Autoarchive unused slack channels
Requirements
- python3
- Install requirements.txt (
pip install -r requirements.txt
) - An OAuth token from a Slack app on your workspace that has the following permission scopes:
channels:history
channels:read
channels:write
chat:write:bot
chat:write:user
Example Usages
The SLACK_TOKEN
must be exposed as a environment variable before running your script. By default, the script will do a DRY_RUN
. To perform a non-dry run, specify DRY_RUN=false
as an environment variable as well. See sample usages below.
# Run the script in dry run archive mode...This will output a list of channels that will be archived.
SLACK_TOKEN=<TOKEN> python slack-autoarchive.py
# Run the script in active archive mode...THIS WILL ARCHIVE CHANNELS!
DRY_RUN=false SLACK_TOKEN=<TOKEN> python slack-autoarchive.py
How can I exempt my channel from being archived?
You can add the string '%noarchive' to your channel purpose or topic. (There is also a whitelist file or env variable if you prefer.)
What Channels Will Be Archived
A channel will be archived by this script is it doesn't meet any of the following criteria:
- Has non-bot messages in the past 60 days.
- Is whitelisted. A channel is considered to be whitelisted if the channel name contains keywords in the WHITELIST_KEYWORDS environment variable. Multiple keywords can be provided, separated by comma.
What Happens When A Channel Is Archived By This Script
- *Don't panic! It can be unarchived by following these instructions However all previous members would be kicked out of the channel and not be automatically invited back.
- A message will be dropped into the channel saying the channel is being auto archived because of low activity
- You can always whitelist a channel if it indeed needs to be kept despite meeting the auto-archive criteria.
Custom Archive Messages
Just before a channel is archived, a message will be sent with information about the archive process. The default message is:
This channel has had no activity for %s days. It is being auto-archived. If you feel this is a mistake you can <https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201563847-Archive-a-channel#unarchive-a-channel|unarchive this channel> to bring it back at any point.'
To provide a custom message, simply edit messages.json
.
Known Issues
- Since slack doesn't have a batch API, we have to hit the api a couple times for each channel. This makes the performance of this script slow. If you have thousands of channels (which some people do), get some coffee and be patient.
Docker
- First build the docker image (in the root of the project)
docker build --tag autoarchive .
- run the container (dryrun is set to true by default)
docker run -e SLACK_TOKEN=<YOUR_AWESOME_TOKEN> autoarchive
- if your ready to archive run
docker run -e SLACK_TOKEN=<YOUR_AWESOME_TOKEN> -e DRY_RUN=false autoarchive