Slunk (Slack Conversation Search) MCP server

Slunk is a macOS application that monitors Slack in real-time and provides intelligent search through an MCP server integration with Claude Desktop. It captures messages using the accessibility API, performs semantic search, and stores all data locally for privacy.

Installation

Prerequisites

• macOS 13.0 or newer
• Xcode 15.0 or newer
• Slack desktop app installed

Build Instructions

Build Slunk from source:

# Build
cd slunk-swift
xcodebuild -project slunk-swift.xcodeproj -scheme slunk-swift -configuration Release build

Running Slunk

Launch the menu bar application:

open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/slunk-swift-*/Build/Products/Release/slunk-swift.app

Configuring Claude Desktop Integration

To connect Slunk with Claude Desktop, add the MCP server configuration:

1. Open or create the Claude Desktop configuration file: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the Slunk MCP server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slunk-swift": {
      "command": "/path/to/slunk-swift.app/Contents/MacOS/slunk-swift",
      "args": ["--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/slunk-swift.app with the actual path to the built application.

Using Slunk

Slunk provides 8 different MCP tools for searching and analyzing your Slack messages.

Available Search Tools

• searchConversations: Natural language search across all messages
• search_messages: Precise filtering by channel, user, and date
• get_thread_context: Extract complete thread conversations
• get_message_context: Decode short messages and emojis
• parse_natural_query: Extract intent from queries
• conversational_search: Multi-turn search sessions
• discover_patterns: Find trending topics
• suggest_related: Discover related conversations

Search Examples

When using Claude Desktop, you can use these tools through natural language queries:

• "Search my Slack for discussions about the database migration"
• "Find messages from Sarah about the quarterly report"
• "Show me the full thread about the API change from yesterday"
• "What are people talking about in the #engineering channel this week?"

Storage and Privacy

Slunk stores all data locally in: ~/Library/Application Support/Slunk/

Messages are automatically deduplicated and retained for 2 months. All processing happens on your device, ensuring your Slack data remains private.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "slunk-swift" '{"command":"/path/to/slunk-swift.app/Contents/MacOS/slunk-swift","args":["--mcp"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "slunk-swift": {
            "command": "/path/to/slunk-swift.app/Contents/MacOS/slunk-swift",
            "args": [
                "--mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "slunk-swift": {
            "command": "/path/to/slunk-swift.app/Contents/MacOS/slunk-swift",
            "args": [
                "--mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect