A script to recursively delete Slack channel's messages and replies posted by you.

slack_channel_delete.py

# A script to recursively delete Slack channel's messages and replies posted by you.
#
# Preparation:
# - Create a slack app and install it in your workspace or any channel
# - In OAuth & Permissions, add channels:read, chat:write, groups:read, im:read, incoming-webhook, mpim:read, users:read 
#   scopes to both Bot and User Token scopes, you might need to reinstall it in the workspace.
# - Get "User OAuth Token".
# - pip install requests==2.28.1 termcolor

import time

import requests
from termcolor import colored, cprint

USER_TOKEN = "YOUR_USER_OAUTH_TOKEN"
USER_ID = "YOUR_MEMBER_ID_OF_WORKSPACE"

include_channels = ["ONE_OR_MORE_CHANNELS_TO_DELETE"] 

headers = {
    "Content-Type": "application/www-form-urlencoded",
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {USER_TOKEN}",
}


delete_count = 0


def delete_slack_message(ts, channel):
    global delete_count

    if delete_count > 10:
        delete_count = 0
        print("Sleeping for 10 seconds") # to avoid rate limit
        time.sleep(10)
    res = requests.post(
        "https://slack.com/api/chat.delete",
        params={"channel": channel, "ts": ts},
        headers=headers,
    )
    res = res.json()
    if not res["ok"]:
        cprint(f'Error Deleting: {res["error"]}', color="red")
    delete_count += 1


res = requests.post("https://slack.com/api/users.conversations", headers=headers)
res = res.json()
channels = res["channels"]

for channel in channels:
    if channel["name"] not in include_channels:
        continue
    cprint(
        f">> Traversing conversation history for channel: {channel['name']} ({channel['id']})",
        color="green",
    )

    cursor = "0"
    while True:
        if not cursor:
            break

        res = requests.post(
            "https://slack.com/api/conversations.history",
            params={"channel": channel["id"], "cursor": cursor},
            headers=headers,
        )
        res = res.json()
        if not res["ok"]:
            cprint(f'Error: {res["error"]}', color="red")
            break

        messages = res["messages"]
        if res.get("response_metadata", None):
            cursor = res["response_metadata"]["next_cursor"]
        else:
            cursor = None

        for message in messages:
            if message.get("user", None) == USER_ID:
                d1 = colored("Deleting message: ", color="blue")
                d2 = colored(message["text"], color="yellow")
                print(d1 + d2)
                delete_slack_message(message["ts"], channel["id"])

            if message.get("reply_count", 0) > 0:
                reply_cursor = None
                while True:
                    if reply_cursor == "":
                        break

                    res = requests.post(
                        "https://slack.com/api/conversations.replies",
                        params={
                            "channel": channel["id"],
                            "ts": message["ts"],
                            "cursor": reply_cursor,
                        },
                        headers=headers,
                    )
                    res = res.json()
                    if not res["ok"]:
                        cprint(f'Error: {res["error"]}', color="red")
                        break

                    replies = res["messages"]
                    if res.get("response_metadata", None):
                        reply_cursor = res["response_metadata"]["next_cursor"]
                    else:
                        reply_cursor = ""

                    for reply in replies:
                        if reply.get("user", None) == USER_ID:
                            d1 = colored("  Deleting reply: ", color="blue")
                            d2 = colored(reply["text"], color="yellow")
                            print(d1 + d2)
                            delete_slack_message(reply["ts"], channel["id"])
                            time.sleep(1)  # to avoid rate limit

        time.sleep(1)  # to avoid rate limit