diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/slack-cli/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/slack-cli/default.nix
index 2e20fbe2c3c9..ac7d0d4175c9 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/slack-cli/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/slack-cli/default.nix
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
-# slack-cli must be configured using the SLACK_CLI_TOKEN environment
-# variable. Using `slack init` will not work because it tries to write
-# to the Nix store.
+# slack-cli must be configured using the SLACK_CLI_TOKEN environment variable.
+# Using `slack init` will not work because it tries to write to the Nix store.
+#
+# There is no reason that we couldn't change the file path that slack-cli uses
+# for token storage, except that it would make the Nix package inconsistent with
+# upstream and other distributions.
 
-{ stdenv, lib, fetchFromGitHub, makeWrapper, curl, jq }:
+{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "slack-cli-${version}";
@@ -15,13 +18,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "022yr3cpfg0v7cxi62zzk08vp0l3w851qpfh6amyfgjiynnfyddl";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper ];
-
   dontBuild = true;
 
   installPhase = ''
     mkdir -p "$out/bin"
     cp src/slack "$out/bin"
-    wrapProgram "$out/bin/slack" --prefix PATH : ${lib.makeBinPath [ curl jq ]}
   '';
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/slack-cli/wrapper.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/slack-cli/wrapper.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3612aaa137ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/slack-cli/wrapper.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+{ lib, writeShellScriptBin, curl, jq }:
+
+slack-cli:
+
+writeShellScriptBin "slack" ''
+  [ "$1" = "init" -a -z "$SLACK_CLI_TOKEN" ] && cat >&2 <<-'MESSAGE'
+  WARNING: slack-cli must be configured using the SLACK_CLI_TOKEN environment
+  variable. Using `slack init` will not work because it tries to write to the
+  Nix store.
+
+  MESSAGE
+
+  export PATH=${lib.makeBinPath [ curl jq ]}:"$PATH"
+  exec ${slack-cli}/bin/slack "$@"
+''
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index c2f1f212a520..f53b144cee9d 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -16695,7 +16695,9 @@ with pkgs;
 
   slack = callPackage ../applications/networking/instant-messengers/slack { };
 
-  slack-cli = callPackage ../tools/networking/slack-cli { };
+  wrapSlackCli = callPackage ../tools/networking/slack-cli/wrapper.nix { };
+  slack-cli-unwrapped = callPackage ../tools/networking/slack-cli { };
+  slack-cli = wrapSlackCli slack-cli-unwrapped;
 
   singularity = callPackage ../applications/virtualization/singularity { };