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Noridoc: nori-slack-cli

Path: @/

Overview

  • A TypeScript CLI that exposes the entire Slack Web API as a single command: nori-slack <method> [--param value ...]
  • Designed for coding agents: all output is JSON on stdout, human-readable errors go to stderr
  • Uses @slack/web-api WebClient for dynamic dispatch -- the CLI is not limited to a fixed set of methods
  • Supports automatic cursor pagination via --paginate, which fetches all pages and returns a single merged JSON response
  • Supports --dry-run to preview resolved API requests without sending them -- designed as a safety net for coding agents to validate parameter resolution
  • Supports describe <method> to look up parameter documentation for any Slack API method without requiring a token -- the metadata map covers all methods in KNOWN_METHODS, so agents always get full parameter documentation rather than a fallback

How it fits into the larger codebase

  • Standalone repository (was originally imported from the nori-integrations monorepo and now lives on its own). Distributed via the public npm registry as nori-slack-cli
  • The canonical install path is npm install -g nori-slack-cli, which places the nori-slack binary on PATH; npm link from a local clone is retained for contributors
  • Authentication is bot-token-only via SLACK_BOT_TOKEN environment variable (no user OAuth flows)
  • The CLI is a thin wrapper -- it does not contain business logic, scheduling, or state management; it translates CLI flags into Slack API calls and returns the raw JSON response
  • The pagination merge logic in src/paginate.ts is a pure function decoupled from the Slack SDK -- it operates on any AsyncIterable of page objects
  • User-facing installation and usage documentation lives in README.md

Core Implementation

  • Entry point is src/index.ts, which uses Commander.js with allowUnknownOption() so arbitrary --flag value pairs pass through without Commander rejecting them
  • The dynamic handler has three code paths: --dry-run short-circuits after param resolution (no token required, no API call), --paginate triggers WebClient.paginate() + mergePages(), and the default path uses WebClient.apiCall()
  • Two input modes: CLI flags (--channel C123 --text "hi") and piped JSON via --json-input; when both are provided, CLI flags override stdin values
  • Two discovery subcommands that do not require SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: list-methods outputs known method names as JSON (supports --namespace filtering and --descriptions to include method descriptions), and describe <method> returns structured parameter documentation
  • describe uses src/method-metadata.ts, a hand-curated static map covering every method in KNOWN_METHODS -- this is static because @slack/web-api erases parameter type information at compile time, so runtime introspection is not possible
  • For unknown methods (not in KNOWN_METHODS), getMethodMetadata() returns a fallback entry with empty params and a generated docs URL, so describe never errors; the known field in the output distinguishes curated entries from fallbacks
  • When an unknown method is used, src/suggest.ts provides fuzzy matching via Levenshtein distance against KNOWN_METHODS, surfacing "Did you mean?" suggestions; suggestions are non-blocking -- unknown methods still proceed to the API
  • Successful API responses and error responses both go to stdout as JSON; errors additionally write a human-readable line to stderr
  • Exit codes: 0 for success, 1 for API/token errors, 2 for missing args or invalid stdin JSON

Packaging and distribution

The published npm artifact is assembled at pack time, not committed to git. The relevant package.json fields form a single chain that must stay in sync:

dist/ (gitignored)
  └─ produced by `prepare: "npm run build"` (runs on npm pack / npm publish / npm install from tarball)
  └─ made executable by `postbuild: "chmod +x dist/index.js"`
  └─ included in the tarball by `files: ["dist"]`
  └─ exposed as `nori-slack` via `bin: { "nori-slack": "./dist/index.js" }`
  └─ verified end-to-end by test/packaging.test.ts on every `npm test`
  • test/packaging.test.ts runs npm pack, installs the resulting tarball into a tmpdir, and executes the installed nori-slack binary to confirm dist/ actually ships. See test/docs.md for test-level detail
  • CI is defined in .github/workflows/pr-ci.yaml (on pull requests to main) and .github/workflows/main-ci.yaml (on push to main). Both mirror nori-registrar conventions: checkout, actions/setup-node reading Node version from .nvmrc, npm install, npm run build, npm test
  • .nvmrc pins Node 22 to match the nori-registrar baseline

Things to Know

  • Flag parsing in src/parse-args.ts converts --kebab-case to snake_case because the Slack API uses snake_case parameter names
  • Type coercion in coerceValue handles booleans ("true"/"false"), numbers (but preserves leading-zero strings like "007"), and inline JSON arrays/objects
  • A standalone --flag with no following value (or followed by another --flag) is treated as boolean true
  • Error formatting in src/errors.ts maps Slack error codes to actionable suggestions (e.g., channel_not_found suggests running conversations.list); unknown errors get a generic suggestion pointing to the source directory
  • Every error response includes a source field with the filesystem path to the CLI, so agents can locate the source code for debugging
  • The method metadata in src/method-metadata.ts marks files.upload as deprecated with a pointer to the two-step files.getUploadURLExternal + files.completeUploadExternal flow
  • The CLI version string is currently duplicated: once in package.json version and once as a hardcoded argument to Commander's .version() call in src/index.ts. Both must be bumped together on release
  • Packaging invariant: anything that changes how the distributed artifact is produced must keep the prepare script, the files allowlist, bin, and test/packaging.test.ts consistent. Concretely, any future change that removes prepare, removes files, emits generated code outside dist/, or adds a second bin entry needs matching updates in the allowlist and the packaging test -- otherwise npm install -g nori-slack-cli silently ships a broken binary (this was the exact 0.1.0 regression)

Created and maintained by Nori.