Discord Chat Export

Local exporter for Discord channels using an official bot token and Discord's documented REST API.

Bot Setup

Open the Discord Developer Portal and create an application.
Add a bot to the application.
Enable the bot's privileged Message Content Intent if you need message text, not just metadata.
Invite the bot to your server with at least:
- View Channels
- Read Message History
Make sure channel-specific permission overwrites allow the bot to read the target channels.

Do not use a user token or self-bot. Store the bot token only in your local environment.

Usage

PowerShell:

$env:DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN = "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
python Tools/DiscordExport/discord_export.py --channel 123456789012345678 --after 2026-07-01 --before 2026-07-02 --format jsonl --format csv
Remove-Item Env:\DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN

Multiple channels:

$env:DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN = "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
python Tools/DiscordExport/discord_export.py --channels-file Tools/DiscordExport/channels.example.txt --out output/discord-export
Remove-Item Env:\DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN

Date arguments are interpreted as UTC. A date without a time means the full UTC day for --before, and midnight UTC for --after.

Outputs

Supported formats:

jsonl: one normalized message per line, with the raw Discord message embedded.
json: the same normalized messages as a JSON array.
csv: spreadsheet-friendly summary with message text and attachment URLs.
md: human-readable Markdown transcript.

The default output directory is output/discord-export.

Notes

Discord returns messages newest-first; the exporter writes them oldest-first.
The exporter follows 429 rate-limit responses and also waits briefly between pages.
If content is empty, check the bot's Message Content Intent and channel permissions.
This tool exports messages the bot can legitimately access; deleted messages are not available through normal history export.