💬 Taut

Taut is a premium, high-fidelity Slack client for GNU Emacs designed for power users who want an immersive, keyboard-driven Slack experience without missing a single thread or reaction.

Built on an asynchronous, thread-safe architecture, Taut features a Gnus-style live Slack Activity inbox dashboard, a collapsible sidebar, real-time WebSocket syncing (Socket Mode), and a dual-mode interactive thread discussion system.

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✨ Features

• Multi-Pane Workspace Layout: Collapsible sidebar (Starred channels, joined Channels, active DMs, watched threads, hidden channels) on the left, main conversation buffer in the center, and interactive threads on the right.
• Dual-Mode Threads:
  • Side-by-Side Right Pane (RET): Opens a dedicated sidebar to discuss threads with full context, complete with active parent-message background highlighting in the main chat.
  • Inline Collapsible Accordion (TAB): Toggle replies directly inside the main chat stream, beautifully rendered with tree-branch connectors (│, ├─, └─).
• Gnus-Style Unified Inbox ("Slack Activity"): Instantly tracks and lists unread DMs, direct @mentions, and thread replies with robust on-the-fly categorization filters.
• Robust Connection (Zero Deadlocks): All REST API requests are offloaded to system-native curl processes, making Taut completely immune to Emacs's internal GUI/WebSocket network locks.
• Secure Credentials Storage: Integration with Emacs's auth-source allows loading Slack tokens securely from ~/.authinfo or ~/.authinfo.gpg.

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🛠️ Slack Application Setup

To run Taut as yourself (loading your personal channels, DMs, stars, and posting as yourself), you must configure a custom Slack App on the Slack Developer Dashboard.

Step 1: Create the Slack App

1. Go to the Slack App Directory and click Create New App.
2. Select From scratch, name your app (e.g., Taut-Emacs), and choose your workspace.

Step 2: Configure Scopes (User Token)

To read and post as your personal user, you must set User Token Scopes (NOT Bot Token Scopes):

1. In the left sidebar under Features, click OAuth & Permissions.
2. Scroll down to Scopes -> User Token Scopes.
3. Add the following scopes (all 25 scopes shown in your configuration):
   • bookmarks:read (List bookmarks)
   • bookmarks:write (Create, edit, and remove bookmarks)
   • calls:read (View information about ongoing and past calls)
   • calls:write (Start and manage calls in a workspace)
   • channels:read (View basic information about public channels)
   • channels:history (View messages and other content in public channels)
   • channels:write (Create, archive, invite/kick members in public channels)
   • channels:write.topic (Set/edit topic for public channels)
   • emoji:read (Required to fetch and display custom workspace emojis)
   • groups:read (View basic information about private channels)
   • groups:history (View messages and other content in private channels)
   • groups:write (Create, archive, invite/kick members in private channels/groups)
   • groups:write.topic (Set/edit topic for private channels/groups)
   • im:read (View basic information about direct messages)
   • im:history (View messages and other content in direct messages)
   • im:write (Start direct messages with people on your behalf)
   • mpim:read (View basic information about group direct messages)
   • mpim:history (View messages and other content in group direct messages)
   • mpim:write (Start group direct messages with people on your behalf)
   • reactions:read (View emoji reactions in channels and conversations)
   • reactions:write (Add and edit emoji reactions on your behalf)
   • stars:read (View your starred messages and files)
   • stars:write (Add or remove stars for your user)
   • users:read (View people in your workspace)
   • chat:write (Send messages on your behalf)
   • files:read (View files shared in channels and conversations)
   • files:write (Upload, edit, and delete files on your behalf)
   • pins:read (View pinned content in channels and conversations)
   • pins:write (Add and remove pinned messages and files on your behalf)
   • search:read.mpim (Search workspace content in group direct messages)

Step 3: Enable Socket Mode (App-Level Token)

Socket Mode allows Taut to open a real-time secure WebSocket connection (wss://) with Slack to stream activity instantly.

1. In the left sidebar under Settings, click Socket Mode and toggle Enable Socket Mode on.
2. Slack will prompt you to create an App-Level Token. Name it (e.g. taut-socket-mode) and click Generate.
3. Copy this token (it starts with xapp-...). This token receives the connections:write scope automatically.

Step 4: Subscribe to Bot Events

This allows Slack to route live stream events over the WebSocket connection:

1. In the left sidebar under Features, click Event Subscriptions and toggle Enable Events on.
2. Under Subscribe to events on behalf of users, click Add Private Channel Event and add:
   • message.channels
   • message.groups
   • message.im
   • message.mpim
   • reaction_added
   • reaction_removed
3. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Step 5: Install App and Get User Token

1. Scroll back up the left sidebar and click Install App.
2. Click Install to Workspace and authorize.
3. Once completed, copy the User OAuth Token (starts with xoxp-...).

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🔒 Configuration

Taut integrates with Emacs's native auth-source library so you don't have to hardcode plaintext tokens in your init.el.

Add the following lines to your ~/.authinfo or ~/.authinfo.gpg file:

machine api.slack.com login bot password xoxp-YOUR-USER-OAUTH-TOKEN
machine api.slack.com login app password xapp-YOUR-APP-LEVEL-TOKEN

Emacs Init Configuration

Below is the recommended configuration using use-package and straight.el to load Taut directly from GitHub with standard keybindings, custom cache expiration, and automatic secure credential loading:

(use-package taut
  :straight (taut :type git :host github :repo "bunnylushington/taut")
  :demand t
  :bind (("C-c t c" . taut-connect)
         ("C-c t i" . taut-inbox)
         ("C-c t s" . taut-sidebar)
         ("C-c t q" . taut-quit)
         ("C-c t r" . taut-reload))
  :custom
  (taut-cache-keep-days 180)
  :config
  (message "Taut Slack client module loaded successfully!"))

Manual Load-Path Alternative

If you prefer checking out the repository manually, you can use the :load-path option:

(use-package taut
  :load-path "~/projects/taut"
  :demand t
  :bind (("C-c t c" . taut-connect)
         ("C-c t i" . taut-inbox)
         ("C-c t s" . taut-sidebar)
         ("C-c t q" . taut-quit)
         ("C-c t r" . taut-reload))
  :custom
  (taut-cache-keep-days 180)
  :config
  (message "Taut Slack client module loaded successfully!"))

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⌨️ Keybindings Reference

Global Keybindings (All Taut Buffers)

• j : Jump to any channel, group, or DM with autocomplete fuzzy completions (taut-jump).
• ? : Open the dynamic, context-aware Dispatcher control center (taut-dispatch).

Sidebar Buffer (*Taut Sidebar*)

Binding	Description
RET / Click	Open the channel, DM, or watched thread under cursor
TAB	Toggle collapse / expand state of the section header under cursor
i	Switch directly to the Gnus-style Slack Activity (Inbox) buffer
h	Toggle the hidden status of the channel at point (moves to HIDDEN section)
M	Mark all messages in the channel at point as read
g	Force redraw and sync sidebar unreads and stars list
q	Bury the sidebar

Slack Activity (Inbox) Buffer (*Slack Activity*)

Binding	Description
RET / Click	Switch directly to the corresponding channel, DM, or thread
d / e	Mark message as read / dismiss and archive from inbox
M	Mark the entire parent channel of this message as read
a	Show all activity in the feed (Reset filters)
u	Filter feed to show only unread items
D	Filter feed to show only Direct Messages (DMs)
m	Filter feed to show only direct @mentions
t	Filter feed to show only watched thread updates
g	Force reload and refresh the Inbox
q	Bury the Inbox dashboard

Conversation Buffer (*Taut - #channel* / *Taut - @user*)

Binding	Description
r	Compose and send a new normal reply to the channel
R	Reply quoting the message under point
e	Edit the message under point (if sent by you)
d	Delete the message under point (if sent by you)
a	Add an emoji reaction to the message at point
b / *	Star/bookmark the message at point
u	Upload a file to the channel
n / p	Move cursor to the next / previous message
v	View native code block or attachment at point in its major mode
c	Copy code block or attachment at point to clipboard
s	Save file/attachment at point to disk
TAB	Toggle Inline Accordion expansion of thread replies
RET / t	Open Side-by-Side Thread Panel on the right
M	Mark all messages in this conversation as read
g	Force reload channel history from API
q	Bury conversation buffer

Thread Buffer (*Taut Thread*)

Binding	Description
r	Compose and send a reply to the active thread
R	Reply quoting the thread message under point
e	Edit the thread message under point (if sent by you)
b / *	Star/bookmark the thread message at point
u	Upload a file directly to the thread
n / p	Move cursor to the next / previous thread message
v / c / s	View (v), Copy (c), or Save (s) attachments/code in thread
g	Force refresh thread replies from API
q	Close and hide the side-by-side thread window

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💻 Development & Compilation

To byte-compile the package cleanly and check for any warnings:

emacs -L . -batch -f batch-byte-compile *.el

Taut compiles cleanly with zero warnings or errors.

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📄 License

Copyright (C) 2026 Bunny Lushington. Distributed under the MIT License.