Taut

Client mod for Slack :D Plugins and custom CSS, on desktop and in your browser.

Taut adds over 30 plugins to Slack. Switch accounts in one click, see who reacted at a glance, give people nicknames, see when someone was last seen, type without showing up as typing, and blur private stuff whenever someone can see your screen. Make @channel pings feel like native messages, see the names of private channels you aren't in (and mention them yourself!), make Slack faster, try features Slack hasn't released yet, and lots more. Style it with your own CSS, or write your own plugins. It runs as its own desktop app, in Chrome and Firefox, or as a userscript, and it keeps itself up to date.

Note

Taut isn't made by or affiliated with Slack.

Plugins

Turn plugins on and off in Preferences > Taut, where you can also write your own CSS. Want something that isn't here? Write your own plugin.

All 33 plugins

Messages

• Bring Back Slackbot: Makes Slackbot custom responses be from Slackbot again
• Copy Reacted: Copy the list of people who reacted to a message
• Show Real User: Shows the user who sent a message via a bot like at-channel
• Show Sending Bot: Shows the bot used to send a user message
• Shut Up Slackbot: Marks Slackbot's "an app took over your slash command" DMs as read and silences them
• User Pronouns: Shows people's pronouns next to the timestamp on their messages
• Who Reacted: Shows the avatars of everyone who reacted next to each reaction

Message Box

• Anonymize Filenames: Randomizes file names before uploading to prevent metadata leakage
• Clear URLs: Strips tracking parameters from links you paste into messages (rules from ClearURLs)
• Haiku Warning (Hack Club only): Warns before you send a haiku that Orpheus would repeat in the thread
• Invisible Forward: Makes Slack links at the start of your messages invisible, like a forwarded message
• Native At Channel (Hack Club only): Sends @channel and @here through at-channel where you can't ping yourself
• Real Markdown: Write messages in standard Markdown instead of Slack's markup
• Restricted Channel Warning: Shows admins the "Only certain people can post" box where only admins can post
• Silent Typing: Adds a button to hide your typing indicator, so others can't see when you're typing
• Slim Message Box: Simplifies and cleans up the message box

People

• Admin Backend (Hack Club only): Adds buttons to open a member in Hack Club tools
• Custom Name Recording: Uploads an audio file as your name recording, instead of recording one
• Human Count: Leaves apps, and optionally guests, out of the channel header's member count
• IDV Status (Hack Club only): Shows a red squiggle on users who are not IDV eligible, and orange when verified ID but >18
• Last Seen: Shows when someone was last seen on their profile
• Nicknames: Locally nickname other members across Slack
• Office Hours: Weekly schedules for going out of office or appearing away

Privacy

• Click to Load: Holds Spotify, SoundCloud and other music embeds until you click to load them
• No Tracking: Blocks Slack's built-in tracking and analytics requests
• Streamer Mode: Blurs private information while others may be able to see your screen

App

• Account Switcher: Switch between saved accounts from the profile menu
• Browser Pop-outs: Enables Slack's pop-out windows in the browser
• Experiments: Try Slack's unreleased features by overriding its experiments
• Faster Slack: Optimizations that make Slack faster and smoother
• Private Channel (Hack Club only): Lets you see and mention private channels you aren't in (uses the flaron index)

Fun

• Censorship: Masks words you choose in messages, only on your screen
• Oneko: A cute cat that chases your cursor around the screen, based on oneko.js

Quickstart

Most people want the desktop app.

Desktop

Platform	Download
Windows	x64 / ARM
macOS	Apple Silicon / Intel, or brew install --cask jeremy46231/taut/taut
Linux	AppImage / deb / rpm / pacman
Linux ARM	AppImage / deb / rpm / pacman

Linux package repositories (apt, dnf, and Nix)

• Debian / Ubuntu:

  curl -fsSL https://taut.jer.app/taut.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/taut.gpg >/dev/null
  echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/taut.gpg] https://taut.jer.app/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/taut.list
  sudo apt update && sudo apt install taut

• Fedora / RHEL:

  sudo dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile=https://taut.jer.app/rpm/taut.repo
  sudo dnf install taut

• Nix: nix run github:jeremy46231/taut, or add the flake as an input and use its taut package (also in overlays.default)

Browser extension

• Chrome / Chromium-based:
  • Extract the extension to a permanent location
  • Go to about:extensions, enable Developer mode, Load unpacked the extension folder
  • To update, extract the new zip over that folder and click Taut's reload button in about:extensions
• Firefox: Install the extension

Userscript

Requires Tampermonkey (no Safari). Change its settings first, then install the userscript.

Tampermonkey settings

In the Tampermonkey dashboard > Settings:

• General / Config mode: Advanced
• Chrome / Chromium-based: Security / Content Script API: UserScripts API Dynamic
• Firefox: Experimental / Inject Mode: Instant

Make sure to hit the correct save button!

Join #taut on the Hack Club Slack!

Compared to other mods

	Taut	Slick	Rope
Plugins	33	35	8
Desktop app	Windows, macOS and Linux, x64 and ARM	Windows, macOS and Linux, x64 and ARM	No
Browser	Chrome, Firefox and a userscript, with every plugin	Firefox (experimental), only some plugins	Userscript
Linux packages	AppImage, deb, rpm, pacman, apt and dnf repos, Nix, all on ARM too	AppImage, deb, rpm, Flatpak, Nix, AUR (Nix and AUR x64 only)	-
macOS	dmg, Homebrew	dmg, install script	-
Custom plugins	Install and update them in settings, no reload	No	No
Updates	Updates when you reload Slack, desktop app updates itself	Asks to update	Manual
Depends on your Slack install	No	Yes	No
Privacy	Blocks Slack's tracking, has opt-out usage statistics	Blocks Slack's tracking	-
Last updated	Active	Active	July 2026
License	GPLv3 or later	GPLv3	None listed

Updated October 2026.

Usage

Open Preferences > Taut for Taut settings:

• Enable or disable plugins
• Edit plugin config or user CSS
• Desktop enables DevTools, press Ctrl+Alt+I or Cmd+Option+I

Development

Read docs/ first (or point your agent at it), it covers how Taut fits together, writing plugins and testing.

• app/ is the app bundle (taut.js), with plugins/ bundled inside
• desktop/, extension/ and userscript/ are the loaders, which get taut.js onto the page

Commands

Install with npm ci (Node 22.18+), or bun install.

Command	Does
npm run dev	Serves a live-rebuilding bundle on localhost:3000 for the Dev server source
npm run build	Builds the app, extensions and userscript into dist/
npm run build -- desktop mac win	Builds the desktop app for those platforms (slow), --help for more
npm run check	Lints and typechecks
npm run readme	Rewrites the plugin list above from each plugin's pluginName, description and category

App source

Pick where a loader gets taut.js from:

• Desktop: the app menu (may need to tap Alt) > Taut > Change app source...
• Userscript: Tampermonkey icon while on Slack > Options, or taut.jer.app/options
• Extension: Manage Extension > Extension options/Preferences

Source	Loads
Official	The normal build from taut.jer.app, always up to date
Official (sourcemaps)	The same, with the full .ts and .tsx files in DevTools (~250kb more)
Dev server	npm run dev on localhost:3000
Embedded copy	The copy built into the loader, on --embedded builds only

PRs are very welcome! You should join the #taut channel on the Hack Club Slack (13-18yo only). I'm @Jeremy, say hi :D

License

GPLv3 or later, see LICENSE