Discord MCP Server for VS Code

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets VS Code Copilot (or any MCP-compatible agent) send and receive Discord messages as your own user account — enabling real-time testing of Discord bot commands directly from your editor.

⚠️ Discord ToS Notice: Automating a user account ("self-botting") is against Discord's Terms of Service. This tool is intended strictly for local development/testing of your own bots on your own servers. Do not use it for spam, abuse, or on servers you don't control. Use at your own risk.

Why a user account?

Many bot commands check server state tied to the command invoker — e.g., message.member.voice.channel to verify the user is in a voice channel before playing audio. A separate bot account cannot satisfy these checks. Messages must originate from your real Discord user to test these commands properly.

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+ (uses native fetch)
VS Code with GitHub Copilot (or another MCP host like Claude Desktop / Cursor)
Your Discord user token (see below)

Obtaining your Discord user token

Open Discord in a browser or the desktop app
Open Developer Tools (F12 / Ctrl+Shift+I)
Go to the Network tab
Perform any action in Discord (send a message, switch channels)
Find any request to discord.com/api
Copy the Authorization header value — that's your user token

Your user token grants full access to your Discord account. Treat it like a password and never commit it to version control.

Installation

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/masonbesmer/code-discord-mcp.git
cd code-discord-mcp

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Build
npm run build

# 4. Set your Discord user token
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and set DISCORD_USER_TOKEN=your-token-here

VS Code Integration

The repository includes .vscode/mcp.json which automatically registers the server with VS Code. The server reads your token from the DISCORD_USER_TOKEN environment variable.

Make sure the variable is set in your shell before launching VS Code:

# macOS / Linux
export DISCORD_USER_TOKEN="your-token-here"
code .

# Windows PowerShell
$env:DISCORD_USER_TOKEN = "your-token-here"
code .

Available Tools

Tool	Description
`send_message`	Send a text message to a Discord channel
`read_messages`	Read recent messages from a channel
`wait_for_response`	Send a command and wait for a bot response
`list_channels`	List channels in a guild
`list_guilds`	List guilds your account is in
`delete_message`	Delete a message (with confirmation prompt)

Available Resources

Resource	Description
`discord://guild/{guildId}/channels`	Channel list for a guild
`discord://channel/{channelId}/recent`	Last 25 messages in a channel

Example Workflow

Open your Discord bot project in VS Code
Start a Copilot Chat session in Agent Mode
Ask: "Send !help to my #bot-testing channel and show me what my bot responds with"
Copilot will:
- Call list_guilds to find your server
- Call list_channels to find #bot-testing
- Call wait_for_response with !help
- Show you the bot's response inline in the chat

Development

# Watch mode (recompiles on file changes)
npm run dev

# Run tests
npm test

# Debug with MCP Inspector
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js

Security

Concern	Mitigation
Token exposure	Read from env var only; never logged or returned in responses; `.env` in `.gitignore`
Discord ToS	Local dev/testing on your own servers only
Rate limiting	Automatic retry after `retry_after` on HTTP 429; 500ms polling interval
Accidental pings	`allowed_mentions: { parse: [] }` prevents @everyone/@here pings
Destructive actions	`delete_message` has `destructiveHint: true` — VS Code shows a confirmation dialog
Stdout pollution	All diagnostic output goes to stderr; stdout is reserved for MCP JSON-RPC

Dependencies

Package	Purpose
`@modelcontextprotocol/sdk`	MCP server framework (stdio transport, tool registration)
`zod`	Input schema validation
`typescript` (dev)	TypeScript compiler
`@types/node` (dev)	Node.js type definitions
`vitest` (dev)	Test runner

No Discord library needed. All Discord API calls use Node 18+ native fetch.

Discord MCP Server