Archive Your Slack Messages Without Needing Admin Access
You've probably been there: you're leaving a job, or you're on a free Slack workspace with a 90-day message limit, and you realize that years of conversations, decisions, and inside jokes are about to vanish. The admin won't install an app for you, and you're not thrilled about handing your private conversations to some random third-party tool. Slackdump is a command-line utility that solves this by letting you archive your own Slack messages, channels, files, and even emojis—without admin privileges.
What It Does
Slackdump is a Go-based tool that generates a Slack Export archive directly from your account. It supports both public and private conversations, and it can dump messages, threads, users, channels, files, and emojis. The output can take several forms: a standard Slack Export, a Mattermost-compatible export, a SQLite database, or a JSON+gzip archive. You can also convert between these formats after the fact, resume an existing archive to add new messages incrementally, and search through your saved data.
The tool operates in a number of modes, including listing users and channels, dumping messages and threads, creating exports, downloading emojis, viewing archives (with images), searching messages and files, and running database maintenance tasks like merging archives, removing duplicates, and cleaning up unfinished sessions. There's also a local MCP server for use with AI tools like Opencode or Claude that support MCP over STDIO or HTTP. The project is written in Go and published as a Go module, and it's available on Homebrew for macOS users.
Why It's Cool
It works without admin access. This is the headline feature, and it's a genuinely useful one. Most Slack archiving tools require workspace admin approval or the installation of a Slack app. Slackdump doesn't. You run it locally, authenticate as yourself, and pull down what you can already see. That's a meaningful distinction for anyone who's been told "no" by their IT department.
It handles the free-plan 90-day problem. Free Slack workspaces lose message history after 90 days. Slackdump's incremental archiving mode means you can run it periodically and keep adding to an existing archive, so you don't lose the knowledge that accumulates in your channels over time. It's a practical workaround for a real limitation.
The output formats are flexible. Instead of locking you into one export type, Slackdump can produce a Standard Slack Export, a Mattermost export (if you're migrating), a SQLite database, or a JSON+gzip archive. You can convert between formats later. If you're moving to a different platform or just want your data in a queryable form, this matters.
There's an MCP server. The inclusion of a local MCP server for AI agents is a nice forward-looking touch. You can point Claude, Opencode, or another MCP-compatible tool at your archive and analyze your Slack data with an AI agent. It's not the primary use case, but it's a smart addition that makes the tool more useful over time.
Emoji preservation. It sounds trivial, but if you've ever lost a workspace, you know that custom emojis are part of the culture. Slackdump can download them, which is a small but thoughtful feature.
Enterprise caveat, stated plainly. The README includes a prominent warning that using Slackdump on enterprise workspaces may trigger security alerts or notify administrators of unusual access. It also notes that you're responsible for complying with your organization's policies and Slack's terms of service. That's honest and worth taking seriously—this isn't a tool for covertly exfiltrating data you're not supposed to have. It's for archiving what you already have access to.
How to Try It
On macOS, the easiest path is Homebrew:
brew install slackdump
On other operating systems, download the latest release for your platform from the releases page, unpack it, and run the executable. On Windows, you may see a "Unknown developer" warning—click "more information" and then "Run Anyway." On macOS, there's a similar workaround described in the README.
Once it's running, you'll get a menu-driven interface. Use the arrow keys to navigate, Enter to confirm, and follow the quickstart instructions in the manual. Run slackdump help to see all available options.
The repository is at github.com/rusq/slackdump. There's also a Telegram group for discussion, linked from the README.
Final Thoughts
Slackdump is a focused tool that solves a specific problem well: getting your Slack data out when you don't have admin rights and don't want to trust a third-party service. It's not flashy, and it's not trying to be a full-featured Slack client or a corporate compliance tool. It's a practical utility for individuals who want to preserve their own conversations. If you're on a free workspace, planning to leave a job, or just want a local backup of your Slack history, it's worth a look. The enterprise warning is a real consideration, so check your organization's policies before you start dumping. Otherwise, it's a straightforward, well-documented tool that does what it says.
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