Channel Talk

Beta: Channel Talk support is in beta. Some features may change.

Tip: agent-channeltalk is a shortcut for agent-messenger channeltalk.

Quick Start

# 1. Credentials are extracted automatically from Channel Talk desktop app or browser
agent-channeltalk snapshot --pretty

# 2. Send a message to a group
agent-channeltalk message send group grp_abc123 "Hello from the CLI!"

# 3. List user chats
agent-channeltalk chat list

Key Concepts

Channel Talk has different terminology from Slack or Discord:

Channel Talk Term	Equivalent In	Description
Channel	Workspace (Slack)	Your entire workspace
UserChat	DM with a customer	1:1 conversations with end users
Group	Channel (Slack)	Team inbox channels
DirectChat	DM (Slack)	Direct messages between managers
Manager	Member/Agent	Human agents on your team
Bot	Bot	Automated agents in the workspace

Authentication

Zero-Config Credential Extraction

agent-channeltalk automatically extracts cookies from the Channel Talk desktop app (or Chromium browser as fallback). No manual setup required, no API keys needed.

# Usually automatic — just run any command
agent-channeltalk snapshot

# Or extract manually
agent-channeltalk auth extract
agent-channeltalk auth extract --browser-profile ~/browser-data
agent-channeltalk auth extract --browser-profile "$HOME/work-profile,$HOME/personal-profile"

The CLI reads two cookies from the desktop app's SQLite database (or Chromium browser cookies as fallback):

x-account (JWT) — your account identity
ch-session-1 (JWT) — your session token

Use --browser-profile <path> for agent-browser profiles, custom Chrome user data dirs, or portable browser profiles. The option can be repeated or given comma-separated paths.

These cookies expire after roughly 30 days. When they expire, the CLI automatically re-extracts fresh cookies on the next command.

Multi-Workspace Support

If you're logged into multiple Channel Talk workspaces, all are discovered automatically:

# List all available workspaces
agent-channeltalk auth list

# Switch to a different workspace
agent-channeltalk auth use <workspace-id>

# Check auth status
agent-channeltalk auth status

# Remove a stored workspace
agent-channeltalk auth remove <workspace-id>

Authentication Commands

# Extract cookies from desktop app or browser (usually automatic)
agent-channeltalk auth extract

# Check auth status
agent-channeltalk auth status
agent-channeltalk auth status --workspace <id>

# Clear all stored credentials
agent-channeltalk auth clear

# List all stored workspaces
agent-channeltalk auth list

# Switch active workspace
agent-channeltalk auth use <workspace-id>

# Remove a stored workspace
agent-channeltalk auth remove <workspace-id>

Commands

Whoami Command

# Show current authenticated user
agent-channeltalk whoami
agent-channeltalk whoami --pretty
agent-channeltalk whoami --workspace <workspace-id>

Output includes the authenticated user's identity information.

Message Commands

# Send a message (chat-type: group, user-chat, or direct-chat)
agent-channeltalk message send <chat-type> <chat-id> <text>
agent-channeltalk message send group grp_abc123 "Hello team!"
agent-channeltalk message send user-chat uc_abc123 "Thanks for reaching out!"
agent-channeltalk message send direct-chat dc_abc123 "Quick question..."

# List messages from a group, user chat, or direct chat
agent-channeltalk message list <chat-type> <chat-id>
agent-channeltalk message list group grp_abc123 --limit 50
agent-channeltalk message list user-chat uc_abc123 --sort asc

Chat Commands (UserChats)

# List user chats assigned to me (default: opened)
agent-channeltalk chat list
agent-channeltalk chat list --state opened
agent-channeltalk chat list --state snoozed
agent-channeltalk chat list --state closed
agent-channeltalk chat list --limit 50

# Get a specific user chat
agent-channeltalk chat get <chat-id>

Group Commands

# List groups
agent-channeltalk group list
agent-channeltalk group list --limit 50

# Get a group by ID
agent-channeltalk group get <group-id>

# Get messages from a group
agent-channeltalk group messages <group-id>
agent-channeltalk group messages grp_abc123 --limit 50 --sort asc

Manager Commands

# List all managers
agent-channeltalk manager list
agent-channeltalk manager list --limit 50

Bot Commands

# List all bots
agent-channeltalk bot list
agent-channeltalk bot list --limit 50

Snapshot Command

Get workspace overview for AI agents (brief by default):

# Brief snapshot (default) — fast, minimal API calls
agent-channeltalk snapshot

# Full snapshot — includes messages, managers, bots (slow, large output)
agent-channeltalk snapshot --full

# Filtered full snapshots
agent-channeltalk snapshot --full --groups-only
agent-channeltalk snapshot --full --chats-only

# Limit messages per group/chat (only with --full)
agent-channeltalk snapshot --full --limit 10

Default returns brief JSON with:

Workspace metadata (id, name)
Groups (id, name)
UserChat summary (total count, by state)
Hint for next commands

With --full, returns comprehensive JSON with:

Workspace metadata (id, name)
Groups with recent messages (id, name, messages)
UserChat summary (total count, by state, recent opened)
Managers (id, name, email)
Bots (id, name)

Global Options

All commands support these options:

--pretty              # Pretty-print JSON output (default is compact JSON)
--workspace <id>      # Use a specific workspace for this command

Feature Comparison: agent-channeltalk vs agent-channeltalkbot

Feature	agent-channeltalk (user)	agent-channeltalkbot (bot)
Auth method	Auto-extract cookies	API key + secret
Setup required	None (zero-config)	Manual key setup
Acts as	You (manager)	Bot identity
Send messages	✅	✅
List messages	✅	✅
Close/delete chats	—	✅
Create/delete bots	—	✅
Set default bot	—	✅
Group @name references	—	✅
Direct chat support	✅	—
Multi-workspace	✅	✅
CI/CD friendly	—	✅

Use agent-channeltalk when you want zero-config access acting as yourself. Use agent-channeltalkbot for server-side automation, CI/CD pipelines, or when you need bot-specific features like closing chats.

Troubleshooting

Channel Talk desktop app not found

The CLI looks for the desktop app's cookie database in the locations below. The app was rebranded from Channel Talk to Channel Works, so both names are probed, Channel Works first.

macOS:

~/Library/Containers/com.zoyi.channel.desk.osx/Data/Library/Application Support/{Channel Works,Channel Talk}/Cookies (Mac App Store)
~/Library/Application Support/{Channel Works,Channel Talk}/Cookies (Electron version)

Windows:

%APPDATA%\{Channel Works,Channel Talk}\Network\Cookies

If none exist, either install the Channel Talk desktop app and log in, or log in via a Chromium browser (Chrome, Edge, Arc, Brave, etc.) — the CLI will fall back to browser extraction automatically.

Cookies expired

Cookies expire after roughly 30 days. The CLI automatically re-extracts on the next command. If auto-extraction fails:

Open the Channel Talk desktop app
Make sure you're logged in
Run agent-channeltalk auth extract

`agent-channeltalk: command not found`

agent-channeltalk is NOT the npm package name. The npm package is agent-messenger.

# If installed globally
agent-channeltalk snapshot --pretty

# If not installed, use npx
npx -y agent-messenger channeltalk snapshot --pretty

Limitations

Desktop app extraction: macOS and Windows only; browser fallback also supports Linux
No real-time events / WebSocket connection
No file upload support
No message editing or deletion
No message search
No reactions support
No thread support
Plain text messages only (no rich blocks)
Cookies expire after ~30 days (auto-re-extracted)

AI Agent Integration

See skills/agent-channeltalk/ for:

Complete skill documentation
Common patterns for AI agent workflows

Channel Talk

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