Setup

Install the Discord SDK as a peer dependency:

pnpm add discord.js

Create Your Bot

Go to Discord Developer Portal
Click New Application, give it a name
Go to Bot tab in the sidebar
Click Reset Token -- copy the token and save it:
```
DISCORD_TOKEN=your-token-here
```
Scroll down to Privileged Gateway Intents and enable Message Content Intent -- this is required to read message text
Go to OAuth2 > URL Generator
Select scopes: bot
Select bot permissions: Send Messages, Read Message History, Add Reactions, Manage Messages
Copy the generated URL and open it to invite the bot to your server

Usage

import { discordChannel } from '@cogitator-ai/channels';

const discord = discordChannel({
  token: process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN!,
  mentionOnly: true,
});

Configuration

interface DiscordConfig {
  token: string;
  intents?: number[];
  mentionOnly?: boolean;
}

Option	Default	Description
`token`	--	Bot token from the Developer Portal
`intents`	`Guilds, GuildMessages, DirectMessages, MessageContent`	Gateway intents array
`mentionOnly`	`false`	Only respond when @mentioned in servers

Features

Feature	Support
Server messages	Supported
Direct messages	Supported
Mention-only mode	Supported (respond only when @mentioned)
Streaming (edit)	Supported
Reactions	Supported
Typing indicator	Supported
Auto-chunking	Supported (2000 char limit, code-block aware)
Markdown	Supported (native Discord markdown)

Mention-Only Mode

When mentionOnly: true, the bot only responds to messages that @mention it in server channels. DMs always get a response regardless of this setting.

The bot mention (<@BOT_ID>) is automatically stripped from the message text before it reaches your agent, so instructions like @MyBot what is 2+2? arrive as what is 2+2?.

Message Chunking

Discord enforces a 2000-character limit per message. Long responses are automatically split by the built-in chunker with:

Code block integrity -- fenced blocks are properly closed and reopened across chunks
Line-count splitting -- ~17 lines max per message to keep things readable
Word-boundary awareness -- splits at whitespace when possible, never mid-word

Tips

You must enable Message Content Intent in the Developer Portal or the bot receives empty messages
For DM-only bots, you don't need to add the bot to any server
Discord rate limits message edits to ~5/sec per channel -- streaming responses account for this

Discord

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