artifice-discord

Run Claude Code from Discord. Chat with the assistant, see live tool usage, talk to it via voice — all from your phone, your laptop, or any device where Discord runs.

When the bot receives a message, the MCP server forwards it to Claude and provides tools to reply, react, edit, fetch history, and download attachments.

Origin note: this plugin is based on anthropics/claude-plugins-official (external_plugins/discord). Plugin name, MCP server name, and skill namespace are all artifice-discord. State lives under ~/.claude/channels/discord/. Pull upstream fixes by cherry-picking from the upstream remote.

What's different from the official plugin

• Live tool-usage streaming — see what the assistant is doing in real time, not just final replies
• Voice mode — speak to Claude via Discord voice channels (Whisper STT, tts-1 TTS)
• Customizable hooks — typing indicators, post-reply preambles, stop signals
• /model slash command — switch models without restarting the session
• Smaller surface area — stripped of upstream features not needed for the personal/agent use case

Prerequisites

• Bun — the MCP server runs on Bun. Install with curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash.
• Voice mode requires an OpenAI API key (OPENAI_API_KEY) for Whisper (STT) and tts-1 (TTS).

Quick Setup

Default pairing flow for a single-user DM bot. See ACCESS.md for groups and multi-user setups.

1. Create a Discord application and bot.

Go to the Discord Developer Portal and click New Application. Give it a name.

Navigate to Bot in the sidebar. Give your bot a username.

Scroll down to Privileged Gateway Intents and enable Message Content Intent — without this the bot receives messages with empty content.

2. Generate a bot token.

Still on the Bot page, scroll up to Token and press Reset Token. Copy the token — it's only shown once. Hold onto it for step 5.

3. Invite the bot to a server.

Discord won't let you DM a bot unless you share a server with it.

Navigate to OAuth2 → URL Generator. Select the bot scope. Under Bot Permissions, enable:

• View Channels
• Send Messages
• Send Messages in Threads
• Read Message History
• Attach Files
• Add Reactions
• Connect
• Speak
• Use Voice Activity

Integration type: Guild Install. Copy the Generated URL, open it, and add the bot to any server you're in.

For DM-only use you technically need zero permissions — but enabling them now saves a trip back when you want guild channels later.

4. Install the plugin.

This is a local plugin based on the official Discord plugin, not a marketplace plugin. Point Claude Code at this checkout as a local plugin / marketplace, then /reload-plugins.

Do not run this alongside the official discord plugin. Both open a Discord gateway connection; on the same bot token they fight for the same shard and knock each other offline. The cutover is atomic: this plugin on, the official plugin off, same restart.

5. Give the server the token.

/artifice-discord:configure MTIz...

Writes DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN=... to ~/.claude/channels/discord/.env. You can also write that file by hand, or set the variable in your shell environment — shell takes precedence.

Voice features also read these environment variables:

• DISCORD_VOICE_USER_ID — required for voice features; set it to the Discord user ID the bot should listen to in voice channels.
• DISCORD_VOICE_USER_NAME — optional display name for voice transcripts; defaults to User.

To run multiple bots on one machine (different tokens, separate allowlists), point DISCORD_STATE_DIR at a different directory per instance.

6. Relaunch with the channel flag.

The server won't connect without this — exit your session and start a new one:

claude --channels plugin:artifice-discord

7. Pair.

With Claude Code running from the previous step, DM your bot on Discord — it replies with a pairing code. If the bot doesn't respond, make sure your session is running with --channels. In your Claude Code session:

/artifice-discord:access pair <code>

Your next DM reaches the assistant.

8. Lock it down.

Pairing is for capturing IDs. Once you're in, switch to allowlist so strangers don't get pairing-code replies. Ask Claude to do it, or /artifice-discord:access policy allowlist directly.

Access control

See ACCESS.md for DM policies, guild channels, mention detection, delivery config, skill commands, and the access.json schema.

Quick reference: IDs are Discord snowflakes (numeric — enable Developer Mode, right-click → Copy ID). Default policy is pairing. Guild channels are opt-in per channel ID.

Tools exposed to the assistant

Tool	Purpose
reply	Send to a channel. Takes chat_id + text, optionally reply_to (message ID) for native threading and files (absolute paths) for attachments — max 10 files, 25MB each. Auto-chunks; files attach to the first chunk. Returns the sent message ID(s).
react	Add an emoji reaction to any message by ID. Unicode emoji work directly; custom emoji need <:name:id> form.
edit_message	Edit a message the bot previously sent. Useful for "working…" → result progress updates. Only works on the bot's own messages.
fetch_messages	Pull recent history from a channel (oldest-first). Capped at 100 per call. Each line includes the message ID so the model can reply_to it; messages with attachments are marked +Natt. Discord's search API isn't exposed to bots, so this is the only lookback.
download_attachment	Download all attachments from a specific message by ID to ~/.claude/channels/discord/inbox/. Returns file paths + metadata. Use when fetch_messages shows a message has attachments.

Inbound messages trigger a typing indicator automatically — Discord shows "botname is typing…" while the assistant works on a response.

Voice mode

Voice mode lets the configured user speak in a Discord voice channel and have the assistant hear (STT) and optionally speak back (TTS).

Configuration:

export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
export DISCORD_VOICE_USER_ID=123456789012345678
# Optional:
export DISCORD_VOICE_USER_NAME="User"

STT uses OpenAI Whisper (whisper-1). TTS uses OpenAI tts-1.

Usage:

• Join the voice channel the configured user is currently in: /voice join
• Leave voice: /voice leave
• Switch voice mode: /voice mode <full|listen>
  • listen (default) — transcribes speech, replies in text only
  • full — transcribes speech and speaks replies back via TTS

Notes:

• The bot does not hardcode a channel ID; it looks up the configured user's current voice channel when /voice join runs.
• Voice mode requires DISCORD_VOICE_USER_ID; set it to the Discord user ID the bot should listen to in voice channels.
• The bot buffers the configured user's Discord Opus packets while PTT is active, ignores taps under 300ms, transcribes on PTT release, and auto-leaves after 10 minutes of inactivity.
• TTS voice defaults to onyx; set tts_voice: in ~/.claude/persona.md to override (valid values: alloy, echo, fable, onyx, nova, shimmer).
• Voice mode resets to the default (listen) on each new /voice join.

Attachments

Attachments are not auto-downloaded. The <channel> notification lists each attachment's name, type, and size — the assistant calls download_attachment(chat_id, message_id) when it actually wants the file. Downloads land in ~/.claude/channels/discord/inbox/.

Same path for attachments on historical messages found via fetch_messages (messages with attachments are marked +Natt).