Slack

The Slack VFS exposes a Slack workspace as a virtual filesystem mounted at some prefix such as /slack/. For token setup, see Slack Setup.

Config

import os

from mirage import MountMode, Workspace
from mirage.vfs.slack import SlackConfig, SlackVFS

config = SlackConfig(
    token=os.environ["SLACK_BOT_TOKEN"],
    search_token=os.environ.get("SLACK_USER_TOKEN"),
)
vfs = SlackVFS(config=config)
ws = Workspace({"/slack": vfs}, mode=MountMode.READ)

Filesystem Layout

/slack/
  channels/
    <channel-name>__<channel-id>/
      <yyyy-mm-dd>/
        chat.jsonl
        files/
          <name>__<F-id>.<ext>
  dms/
    <user-name>__<dm-id>/
      <yyyy-mm-dd>/
        chat.jsonl
        files/
          <name>__<F-id>.<ext>
  users/
    <username>__<user-id>.json
    ...

Example:

/slack/
  channels/
    general__C04KEPWF6V7/
      2026-04-04/
        chat.jsonl
        files/
      2026-04-05/
        chat.jsonl
        files/
    random__C04JVGZM7UN/
      2026-04-11/
        chat.jsonl
        files/
  dms/
    alice__D0AQDJ5FP9V/
      2026-04-04/
        chat.jsonl
        files/
    slackbot__D0ARPA1QSPJ/
      2026-04-04/
        chat.jsonl
        files/
  users/
    alice__U12345678.json
    bob__U87654321.json

Directory names embed the Slack ID so that write commands (slack send-message --channel, etc.) can reference the correct VFS without extra lookups.

Channels

/slack/channels/ lists public and private channels the bot has access to. The channel ID is appended after __. Each channel directory contains day-partitioned directories for the last 90 days (or since channel creation, whichever is shorter). Each date directory contains chat.jsonl plus a files/ directory for attachments shared that day. The date range is derived from the channel’s created timestamp.

DMs

/slack/dms/ lists direct message conversations. The DM ID is appended after __. Like channels, DM directories contain daily directories with chat.jsonl and files/.

Users

/slack/users/ lists one .json file per non-deleted, non-bot user. Reading a user file calls get_user_profile() and returns the full profile JSON from the Slack API.

Cache

The Slack VFS uses IndexCacheStore (same as Discord and other mounts). Index entries store channel IDs, DM IDs, user IDs, and channel creation timestamps for date range computation. There is no separate content cache - file content caching is handled by the workspace IOResult mechanism.

Example

import asyncio
import os

from dotenv import load_dotenv

from mirage import MountMode, Workspace
from mirage.vfs.slack import SlackConfig, SlackVFS

load_dotenv(".env.development")

config = SlackConfig(
    token=os.environ["SLACK_BOT_TOKEN"],
    search_token=os.environ.get("SLACK_USER_TOKEN"),
)
vfs = SlackVFS(config=config)


async def main():
    ws = Workspace({"/slack": vfs}, mode=MountMode.READ)

    # List structure
    r = await ws.shell("ls /slack/")
    print(await r.stdout_str())

    # List channels
    r = await ws.shell("ls /slack/channels/")
    print(await r.stdout_str())

    ch = r.stdout_str().strip().splitlines()[0].strip()
    base = f"/slack/channels/{ch}"

    # Read messages from a specific date
    r = await ws.shell(f'cat "{base}/2026-04-04/chat.jsonl" | head -n 3')
    print(await r.stdout_str())

    # Read user profile
    r = await ws.shell("cat /slack/users/alice__U12345678.json")
    print(await r.stdout_str())

    # Extract message text with jq
    r = await ws.shell(
        f'cat "{base}/2026-04-04/chat.jsonl"'
        ' | jq -r ".text" | head -n 5')
    print(await r.stdout_str())

    # Search across channel (scans all date files)
    r = await ws.shell(f'rg message "{base}/"')
    print(await r.stdout_str())

    # Tree view
    r = await ws.shell("tree -L 1 /slack/")
    print(await r.stdout_str())

    # Navigate with cd/pwd
    await ws.shell(f'cd "{base}"')
    r = await ws.shell("pwd")
    print(await r.stdout_str())


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

See examples/python/slack/slack.py for the full working example.

Finding IDs

VFS-specific commands require Slack IDs (channel_id, user_id, ts). These can be extracted from the filesystem:

# Channel ID - embedded in directory name after "__"
ls /slack/channels/
# → general__C04KEPWF6V7   ← channel_id = C04KEPWF6V7

# User ID - embedded in filename after "__"
ls /slack/users/
# → alice__U04K21SEVR9.json   ← user_id = U04K21SEVR9

# Message timestamp (ts) - inside JSONL messages
jq -r '"\(.ts) [\(.user)] \(.text)"' \
  "/slack/channels/general__C04KEPWF6V7/2026-04-04/chat.jsonl"
# → 1712345678.123456 [U04K21SEVR9] hello world

# Find a specific message then reply
jq -r 'select(.text | test("hello")) | .ts' \
  "/slack/channels/general__C04KEPWF6V7/2026-04-04/chat.jsonl"
# → 1712345678.123456
slack send-message --channel C04KEPWF6V7 \
  --thread-ts 1712345678.123456 --text "Reply to hello"

Working with Large Channels

Channels with many messages produce large chat.jsonl files per day. Tips for efficient access:

# Check message count per day
wc -l "/slack/channels/general__C04KEPWF6V7/2026-04-04/chat.jsonl"

# Read only recent messages
tail -n 10 "/slack/channels/general__C04KEPWF6V7/2026-04-04/chat.jsonl"

# Search across all dates (scans each file)
rg "keyword" "/slack/channels/general__C04KEPWF6V7/"

# Extract specific fields to reduce output
jq -r '"\(.ts) [\(.user)] \(.text)"' \
  "/slack/channels/general__C04KEPWF6V7/2026-04-04/chat.jsonl" | head -n 20

# Count messages per user
cat "/slack/channels/general__C04KEPWF6V7/2026-04-04/chat.jsonl" \
  | jq -r '.user' | sort | uniq -c

Shell Commands

Standard commands available on the mounted Slack tree:

Command	Notes
`ls`	List channels, DMs, users, dates
`cat`	Read `chat.jsonl`, user `.json`, or files
`head` / `tail`	First/last N lines
`grep` / `rg`	Pattern search (file or directory level)
`jq`	Query JSON, once per JSONL line (`-s` all)
`wc`	Line/word/byte counts
`stat`	File metadata (name, size, type)
`find`	Recursive search with `-name`, `-maxdepth`
`tree`	Directory tree view

Acting on Slack (sending, reacting, pins, member info, search) goes through the slack CLI when installed; the mounted tree stays read-oriented. The <name>__<id> path segments supply the channel and user IDs the CLI flags take.

Time scope

Set start_time and/or end_time in the mount’s YAML config (or pass start_time/end_time to Python; startTime/endTime to the TypeScript constructor). Bounds are RFC3339 timestamps with an explicit timezone and at most millisecond precision. Start is inclusive; end is exclusive. An omitted or null bound is open. Start must precede end.

mounts:
  /history:
    vfs: slack
    mode: read
    config:
      token: "<bot-token>"
      start_time: "2026-06-01T10:00:00Z"
      end_time: "2026-06-02T00:00:00Z"

With a bound configured, channel listings cover the selected period rather than the default recent window. Day directories use UTC. Messages are selected by creation time, and attachments follow their parent messages. Direct paths, stat, date globs, and grep/rg cannot escape the scope. Scoped searches scan the filtered files instead of using unrestricted provider search. User/member and channel/server metadata remain visible as context. These settings apply to the VFS, not to separately installed account CLIs. mode: read prevents mount writes; it does not freeze upstream edits or deletions. Rebuild/remount the VFS to change its scope so cached listings and bytes are cleared.

Getting Started

Access

AI Agents

VFS

CLIs

Watch

Runtimes

Config

Filesystem Layout

Channels

DMs

Users

Cache

Example

Finding IDs

Working with Large Channels

Shell Commands

Time scope

​Config

​Filesystem Layout

​Channels

​DMs

​Users

​Cache

​Example

​Finding IDs

​Working with Large Channels

​Shell Commands

​Time scope

Config

Filesystem Layout

Channels

DMs

Users

Cache

Example

Finding IDs

Working with Large Channels

Shell Commands

Time scope