Python 2.7 (watch for Python 3 support in the future), and requires PyPI to install dependencies. Of course, since you probably installed this module with PyPI, this is not a problem.

We recommend using PyPI to install Slack Developer Kit for Python

pip install slackclient

Of course, if you prefer doing things the hard way, you can always implement Slack Developer Kit for Python by pulling down the source code directly into your project:

git clone https://github.com/slackapi/python-slackclient.git
pip install -r requirements.txt

Documentation

For comprehensive method information and usage examples, see the full documentation.

Getting Help

If you get stuck, we’re here to help. The following are the best ways to get assistance working through your issue:

• Use our Github Issue Tracker for reporting bugs or requesting features.
• Visit the dev4slack channel for getting help using Slack Developer Kit for Python or just generally bond with your fellow Slack developers.

Basic Usage

The Slack Web API allows you to build applications that interact with Slack in more complex ways than the integrations we provide out of the box.

This package is a modular wrapper designed to make Slack Web API calls simpler and easier for your app. Provided below are examples of how to interact with commonly used API endpoints, but this is by no means a complete list. Review the full list of available methods here.

See Tokens & Authentication <http://slackapi.github.io/python-slackclient/auth.html#handling-tokens> for API token handling best practices.

Sending a message

The primary use of Slack is sending messages. Whether you're sending a message to a user or to a channel, this method handles both.

To send a message to a channel, use the channel's ID. For IMs, use the user's ID.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "chat.postMessage",
  channel="#python",
  text="Hello from Python! :tada:"
)

There are some unique options specific to sending IMs, so be sure to read the channels section of the chat.postMessage page for a full list of formatting and authorship options.

Sending an ephemeral message, which is only visible to an assigned user in a specified channel, is nearly the same as sending a regular message, but with an additional user parameter.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "chat.postEphemeral",
  channel="#python",
  text="Hello from Python! :tada:",
  user="U0XXXXXXX"
)

See chat.postEphemeral for more info.

Replying to messages and creating threads

Threaded messages are just like regular messages, except thread replies are grouped together to provide greater context to the user. You can reply to a thread or start a new threaded conversation by simply passing the original message's ts ID in the thread_ts attribute when posting a message. If you're replying to a threaded message, you'll pass the thread_ts ID of the message you're replying to.

A channel or DM conversation is a nearly linear timeline of messages exchanged between people, bots, and apps. When one of these messages is replied to, it becomes the parent of a thread. By default, threaded replies do not appear directly in the channel, instead relegated to a kind of forked timeline descending from the parent message.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "chat.postMessage",
  channel="#python",
  text="Hello from Python! :tada:",
  thread_ts="1476746830.000003"
)

By default, reply_broadcast is set to False. To indicate your reply is germane to all members of a channel, set the reply_broadcast boolean parameter to True.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "chat.postMessage",
  channel="#python",
  text="Hello from Python! :tada:",
  thread_ts="1476746830.000003",
  reply_broadcast=True
)

Note: While threaded messages may contain attachments and message buttons, when your reply is broadcast to the channel, it'll actually be a reference to your reply, not the reply itself. So, when appearing in the channel, it won't contain any attachments or message buttons. Also note that updates and deletion of threaded replies works the same as regular messages.

See the Threading messages together article for more information.

Deleting a message

Sometimes you need to delete things.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "chat.delete",
  channel="C0XXXXXX",
  ts="1476745373.000002"
)

See chat.delete for more info.

Adding or removing an emoji reaction

You can quickly respond to any message on Slack with an emoji reaction. Reactions can be used for any purpose: voting, checking off to-do items, showing excitement — and just for fun.

This method adds a reaction (emoji) to an item (file, file comment, channel message, group message, or direct message). One of file, file_comment, or the combination of channel and timestamp must be specified.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "reactions.add",
  channel="C0XXXXXXX",
  name="thumbsup",
  timestamp="1234567890.123456"
)

Removing an emoji reaction is basically the same format, but you'll use reactions.remove instead of reactions.add

sc.api_call(
  "reactions.remove",
  channel="C0XXXXXXX",
  name="thumbsup",
  timestamp="1234567890.123456"
)

See reactions.add and reactions.remove for more info.

Getting a list of channels

At some point, you'll want to find out what channels are available to your app. This is how you get that list.

Note: This call requires the channels:read scope.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call("channels.list")

Archived channels are included by default. You can exclude them by passing exclude_archived=1 to your request.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "channels.list",
  exclude_archived=1
)

See channels.list for more info.

Getting a channel's info

Once you have the ID for a specific channel, you can fetch information about that channel.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "channels.info",
  channel="C0XXXXXXX"
)

See channels.info for more info.

Joining a channel

Channels are the social hub of most Slack teams. Here's how you hop into one:

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "channels.join",
  channel="C0XXXXXXY"
)

If you are already in the channel, the response is slightly different. already_in_channel will be true, and a limited channel object will be returned. Bot users cannot join a channel on their own, they need to be invited by another user.

See channels.join for more info.

Leaving a channel

Maybe you've finished up all the business you had in a channel, or maybe you joined one by accident. This is how you leave a channel.

from slackclient import SlackClient

slack_token = os.environ["SLACK_API_TOKEN"]
sc = SlackClient(slack_token)

sc.api_call(
  "channels.leave",
  channel="C0XXXXXXX"
)

See channels.leave for more info.

Additional Information

For comprehensive method information and usage examples, see the full documentation.