Channel

A Channel represents a channel or conversation container that holds threads. Both Thread and Channel extend the shared Postable interface, so they share common methods like post(), state, and messages.

Get a channel via thread.channel or chat.channel():

// Navigate from a thread
const channel = thread.channel;

// Get directly by ID
const channel = chat.channel("slack:C123ABC");

Properties

Channel ID format

Channel IDs are derived from thread IDs by dropping the thread-specific part. By default, this is the first two colon-separated segments:

messages

Iterate channel-level messages (top-level, not thread replies) newest first. Auto-paginates lazily.

for await (const msg of channel.messages) {
  console.log(msg.text);
}

threads

Iterate threads in the channel, most recently active first. Returns lightweight ThreadSummary objects.

for await (const thread of channel.threads()) {
  console.log(thread.rootMessage.text, thread.replyCount);
}

ThreadSummary

post

Post a message to the channel top-level (not in a thread).

await channel.post("Hello channel!");
await channel.post({ markdown: "**Announcement**: New release!" });

Accepts the same message formats as thread.post() — see PostableMessage.

fetchMetadata

Fetch channel metadata from the platform.

const info = await channel.fetchMetadata();
console.log(info.name, info.memberCount);

ChannelInfo

state

Store typed, per-channel state. Works the same as thread state with a 30-day TTL.

const state = await channel.state;
await channel.setState({ lastAnnouncement: new Date().toISOString() });

postEphemeral

Post a message visible only to a specific user.

await channel.postEphemeral(userId, "Only you can see this", {
  fallbackToDM: true,
});

startTyping

Show a typing indicator. No-op on platforms that don't support it.

await channel.startTyping();

mentionUser

Get a platform-specific @-mention string.

await channel.post(`Hey ${channel.mentionUser(userId)}, check this out!`);