Discord Skill (Read-Only)

Reads Discord for financial research using opencli, a universal CLI tool that bridges desktop apps and web services to the terminal via Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP).

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 reading messages. It does NOT support sending messages, reacting, editing, deleting, or any write operations.

Important: opencli connects to the Discord desktop app via CDP — no bot account or token extraction needed. Just have Discord Desktop running.

Step 1: Ensure opencli Is Installed and Discord Is Ready

Current environment status:

!`(command -v opencli && opencli discord-app status 2>&1 | head -5 && echo "READY" || echo "SETUP_NEEDED") 2>/dev/null || echo "NOT_INSTALLED"`

If the status above shows READY, skip to Step 2. If NOT_INSTALLED, install first:

# Install opencli globally
npm install -g @jackwener/opencli

If SETUP_NEEDED, guide the user through setup:

Setup

opencli requires Node.js >= 20. It connects to Discord Desktop via CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) — no Browser Bridge extension is needed for the Discord adapter. Two things are required:

1. Start Discord with remote debugging enabled:

# macOS
/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/MacOS/Discord --remote-debugging-port=9232 &

# Linux
discord --remote-debugging-port=9232 &

2. Set the CDP endpoint environment variable:

export OPENCLI_CDP_ENDPOINT="http://127.0.0.1:9232"

Add this to your shell profile (.zshrc / .bashrc) so it persists across sessions.

3. Verify connectivity:

opencli discord-app status

Common setup issues

Tip: create a shell alias

alias discord-cdp='/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/MacOS/Discord --remote-debugging-port=9232 &'

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.

Note: opencli operates on the currently active server and channel in Discord. To read from a different channel, the user must navigate to it in the Discord app first, or use the channels command to identify what's available.

Step 3: Execute the Command

General pattern

# Use -f json or -f yaml for structured output
opencli discord-app servers -f json
opencli discord-app channels -f json

# Read recent messages from the active channel
opencli discord-app read 50 -f json

# Search for financial topics in the active channel
opencli discord-app search "AAPL earnings" -f json
opencli discord-app search "BTC pump" -f json

Key rules

1. Check connection first — run opencli discord-app status before any other command
2. Use -f json or -f yaml for structured output when processing data programmatically
3. Navigate in Discord first — opencli reads from the currently active server/channel in the Discord app
4. Start with small reads — use opencli discord-app read 20 unless the user asks for more
5. Use search for keywords — opencli discord-app search uses Discord's built-in search (Cmd+F / Ctrl+F)
6. Read-only — opencli also exposes discord-app send and discord-app delete; don't invoke them, and don't send messages, react, edit, delete, or manage server settings.

Output format flag (-f)

Typical workflow for reading a server

# 1. Verify connection
opencli discord-app status

# 2. List servers to confirm you're in the right one
opencli discord-app servers -f json

# 3. List channels in the current server
opencli discord-app channels -f json

# 4. Read recent messages (navigate to target channel in Discord first)
opencli discord-app read 50 -f json

# 5. Search for topics of interest
opencli discord-app search "price target" -f json

Step 4: Present the Results

Lead with what matters for the user's research question rather than a raw dump. Attribute each message (username, timestamp, content), group search results by theme, and note the bullish or bearish lean and where views are consensus or contrarian. Show server and channel listings as a table of names and types. Keep CDP endpoints and session details private.

Step 5: Diagnostics

If something isn't working, check:

1. Is Discord running with CDP?

# Check if the port is open
lsof -i :9232

2. Is the environment variable set?

echo $OPENCLI_CDP_ENDPOINT

3. Can opencli connect?

opencli discord-app status

If all checks fail, restart Discord with the CDP flag:

/Applications/Discord.app/Contents/MacOS/Discord --remote-debugging-port=9232 &
export OPENCLI_CDP_ENDPOINT="http://127.0.0.1:9232"
opencli discord-app status

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.