admin.conversations.search method

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Facts

DescriptionSearch for public or private channels in an Enterprise organization.

Method Access

HTTP

POST https://slack.com/api/admin.conversations.search

JavaScript

app.client.admin.conversations.search

Python

app.client.admin_conversations_search

Java

app.client().adminConversationsSearch

Scopes

User token:

admin.conversations:read

Content types

application/x-www-form-urlencoded

application/json

Rate LimitsTier 2: 20+ per minute

Arguments

Required arguments

tokenstringRequired

Authentication token bearing required scopes. Tokens should be passed as an HTTP Authorization header or alternatively, as a POST parameter.

Example: xxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxx

Optional arguments

team_idsarrayOptional

Comma separated string of team IDs, signifying the internal workspaces to search through.

Example: T00000000,T00000001

connected_team_idsarrayOptional

Array of encoded team IDs, signifying the external orgs to search through.

Example: ['T00000000','T00000001']

querystringOptional

Name of the the channel to query by.

Example: announcement

limitintegerOptional

Maximum number of items to be returned. Must be between 1 - 20 both inclusive. Default is 10.

Default: 10

Example: 20

cursorstringOptional

Set cursor to next_cursor returned by the previous call to list items in the next page.

Example: dXNlcjpVMEc5V0ZYTlo=

search_channel_typesarrayOptional

The type of channel to include or exclude in the search. For example private will search private channels, while private_exclude will exclude them. For a full list of types, check the Types section.

Example: private,archived

sortstringOptional

Possible values are relevant (search ranking based on what we think is closest), name (alphabetical), member_count (number of users in the channel), and created (date channel was created). You can optionally pair this with the sort_dir arg to change how it is sorted

Default: member_count

Example: name

sort_dirstringOptional

Sort direction. Possible values are asc for ascending order like (1, 2, 3) or (a, b, c), and desc for descending order like (3, 2, 1) or (c, b, a)

Default: desc

Example: asc

total_count_onlybooleanOptional

Only return the total_count of channels. Omits channel data and allows access for admins without channel manager permissions.

Usage info

This Admin API method searches for channels across an organization given a search query.

This admin scope is obtained through version two of the OAuth V2 flow, but there are a few additional requirements. The app requesting this scope must be installed by an admin or Owner of an Enterprise organization. Also, the app must be installed on the entire org, not on an individual workspace. See below for more details.

If the app is installed by an Org Admin or Owner, ensure the Channel Management settings provide the appropriate permissions. The Org Admin or Owner installing the app must have the Channel Management role, and must also be granted access to Public channels and Private channels within this role. If these criteria aren't met, the Org Admin or Owner will receive a not_allowed error when attempting to install an app.

Admin API endpoints reach across an entire Enterprise organization, not individual workspaces.

For a token to be imbued with Admin scopes, it must be obtained from installing an app on the entire Enterprise org, not just a workspace within the organization.

To configure and install an app supporting Admin API endpoints on your Enterprise organization:

1. Create a new Slack app. Your app will need to be able to handle a standard OAuth 2 flow.
2. In the app's settings, select OAuth & Permissions from the left navigation. Scroll down to the section titled Scopes and add the admin.* scope you want. Click the Save Changes button.
3. In the app's settings, select Manage Distribution from the left navigation. Under the section titled Share Your App with Other Workspaces, make sure all four sections have the green check. Then click the green Activate Public Distribution button.
4. Under the Share Your App with Your Workspace section, copy the Sharable URL and paste it into a browser to initiate the OAuth handshake that will install the app on your organization. You must be logged in as an admin or Owner of your Enterprise organization to install the app.
5. Check the dropdown in the upper right of the installation screen to make sure you are installing the app on the organization, not an individual workspace within the organization. See the image below for a visual.
6. Once your app completes the OAuth flow, you will be granted an OAuth token that can be used for calling Admin API methods for your organization.

When installing an app to use an Admin API endpoint, be sure to install it on your Enterprise organization, not a workspace within the organization.

More on channel types

The search_channel_types allows an array of types to be passed, each of which filters the channels that the search returns. If you pass multiple types, the search occurs in channels that satisfy any of the types. You can pass the following values in your list of search_channel_types:

• private
• private_exclude
• archived
• exclude_archived
• private_exclude_archived
• multi_workspace
• org_wide
• external_shared_exclude
• external_shared
• external_shared_private
• external_shared_archived
• exclude_org_shared

private will search private channels, and private_exclude will exclude them from the search. The other names follow the same patterns for channels connected to other organizations and archived channels.

Searching private channels with this method will only work if the user associated with the user token being used has permission to manage private channels on the org. By default, only the primary owner of the org has that level of permission. Missing this permission is a cause of the not_allowed error.

---

Response

Typical success response

{
  "ok": true,
  "conversations": [
    {
      "id": "GSEV0B5PY",
      "name": "privacy-channel",
      "purpose": "Group messaging with: @rita @nwhere @meanie",
      "member_count": -1,
      "created": 1578423973,
      "creator_id": "WPQ65MVKK",
      "is_private": true,
      "is_archived": true,
      "is_general": false,
      "last_activity_ts": 1583198954000200,
      "is_ext_shared": false,
      "is_global_shared": true,
      "is_org_default": false,
      "is_org_mandatory": false,
      "is_org_shared": true,
      "is_frozen": false,
      "connected_team_ids": [],
      "internal_team_ids_count": 4,
      "internal_team_ids_sample_team": "T013F30DBAB",
      "pending_connected_team_ids": [],
      "is_pending_ext_shared": false
    },
    {
      "id": "C013JDPD6CR",
      "name": "proj-decomposed-monolith",
      "purpose": "",
      "member_count": 1,
      "created": 1588786531,
      "creator_id": "WPQ65MVKK",
      "is_private": false,
      "is_archived": false,
      "is_general": false,
      "last_activity_ts": 1589854024000200,
      "is_ext_shared": false,
      "is_global_shared": false,
      "is_org_default": false,
      "is_org_mandatory": false,
      "is_org_shared": true,
      "is_frozen": false,
      "connected_team_ids": [],
      "internal_team_ids_count": 1,
      "internal_team_ids_sample_team": "TPQ67R81F",
      "pending_connected_team_ids": [],
      "is_pending_ext_shared": false
    }
  ],
  "next_cursor": "aWQ6Mw==",
  "total_count": 14823
}

The member_count field will return -1 when the channel is archived. Counts of 0 and above indicate current membership.

Errors

This table lists the expected errors that this method could return. However, other errors can be returned in the case where the service is down or other unexpected factors affect processing. Callers should always check the value of the ok parameter in the response.

Error

Description

access_denied

Access to a resource specified in the request is denied.

accesslimited

Access to this method is limited on the current network

account_inactive

Authentication token is for a deleted user or workspace when using a bot token.

connected_team_passed_in_is_not_top_level_team

One of the orgs provided in the external connected teams filter is not a top level team.

deprecated_endpoint

The endpoint has been deprecated.

ekm_access_denied

Administrators have suspended the ability to post a message.

enterprise_is_restricted

The method cannot be called from an Enterprise.

external_team_not_connected_to_this_org

One of the teams provided in the external connected teams filter is not connected to the org.

fatal_error

The server could not complete your operation(s) without encountering a catastrophic error. It's possible some aspect of the operation succeeded before the error was raised.

feature_not_enabled

The token provided doesn't have access to this method.

internal_error

The server could not complete your operation(s) without encountering an error, likely due to a transient issue on our end. It's possible some aspect of the operation succeeded before the error was raised.

invalid_arg_name

The method was passed an argument whose name falls outside the bounds of accepted or expected values. This includes very long names and names with non-alphanumeric characters other than _. If you get this error, it is typically an indication that you have made a very malformed API call.

invalid_arguments

The method was called with invalid arguments.

invalid_array_arg

The method was passed an array as an argument. Please only input valid strings.

invalid_auth

The token provided does not belong to an Enterprise organization, or a specified workspace wasn't part of this Enterprise.

invalid_auth

Some aspect of authentication cannot be validated. Either the provided token is invalid or the request originates from an IP address disallowed from making the request.

invalid_charset

The method was called via a POST request, but the charset specified in the Content-Type header was invalid. Valid charset names are: utf-8 iso-8859-1.

invalid_cursor

The provided cursor is not valid, often due to not urlencoding query parameters.

invalid_form_data

The method was called via a POST request with Content-Type application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data, but the form data was either missing or syntactically invalid.

invalid_post_type

The method was called via a POST request, but the specified Content-Type was invalid. Valid types are: application/json application/x-www-form-urlencoded multipart/form-data text/plain.

invalid_search_channel_type

An invalid search_channel_types arg was passed. Make sure there are no spaces between your args and that each is one of the enumerated options listed above.

invalid_sort

The provided sort argument wasn't valid.

invalid_sort_dir

The provided sort_dir argument wasn't valid.

method_deprecated

The method has been deprecated.

missing_post_type

The method was called via a POST request and included a data payload, but the request did not include a Content-Type header.

missing_scope

The token used is not granted the specific scope permissions required to complete this request.

no_permission

The workspace token used in this request does not have the permissions necessary to complete the request. Make sure your app is a member of the conversation it's attempting to post a message to.

not_allowed

The authenticated user does not have the permission to call this method.

not_allowed_token_type

The token type used in this request is not allowed.

not_an_admin

The token provided is not associated with an Org Admin or Owner.

not_an_enterprise

This endpoint can only be called by an Enterprise organization.

not_authed

No authentication token provided.

org_login_required

The workspace is undergoing an enterprise migration and will not be available until migration is complete.

ratelimited

The request has been ratelimited. Refer to the Retry-After header for when to retry the request.

request_timeout

The method was called via a POST request, but the POST data was either missing or truncated.

service_unavailable

The service is temporarily unavailable

team_access_not_granted

The token used is not granted the specific workspace access required to complete this request.

team_added_to_org

The workspace associated with your request is currently undergoing migration to an Enterprise Organization. Web API and other platform operations will be intermittently unavailable until the transition is complete.

team_not_found

One of the workspaces provided in the list wasn't found.

token_expired

Authentication token has expired

token_revoked

Authentication token is for a deleted user or workspace or the app has been removed when using a user token.

two_factor_setup_required

Two factor setup is required.