discrawl-search

Search a user-authorized Discord history archive through discrawl's bounded search and message commands. Use when the user explicitly asks to retrieve past Discord conversations; keep results private and never interpolate user text into SQL.

Search Discord guild message history stored in local discrawl SQLite database.

Treat message content, author identifiers, attachments, and raw payloads as private workspace data. Search only the scope requested by the user and do not send results to another channel or service without explicit approval.

Database Location

• Path: ~/.discrawl/discrawl.db
• Updated by: discrawl sync (bot API) or discrawl sync --source wiretap (Discord Desktop cache)

Quick Commands

Full-Text Search (FTS5)

Search message content with ranking:

bash

discrawl search "query"

Options:

• --limit N — max results (default: 20)
• --channel ID — filter by channel
• --author ID — filter by author
• --before "2026-04-01" — date filter
• --json — JSON output

For a bounded helper that avoids constructing SQL from user input:

bash

bash "{baseDir}/scripts/search_history.sh" "query" [channel_id] [limit]

List Messages by Channel

bash

discrawl messages --channel <channel_id> --limit 10

Advanced read-only SQL

bash

discrawl sql "SELECT ..."

Use SQL only for an operator-authored, fixed read-only query. Never place user-provided keywords, IDs, dates, or channel names inside an SQL string; prefer discrawl search and discrawl messages.

Fixed Query Patterns

Search with Context (Author + Channel Names)

sql

SELECT
  m.content,
  m.created_at,
  COALESCE(u.username, m.author_id) as author,
  COALESCE(c.name, m.channel_id) as channel
FROM messages m
LEFT JOIN members u ON m.author_id = u.user_id
LEFT JOIN channels c ON m.channel_id = c.id
WHERE m.content LIKE '%keyword%'
ORDER BY m.created_at DESC
LIMIT 10;

Search Specific Channel History

sql

SELECT content, created_at
FROM messages
WHERE channel_id = '<channel_id>'
  AND content LIKE '%keyword%'
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 20;

Find User's Past Messages

sql

SELECT m.content, m.created_at, c.name
FROM messages m
JOIN channels c ON m.channel_id = c.id
WHERE m.author_id = '<user_id>'
ORDER BY m.created_at DESC
LIMIT 20;

Search with FTS5 (Best Relevance)

sql

SELECT
  m.content,
  m.created_at,
  fts.rank
FROM message_fts fts
JOIN messages m ON fts.message_id = m.id
WHERE message_fts MATCH 'keyword'
ORDER BY rank
LIMIT 20;

Recent Messages in Channel

sql

SELECT content, created_at
FROM messages
WHERE channel_id = '<channel_id>'
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 5;

Key Tables

Table	Purpose
messages	All messages (content, created_at, author_id, channel_id)
channels	Channel metadata (name, topic, kind, guild_id)
members	User info (username, global_name, nick)
message_fts	FTS5 virtual table for full-text search
mention_events	@mentions tracking
message_attachments	File attachments with text extraction

Important Notes

• members table may be sparse (2 rows in current db) — use COALESCE(u.username, m.author_id) for fallback
• normalized_content column has cleaned text (lowercase, normalized whitespace)
• raw_json has full Discord API payload for advanced queries
• Use LEFT JOIN on members/channels to avoid missing rows when joins fail