Slack Search API

Slack's Search API lets apps programmatically find messages and files in a workspace using the same query syntax users have in Slack (e.g., in:, from:, has:, before:/after:, is:thread). Through endpoints like search.messages and search.files, it returns ranked matches with snippets and optional highlighting, plus rich metadata such as channel, timestamps, user, thread context, permalinks, and file details. You can sort by relevance or time, filter with operators, and page through results. All results respect the app's scopes and the workspace's permissions, retention, and data controls, and the methods are subject to rate limits. Teams use it to power features like knowledge lookup, linking related conversations, and enabling bots to retrieve relevant historical context.