Discord Skill (Read-Only)

Reads Discord for financial research using discord-cli, a command-line tool that syncs Discord messages locally and provides search, analytics, and export capabilities.

This skill is read-only. It is designed for financial research: searching trading server discussions, monitoring crypto/market groups, tracking sentiment in financial communities, and exporting messages for analysis. It does NOT support sending messages, reacting, editing, deleting, or any write operations.

Important: This tool uses your Discord token extracted from a local Discord client or browser session. No bot account needed.

Step 1: Ensure discord-cli Is Installed and Authenticated

Before running any command, install and check auth:

# Install (requires Python 3.10+)
command -v discord || uv tool install kabi-discord-cli

# Check authentication
discord status && echo "AUTH_OK" || echo "AUTH_NEEDED"

If AUTH_OK, skip to Step 2. If AUTH_NEEDED, guide the user:

Authentication

Method A: Auto-extract from local Discord client (recommended)

discord auth --save

This extracts the token from the locally running Discord desktop app or browser session and saves it for future use.

Method B: Environment variable

export DISCORD_TOKEN="<token from browser DevTools>"
discord status

Common auth issues

Symptom	Fix
`Token not found`	Open Discord desktop app or login in browser, then run `discord auth --save`
`Token expired / invalid`	Re-login to Discord and run `discord auth --save` again
`Unauthorized (401)`	Token is invalid — re-extract with `discord auth --save`

Step 2: Identify What the User Needs

Match the user's request to one of the read commands below, then use the corresponding command from references/commands.md.

User Request	Command	Key Flags
Auth check	`discord status`	—
Who am I	`discord whoami`	`--json`
List servers/guilds	`discord dc guilds`	`--json`
List channels in a server	`discord dc channels GUILD_ID`	`--json`
Server info	`discord dc info GUILD_ID`	`--json`
Server members	`discord dc members GUILD_ID`	`--max N`, `--json`
Fetch message history	`discord dc history CHANNEL_ID`	`-n N`
Sync messages locally	`discord dc sync CHANNEL_ID`	`-n N`
Sync all channels	`discord dc sync-all`	`-n N`
Tail (live/latest)	`discord dc tail CHANNEL_ID`	`--once`
Search server (API)	`discord dc search GUILD_ID "QUERY"`	`-c CHANNEL_ID`, `--json`
Search locally	`discord search "QUERY"`	`-c CHANNEL`, `-n N`, `--json`
Recent messages	`discord recent`	`-c CHANNEL`, `--hours N`, `-n N`, `--json`
Today's messages	`discord today`	`-c CHANNEL`, `--json`
Message stats	`discord stats`	`--json`
Top senders	`discord top`	`-c CHANNEL`, `--hours N`, `--json`
Activity timeline	`discord timeline`	`-c CHANNEL`, `--hours N`, `--by day\|hour`, `--json`
Export messages	`discord export CHANNEL`	`-f text\|json`, `-o FILE`, `--hours N`

Step 3: Execute the Command

General pattern

# Use --json or --yaml for structured output
discord dc guilds --json
discord dc channels GUILD_ID --json

# Sync messages from a channel for local queries
discord dc sync CHANNEL_ID -n 1000

# Search for financial topics
discord dc search GUILD_ID "AAPL earnings" --json
discord search "BTC pump" -n 20 --json

# Recent activity
discord recent --hours 24 -n 50 --json
discord today -c CHANNEL_ID --json

Key rules

Check auth first — run discord status before any other command
Use --json or --yaml for structured output when processing data programmatically
Sync before local queries — run discord dc sync CHANNEL_ID before using discord search, discord recent, etc.
Use -n N to limit results — start with 50–100 unless the user asks for more
Use discord dc search for server-side search (no sync needed); use discord search for local search (requires prior sync)
Use --hours N with recent, top, timeline, and export to scope by time window
NEVER execute write operations — this skill is read-only; do not send messages, react, edit, delete, or manage server settings
NEVER run discord purge — this deletes local data and is not relevant for research

Output flags

Flag	Purpose
`--json`	JSON output
`--yaml`	YAML output (default in non-TTY)
`-n N`	Limit number of results
`-o FILE`	Save output to file
`-c CHANNEL`	Filter by channel

Typical workflow for a new server

# 1. List guilds to find the server
discord dc guilds --json

# 2. List channels in the target guild
discord dc channels GUILD_ID --json

# 3. Sync messages from channels of interest
discord dc sync CHANNEL_ID -n 2000

# 4. Search or analyze
discord search "price target" -n 20 --json
discord recent -c CHANNEL_ID --hours 24 --json
discord top -c CHANNEL_ID --hours 168 --json

Step 4: Present the Results

After fetching data, present it clearly for financial research:

Summarize key content — highlight the most relevant messages for the user's financial research
Include attribution — show username, message content, and timestamp
For search results, group by relevance and highlight key themes, sentiment, or market signals
For server/channel listings, present as a clean table with names and IDs
Flag sentiment — note bullish/bearish sentiment, consensus vs contrarian views
For analytics (stats, top, timeline), present activity patterns and notable contributors
Treat tokens as secrets — never echo Discord tokens to stdout

Step 5: Diagnostics

If authentication fails, re-run:

discord auth --save
discord status

Ensure Discord desktop app is running or you are logged into Discord in a browser.

Error Reference

Error	Cause	Fix
`Token not found`	Not authenticated	Run `discord auth --save` with Discord open
HTTP 401	Token expired/invalid	Re-login to Discord and re-extract token
HTTP 403	No access to resource	Verify you have access to the server/channel
HTTP 429	Rate limited	Wait a few minutes, then retry

Reference Files

references/commands.md — Complete read command reference with all flags and usage examples

Read the reference file when you need exact command syntax or detailed flag descriptions.