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:
If the status above shows READY, skip to Step 2. If NOT_INSTALLED, install first:
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:
- Start Discord with remote debugging enabled:
- Set the CDP endpoint environment variable:
Add this to your shell profile (.zshrc / .bashrc) so it persists across sessions.
- Verify connectivity:
Common setup issues
Tip: create a shell alias
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
Key rules
- Check connection first — run
opencli discord-app statusbefore any other command - Use
-f jsonor-f yamlfor structured output when processing data programmatically - Navigate in Discord first — opencli reads from the currently active server/channel in the Discord app
- Start with small reads — use
opencli discord-app read 20unless the user asks for more - Use search for keywords —
opencli discord-app searchuses Discord's built-in search (Cmd+F / Ctrl+F) - Read-only — opencli also exposes
discord-app sendanddiscord-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
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:
- Is Discord running with CDP?
- Is the environment variable set?
- Can opencli connect?
If all checks fail, restart Discord with the CDP flag:
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.

