discord-use

Fast REST-only Discord MCP server + CLI. Drop-in replacement for mcp-discord — no gateway, no Node.js, ~4 MB idle RSS.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leeguooooo/discord-use/main/install.sh | sh

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Why it exists

The standard Discord MCP (barryyip0625/mcp-discord) opens a full Gateway WebSocket on startup — a persistent connection that:

• Costs 100–150 MB RSS per agent (one Node process per agent that boots the server)
• Delays startup by several seconds waiting for the READY event
• Consumes one of the bot's limited concurrent gateway sessions

All 22 tools are ordinary REST calls. discord-use skips the gateway entirely: one binary, zero resident connections, sub-second start.

Performance

Metric	mcp-discord (Node + discord.js)	discord-use (Rust REST)
Binary / package size	~90 MB on-disk (node_modules)	5.8 MB (single binary, measured here; strip+lto release profile)
Idle RSS per agent	~100–150 MB (documented/typical for discord.js gateway client)	4.1 MB (measured: 4224 KB RSS, ps -o rss=)
Cold start → first response	seconds (waits for gateway READY)	immediate — no gateway handshake; serves on stdin
Discord gateway sessions	1 per agent	0

Binary size and RSS measured on macOS aarch64 from this build. Node/discord.js figures are documented typical values for a discord.js gateway client, not freshly benchmarked here.

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Installation

Prebuilt binary (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leeguooooo/discord-use/main/install.sh | sh

Installs to ~/.local/bin/discord-use. Prebuilt binaries: macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux (x86_64 / aarch64).

Override install directory:

DISCORD_USE_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin \
  curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leeguooooo/discord-use/main/install.sh | sh

Build from source

Requires Rust (stable).

git clone https://github.com/leeguooooo/discord-use
cd discord-use
cargo build --release
# binary at: target/release/discord-use

Maintainers release with scripts/release.sh <version> (--dry-run first): it tags, waits for the release binaries, then syncs the plugin marketplace.

Upgrading

discord-use upgrade          # install the latest release where this binary lives, refresh the skill
discord-use upgrade --check  # just report: discord-use 0.1.0 -> 0.2.0 / is up to date
discord-use upgrade --json   # same, as JSON (includes where the skill is installed)

Once a day a CLI command may print one discord-use X is available line on stderr (cached in ~/.cache/discord-use/update-check.json, 2 s timeout). discord-use mcp never checks. Turn it off with DISCORD_USE_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 or the family-wide USE_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 (also off when CI is set).

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MCP configuration

Claude Code (~/.claude.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "discord": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "discord-use",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DISCORD_TOKEN": "<your-bot-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex (~/.codex/config.toml)

[mcp_servers.discord]
command = "discord-use"
args    = ["mcp"]

[mcp_servers.discord.env]
DISCORD_TOKEN = "<your-bot-token>"

The token is passed via the environment, not argv — keeping it out of process listings. The old --config <token> flag (used by npx mcp-discord) still works as a compat alias.

Telling instances apart: --label

Under stdio transport every MCP client session spawns its own server process, so a machine running a dozen agent sessions ends up with a dozen identical discord-use mcp rows in ps — same command, no way to tell which belongs to which. Memory is not the problem (~1.4 MB each); identification is.

Add a --label to say who a server belongs to. It is free-form and not interpreted — it exists so the string lands in ps output:

"args": ["mcp", "--label", "work-account"]

$ ps -Ao pid,command | grep 'discord-use mcp'
96236 discord-use mcp --label work-account
96237 discord-use mcp --label team-support-bot

The label is also logged to stderr at startup, so logs from concurrent servers stay separable. Never put the token in it — argv is world-readable.

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Auth

Resolution order (first wins):

1. --token <TOKEN> flag
2. --config <TOKEN> flag (compat alias for drop-in replacement of npx mcp-discord --config <token>)
3. DISCORD_TOKEN environment variable
4. ~/.config/discord-use/config.toml — key token = "..."

---

CLI usage

# Send a message
discord-use send --channel-id 1234567890 --message "Hello from discord-use"

# Read recent messages
discord-use read --channel-id 1234567890 --limit 20

# Add a reaction
discord-use react --channel-id 1234567890 --message-id 9876543210 --emoji 👍

# Server info
discord-use server-info --guild-id 1111111111

# Send via webhook
discord-use webhook-send \
  --webhook-id 2222222222 \
  --webhook-token abc123 \
  --content "Webhook message"

# Start the MCP server (used by Claude / Codex)
discord-use mcp

Run discord-use --help or discord-use <subcommand> --help for full options.

---

Tools (22)

Tool	Description
discord_login	Validate token and return bot identity
discord_get_server_info	Get guild info + channel list
discord_send	Send a message to a text channel
discord_read_messages	Read recent messages from a channel
discord_delete_message	Delete a message
discord_add_reaction	Add an emoji reaction
discord_add_multiple_reactions	Add several reactions; continues on per-emoji failure
discord_remove_reaction	Remove an emoji reaction
discord_create_text_channel	Create a text channel in a guild
discord_delete_channel	Delete a channel
discord_create_category	Create a category in a guild
discord_edit_category	Rename / reposition a category
discord_delete_category	Delete a category
discord_create_webhook	Create a webhook for a channel
discord_edit_webhook	Update a webhook's name or channel
discord_delete_webhook	Delete a webhook
discord_send_webhook_message	Execute a webhook (send a message as the webhook)
discord_get_forum_channels	List forum channels in a guild
discord_create_forum_post	Create a new forum thread
discord_get_forum_post	Get a forum thread and its messages
discord_reply_to_forum	Post a reply in a forum thread
discord_delete_forum_post	Delete a forum thread

Tool names, parameter names, and casing are identical to barryyip0625/mcp-discord — existing callers (e.g. skills referencing mcp__discord__*) work unchanged.

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License

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option.

The *-use family

Small, composable CLIs that give an AI agent hands on one real thing. Same shape everywhere: curl … install.sh | sh to install, npx skills add leeguooooo/<name> to teach your agent, JSON on stdout.

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iphone-use	A real iPhone — tap, type, screenshot, pull on-device data
wechat-use	WeChat on macOS — send messages, query contacts and history
cookie-use	Many logged-in accounts per site — capture, switch, apply sessions
profile-use	Your personal profile, safely — fill signup / KYC / checkout forms
bitwarden-use	Bitwarden / Vaultwarden — headless passkey (FIDO2) login
chatgpt-use	Your ChatGPT subscription as a coding-agent backend — no API key
computer-use	The macOS desktop itself
pixcake-use	Read-only PixCake probing — snapshot / diff / SQLite inspection