slk — a blazingly fast slack tui

why slk

The Slack desktop client, minus the 1.5GB of Chromium.

slk is a daily-driver replacement built in Go. One static binary, no Electron, no node_modules. It cold-starts in milliseconds and keeps every workspace connected in parallel.

~500ms

cold start

~60 MB

resident memory

~19 MB

binary on disk

100%

keyboard-driven

what you get

All the Slack you need, none of the bloat.

/// realtime

Live messages over WebSocket

Edits, deletes, reactions, typing indicators — all in real time, with optimistic UI and SQLite-backed scrollback.

/// threads

A real thread panel

Side-panel threads on Enter, plus a dedicated Threads view that re-ranks live as new replies arrive.

/// reactions

Search-first reaction picker

Hit r to search, R to toggle existing reactions. Pill-style display, optimistic and deduped.

/// workspaces

All workspaces, in parallel

Every workspace stays connected. Press 1–9 to jump between them with live unread badges.

/// themes

12 built-in themes

Live-switch with Ctrl+y. Drop your own TOML in ~/.config/slk/themes/ to add more.

/// keyboard

Vim-modal, all the way

j/k to move, i to insert, Esc to leave. Bracketed paste, OSC 52 clipboard, no mouse required.

themes

Twelve themes ship in the box.

Live-switch with Ctrl+y. Drop your own TOML files in ~/.config/slk/themes/ to add more.

Dracula

Nord

Gruvbox

Tokyo Night

Catppuccin

Monokai

Solarized Dark

Solarized Light

One Dark

Kanagawa

Rosé Pine

Ayu Dark

install

Get it now.

One static binary. Pick your platform.

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
# Apple Silicon
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_darwin_arm64.tar.gz" | tar xz
# Intel
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_darwin_x86_64.tar.gz" | tar xz

sudo mv slk /usr/local/bin/

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.deb"
sudo dpkg -i "slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.deb"

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
sudo rpm -i "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.rpm"

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.apk"
sudo apk add --allow-untrusted "slk_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.apk"

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/gammons/slk/releases/latest | grep -oE '"tag_name": *"v[^"]+"' | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sed 's/^v//')
# x86_64 (swap for arm64 on ARM)
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest/download/slk_${VERSION}_linux_x86_64.tar.gz" | tar xz
sudo mv slk /usr/local/bin/

# Download from the latest release page:
# https://github.com/gammons/slk/releases/latest
# Grab slk_VERSION_windows_x86_64.zip, extract slk.exe, add it to your PATH.

go install github.com/gammons/slk/cmd/slk@latest

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