discord-readonly-mcp

A tiny, dependency-free, read-only Model Context Protocol server for Discord.

It lets an MCP client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, …) read Discord: fetch any message by ID (no matter how old), page through channel history, and look up channel/server info — and nothing else. It only issues GET requests, so it can never send, delete, or modify anything. Ideal for letting an AI read a support/bug-report channel without granting it write access.

Quick start (npx)

Published on npm — no clone or install needed. Add this to your MCP client config (Claude Code / Cursor .mcp.json, Claude Desktop claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "discord-readonly": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "discord-readonly-mcp@latest"],
      "env": { "DISCORD_TOKEN": "your_bot_token" }
    }
  }
}

Restart the client, approve the server, and you're done. (See Requirements below for how to get a bot token.)

Why this exists

Most Discord MCP servers either can't fetch an old/specific message by ID (they only return the newest ~100 with no cursor), or they bundle lots of write/admin tools you may not want pointed at a production community. This one is GET-only, has zero npm dependencies, and is a single ~200-line file.

Tools

| Tool | What it does | |------|--------------| | discord_get_message | Fetch one message by ID — any age. Use for links like …/channels/<guild>/<channel>/<message>. | | discord_read_messages | List messages oldest-first; limit 1–100; before/after/around cursors to page through history. | | discord_get_channel | Channel/thread metadata (name, type, parent, guild). | | discord_get_server_info | A guild and the list of its channels. |

Requirements

• Node 18+ or bun (uses the runtime's global fetch; no install/build step).
• A Discord bot token:
  1. Create an app + bot at https://discord.com/developers/applications.
  2. Copy the bot token (Bot → Reset Token).
  3. Invite the bot to your server with View Channels + Read Message History (OAuth2 → URL Generator → scope bot).
  • Message Content Intent is not required — the REST API returns message content to an authorized bot regardless of the gateway intent.

Run

git clone https://github.com/Vorakorn1001/discord-readonly-mcp.git
cd discord-readonly-mcp
DISCORD_TOKEN=your_bot_token node index.mjs   # or: bun index.mjs

The server talks MCP over stdio, so you normally don't run it by hand — your MCP client launches it. Token can also be passed as --config <token> instead of the env var.

Use it in an MCP client

Claude Code / Cursor (.mcp.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "discord": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/or/relative/path/to/discord-readonly-mcp/index.mjs"],
      "env": { "DISCORD_TOKEN": "your_bot_token" }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

Same shape under mcpServers. Restart the client and approve the server on first use.

Keep your token out of version control — put it in the client config's env, not in code. This repo intentionally contains no token.

Quick manual test

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{}}}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}' \
| DISCORD_TOKEN=your_bot_token node index.mjs

You should see an initialize result followed by the four tools.

How it works

MCP's stdio transport is just newline-delimited JSON-RPC 2.0: the client launches this process and exchanges one JSON message per line over stdin/stdout. The server handles initialize, tools/list, and tools/call, mapping each tool to a Discord REST GET. All logging goes to stderr so stdout stays a clean protocol stream.

Security

• Read-only: only performs GET requests. No message sending, deleting, moderation, or server management.
• The bot can only see servers it has been invited to, with whatever channel permissions you grant it.

License

MIT © Vorakorn Kosidphokin