Slackdump

Accessing the Slackdump Data

Flowchart:

Slackdump MCP available?
  yes → USE IT (stop here)
  no  ↓
Source has slackdump.sqlite?
  no  → REFUSE; tell user: slackdump convert -f database <source>
  yes ↓
SQLite MCP available?
  yes → USE IT (stop here)
  no  ↓
sqlite3 CLI available?
  yes → use sqlite3 CLI (slackdump-sqlite3 skill)
  no  → REFUSE to run

Use the "Slackdump" MCP if it is available. It is read-only and supports all type of Slackdump archives.

If you need to identify the source type, use the following guidance:

• YYYYMMDD and HHMMSS represent the 24-hour format time when the slackdump was invoked to generate this archive (it is created as a first step);

• Source types:

  1. A directory with database: identified by slackdump_[YYYYMMDD]_[HHMMSS]/slackdump.sqlite
  2. A standalone database: identified by slackdump.sqlite
  3. A chunk directory: identified by slackdump_[YYYYMMDD]_[HHMMSS]/*.json.gz
  4. A dump directory: identified by slackdump_[YYYYMMDD]_[HHMMSS]/[CHANNEL_ID].json
  5. An export directory: identified by slackdump_[YYYYMMDD]_[HHMMSS]/dms.json
  6. An export or dump zip file: identified by slackdump_[YYYYMMDD]_[HHMMSS].zip. In the ZIP file, the file structure is similar to dump and export directories described above.

• If you need to understand the source structure in details, use "slackdump-source" skill.

IMPORTANT: You will be accessing the data in read-only mode. You must not UPDATE or DELETE or run any DML or DDL statements. Only SELECT and data-dictionary querying.

• Database path might be given by the agent, otherwise look for slackdump.sqlite file. If there are several files like this in the current project, ask user to choose one of them.

• If falling back to sqlite3 use the "slackdump-sqlite3" skill.

What to pay attention to

This section describes some data structure quirks that you need to be aware of in order to understand what you're dealing with.

Threads

• Threads are nested conversations. Here's how a thread looks like:

  +- parent_message (ts=12345, thread_ts=12345, latest_reply=XXXX)
  | +-- parent_message (ts=12345, thread_ts=12345)    - conversations.replies endpoint returns the starter message, so it MIGHT be duplicated in the archive
  | +-- first_thread_message(ts=12346, thread_ts=12345)
  | +-- second_thread_message(ts=12355, thread_ts=12345)
  | +-- <...>
  | +-- n'th_thread_message(ts=XXXX, thread_ts=12345)
  +- next_non-threaded_message_in_the_channel (ts=24921, thread_ts=<empty>)
  

• Note that the parent_message appears twice. One is returned during the conversations.history, and a duplicate is returned by conversation.replies endpoints. It might be duplicated in the archive.

• In the channel there may be parent messages with deleted threads, latest_reply field will be set to a special zero-value "0000000000.000000", there will be no thread messages for such threads, so no need to call get_thread tool on MCP:

  +- parent_message (ts=23456, thread_ts=23456, latest_reply=0000000000.000000)
  |  // there will be no thread messages
  +- next_message (can be threaded or non threaded)
  

• IS_PARENT=TRUE already implies the thread has replies — a thread-lead message with latest_reply = "0000000000.000000" is stored with IS_PARENT=FALSE. You do not need to additionally filter by latest_reply when looking for threads that have replies.

• IS_PARENT=FALSE indicates a thread message that is not a parent message of a thread (thread reply message), or a parent message of a deleted thread.

• Messages with subtype thread_broadcast ("also sent to channel") appear in both the channel history (CHUNK.TYPE_ID=0) and the thread (CHUNK.TYPE_ID=1). When counting or listing channel messages, filter them out to avoid double-counting:

  WHERE JSON_EXTRACT(DATA, '$.subtype') IS NOT 'thread_broadcast'
  

Files

Some messages may have non empty files array. A file has a "mode" field. Known file modes:

• hosted: normal Slack-hosted file, downloadable;
• snippet: code snippet hosted by Slack;
• space: Slack canvas / huddle space document;
• external: not hosted on Slack servers, is_external will be true, not downloadable;
• tombstone: file was deleted, download_url will be empty;
• hidden_by_limit: on free workspaces, Slack hides files uploaded 90+ days ago, download_url will be empty.

Only hosted, snippet, and space files are downloadable. The others (external, tombstone, hidden_by_limit) have no usable download URL.

NOTE: do not try to download, do the following:

• If the directory with slackdump.sqlite has /__uploads subdirectory, find it using the following pattern /__uploads/[FILE_ID]/*.
• Otherwise: files are not downloaded; WARN user that files are not present, and user can use slackdump tools redownload, if files are needed.

If you're accessing database directly

Examine the database schema to understand the structure of the data:

• Use Foreign Keys to JOIN tables.
• Ignore V_* views (context: they are used by slackdump to track unprocessed threads during execution).

Key terms:

• Session: stored in a SESSION table, and denotes a single slackdump execution. Each slackdump invocation on the archive creates a session. The following commands create a session entry:

  • slackdump archive - archival of data
  • slackdump resume - incremental archiving of data (adds to existing archive)
  • slackdump search - writes search results
  • slackdump convert - creates a session to store the data from the source format.

  A session interrupted mid-run (e.g. crash or network failure) will have FINISHED=FALSE. Data from such a session may be incomplete.

• Chunk: stored in a CHUNK table. A "chunk" loosely maps to a single API call made by Slackdump when making an archive. When Slack endpoint returns some data, Slackdump creates a "chunk" entry, and then inserts the data into one of the linked database tables. For example: a call to Slack API endpoint "conversations.history" returns 100 messages. For this API call, a new CHUNK is inserted with TYPE_ID set to "MESSAGES" type. Then it will insert 100 rows into MESSAGE table. Each of these rows will be linked to this chunk.

  A chunk with FINAL=TRUE is the last API page for that channel or thread. If the last chunk for a channel has FINAL=FALSE, or no FINAL=TRUE chunk exists at all for it, the archive is incomplete for that channel.

• Chunk Type: stored in a TYPES table. Chunk type is helpful to understand what type of API call was made and which table in database contains the data for that "chunk".

The same message (having the same MESSAGE.TS) can appear multiple times in different chunks and different sessions. You always need to fetch the latest version of the message (the one that belongs to the latest chunk, and the latest session).

Example:

Here's the flattened representation of the result that might be returned by:

SELECT SESSION.ID, CHUNK.ID, MESSAGE.TS
FROM MESSAGE
JOIN CHUNK ON CHUNK.ID = MESSAGE.CHUNK_ID
JOIN SESSION ON SESSION.ID = CHUNK.SESSION_ID
WHERE MESSAGE.TS IN ('12345.678', '12345.890');

In this case, message 12345.678 appears twice, first time in the first session, second time in the second session (which, most likely, a slackdump resume session). You should pick the latest version of the message (SESSION.ID = 2, CHUNK.ID=104).