Discord History Reader

Read Discord channel and thread message history directly via the Discord Bot API, bypassing OpenClaw's session-based message visibility. Use when you need to read messages from a Discord thread or channel that has no active OpenClaw session, fetch historical context from a conversation you weren't part of, or access thread content that was mentioned but not visible in the current session. Triggers on "read that thread", "what did they say in

Discord Context

Problem

OpenClaw is session-based: agents only see messages from conversations where they have an active session. Discord threads that the agent wasn't mentioned in or hasn't interacted with are invisible — there's no built-in tool to read arbitrary channel/thread history.

Additionally, OpenClaw redacts the Discord bot token from openclaw config get and environment variables (by design), so agents cannot make direct Discord API calls using the configured token.

Solution

Store the Discord bot token in a separate file accessible to the agent, then use curl to call the Discord API directly.

Setup (one-time, run as the user)

bash

# Store your bot token in a file outside the workspace (won't be git-committed)
echo 'YOUR_DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN' > ~/.openclaw/.discord-bot-token
chmod 600 ~/.openclaw/.discord-bot-token

Record the path in TOOLS.md so the agent knows where to find it across sessions.

Reading Messages

bash

# Load token
DISCORD_TOKEN=$(cat ~/.openclaw/.discord-bot-token)

# Read recent messages from a channel or thread (threads are channels in Discord)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bot $DISCORD_TOKEN" \
  "https://discord.com/api/v10/channels/{channel_or_thread_id}/messages?limit=50" \
  | python3 -m json.tool

# Read messages before a specific message ID (pagination)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bot $DISCORD_TOKEN" \
  "https://discord.com/api/v10/channels/{channel_id}/messages?limit=50&before={message_id}" \
  | python3 -m json.tool

# List active threads in a guild channel
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bot $DISCORD_TOKEN" \
  "https://discord.com/api/v10/channels/{parent_channel_id}/threads/active" \
  | python3 -m json.tool

Finding Thread/Channel IDs

• Enable Developer Mode in Discord: User Settings → Advanced → Developer Mode
• Right-click any channel or thread → Copy Channel ID
• Thread IDs and channel IDs work the same way in the API

Key Notes

• Discord returns messages newest-first by default
• Max limit is 100 per request; use before/after params to paginate
• The bot must be a member of the guild and have View Channel + Read Message History permissions
• Rate limits apply: 50 requests/second per route (respect 429 responses and Retry-After headers)

Response Fields

Each message object contains:

• content — message text
• author.username / author.global_name — who sent it
• timestamp — when
• id — message ID (for pagination or reply references)
• referenced_message — the message being replied to (if a reply)

Security Considerations

• The token file is chmod 600 and outside the git-tracked workspace
• The bot token grants read/write access to all channels the bot is in — treat it like a password
• Prefer read-only API calls; do not use this for sending messages (use OpenClaw's native routing instead)
• If the token is rotated in Discord Developer Portal, update both openclaw config and the token file