Installation

Prerequisites

Requirement Why
Bun >= 1.4 Runs the CLI from source and builds the standalone binary. Not needed if you only use a release binary.
Docker Exports run through the official DiscordChatExporter image, tyrrrz/discordchatexporter:stable. It is pulled automatically on first use.
A Discord token Used both to browse servers/channels (Discord REST API) and by DiscordChatExporter to export messages.

Getting a binary

Download a release. Grab the binary for your platform from the GitHub releases page:

  • discord-sync-linux-x64
  • discord-sync-linux-arm64
  • discord-sync-darwin-x64
  • discord-sync-darwin-arm64
  • discord-sync-windows-x64.exe

Rename it to discord-sync, make it executable (chmod +x discord-sync), and put it on your PATH.

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/dsebastien/discord-sync-cli
cd discord-sync-cli
bun install
bun run build     # -> dist/discord-sync

You can also skip the build entirely and run any command with bun run src/cli.ts <command>.

The Discord token

⚠️ Use a bot token. Automating a user token (“self-botting”) violates Discord’s Terms of Service and can get the account permanently terminated. The tool technically accepts both kinds of token, but the only safe path is a bot token. The bot can only export servers it has been invited to.

  1. Open the Discord Developer Portal and click New Application. Give it any name (e.g. my-archive-bot).
  2. In the left sidebar, open the Bot page.
  3. Under Privileged Gateway Intents, enable Message Content Intent (without it, exported messages come back with empty text).
  4. Still on the Bot page, click Reset Token, confirm, and copy the token immediately — it is shown only once. This is the value you give to the CLI.
  5. Invite the bot to the server(s) you want to archive:
    • Open OAuth2 → URL Generator in the sidebar.
    • Under Scopes, check bot.
    • Under Bot Permissions, check View Channels and Read Message History.
    • Copy the generated URL at the bottom, open it in a browser, pick the server, and confirm. (You need the Manage Server permission on that server — for servers you don’t manage, ask an admin to use the invite URL, or fall back to a user token at your own risk.)

Treat the token like a password: anyone who has it can act as the bot. If it leaks, go back to the Bot page and Reset Token.

Getting your user token (at your own risk)

For servers where you cannot invite a bot (e.g. large communities you don’t manage), the only option is your own user token — with the ToS/termination risk described above. A user token gives full access to your account, so guard it accordingly. The usual retrieval method, as described in DiscordChatExporter’s guide:

From the Network tab:

  1. Open Discord in a browser (not the desktop app) and log in.
  2. Open the browser developer tools (F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I) and switch to the Network tab.
  3. Interact with Discord (e.g. click a channel) so requests appear, and click any request to discord.com/api/....
  4. In the Request Headers, find Authorization — its value is your user token.

Or with a console snippet. On an open discord.com tab, open the developer tools Console and run this — it pulls the token out of Discord’s own module registry and copies it to your clipboard (copy() is a DevTools console helper):

;(() => {
    let token
    window.webpackChunkdiscord_app.push([
        [Symbol()],
        {},
        (req) => {
            for (const m of Object.values(req.c)) {
                if (m?.exports?.default?.getToken) token = m.exports.default.getToken()
            }
        }
    ])
    console.log(token)
    copy(token)
})()

You’ll have to type allow first. By default Discord blocks pasting into the console (a “self-XSS” protection): it shows a big red “Stop!” warning and, the first time, asks you to type the word allow and press Enter before it will accept a paste. Do that, then paste the snippet and run it. This safeguard exists because scammers talk people into pasting malicious code — so only ever paste snippets you understand, like this one, which just reads your own token.

If Discord’s internals have changed and the snippet errors, fall back to the Network-tab method above.

Never share this token, never commit it, and consider any machine that stores it as holding your Discord credentials.

Giving the token to the CLI

The token is resolved in this order:

  1. --token <TOKEN> — accepted by the browsing commands (tui, servers, channels, select, deselect). Handy for one-offs, but it leaks into your shell history.

  2. DISCORD_TOKEN environment variable — works everywhere:

     export DISCORD_TOKEN="your-bot-token"

  3. A .env file in the working directory:

     # .env
 DISCORD_TOKEN=your-bot-token

    The compiled binary reads this file explicitly, so it works the same whether you run from source or from a release binary.

Note that the export commands (sync, sync-all, export) require the token to be present as the DISCORD_TOKEN environment variable, because it is passed through to the DiscordChatExporter docker container. When using a .env file, load it into the environment first (e.g. export $(cat .env) or a tool like direnv).

Whether the token belongs to a bot or a user is detected automatically — no prefix or extra flag needed.

Verify the setup 

discord-sync servers

If the token and Docker are set up correctly, this prints every server the token can see. Then head to the Usage guide.