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

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.

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

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

Output flags

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:

1. Summarize key content — highlight the most relevant messages for the user's financial research
2. Include attribution — show username, message content, and timestamp
3. For search results, group by relevance and highlight key themes, sentiment, or market signals
4. For server/channel listings, present as a clean table with names and IDs
5. Flag sentiment — note bullish/bearish sentiment, consensus vs contrarian views
6. For analytics (stats, top, timeline), present activity patterns and notable contributors
7. 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

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.