Offline Slack Archive Browser

Browse and search Slack exports locally for researchers and departing teams

Problem

When a team dissolves, someone leaves, or a researcher studies an online community, they receive a Slack export .zip full of thousands of messages and attachments. The official client cannot import it, so people unzip raw JSON and grep through it; attachment links break and the conversational context is lost.

Solution

A local desktop app that imports a Slack export zip, reconstructs channels, threads, members and attachments, and offers a Slack-like browsing UI with full-text search, filters by person/date/channel, and export to shareable static HTML. Fully offline, data never leaves the machine.

Users

Social scientists studying communities, compliance staff archiving communications, employees after acquisitions or team shutdowns, and community operators

MVP

Import and parse standard Slack export zips; full-text search and channel browsing on a local index; attachment thumbnails and original links; one-click export to offline static archive; no cloud, no account

Revenue

One-time license (~$29–49) with academic discounts; paid add-ons for bulk export and archive verification

Why now

Slack export format is stable and parsing is bounded work, local search libraries like SQLite FTS are mature; big vendors won't touch this low-frequency offline niche, but team dissolutions and academic research create steady demand