slack-status

CLI tool to quickly switch your Slack status for common work scenarios.

Commands

Command	Status	Emoji	Expires
slack-status work	Working remotely	💻	Today 6pm by default, or --until
slack-status start	Working remotely	💻	Today 6pm by default, or --until; posts :wave: once per local calendar day
slack-status lunch	Lunch	🍔	+1 hour by default, or --until, then auto-restores to "work"
slack-status clear	(cleared)	—	—

Setup

1. Get a User Token

If you're in the Bidscube Slack workspace, the app is already set up:

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps and select status service app.
2. Click Install to Workspace and authorize
3. Copy the User OAuth Token — it starts with xoxp-

That's it — skip to step 2 below.

(Optional) Create your own Slack App

If you're in a different workspace:

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
2. Click Create New App → From scratch
3. Name it (e.g. "Status CLI"), select your workspace, click Create App
4. In the sidebar go to OAuth & Permissions
5. Under User Token Scopes (not Bot Token Scopes), add: users.profile:write
6. Click Install to Workspace and authorize
7. Copy the User OAuth Token

2. Create Config File

Open a terminal and run:

slack-status login

It will prompt you to paste your token.

Or manually:

mkdir -p ~/.config/slack-status
cat > ~/.config/slack-status/config.json <<'EOF'
{ "token": "xoxp-YOUR-TOKEN-HERE" }
EOF
chmod 600 ~/.config/slack-status/config.json

3. Build and Install

App requires .env with APP_ID set.

Go to https://api.slack.com/apps and select status service app.

Copy the app id from the URL https://api.slack.com/apps/APP_ID/ and paste it into .env

# Using make:
make init # Only once, creates .env
make install

# Build the macOS menu bar app scaffold:
make macos-build

# Launch the built macOS menu bar app:
make macos-open

# Build and run the macOS menu bar app directly:
make macos-run

# Or build and move manually:
go build -o slack-status
# Move to somewhere on your PATH, e.g.:
mv slack-status /usr/local/bin/

Usage

slack-status login   # Authenticate with Slack
slack-status work    # Working remotely until 6pm
slack-status work --until 17:30
slack-status start   # Working remotely until 6pm and posts :wave: once per day
slack-status start --until "2026-03-11 18:00"
slack-status lunch   # Lunch for 1h, auto-returns to "work" status after
slack-status lunch --until 14:30
slack-status clear   # Clear status entirely

--until accepts a local-time HH:MM, YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM, or full RFC3339 timestamp. For HH:MM, the CLI uses the next occurrence of that time.

slack-status start is enforced by the backend as a once-per-local-calendar-day action. The shared state file records whether Start is still available today, plus the timestamp/day of the last successful Start, so the macOS menu bar app can reflect the backend authority without duplicating the rule.

How the Lunch Auto-Return Works

slack-status lunch spawns a detached background process (_return-worker) that sleeps until the chosen return time, then restores your "Working remotely" status. Without --until, it defaults to 1 hour from now. The worker's PID is stored at ~/.local/state/slack-status/worker.pid.

Running slack-status work, slack-status start, or slack-status clear cancels any pending worker.

XDG Path Overrides

Variable	Default	Used For
XDG_CONFIG_HOME	~/.config	Config file location
XDG_STATE_HOME	~/.local/state	PID file location