better-discord-transcripts

A nicely formatted HTML transcript generator for discord.js v14/v15. Drop-in replacement for discord-html-transcripts, with Components V2, thread modals, voice playback, and a built-in search UI. Inspired by community forks such as discord.js-html-transcript.

Images and voice messages are inlined by default so transcripts stay readable offline. With sharp installed, images are compressed to WebP - much smaller HTML files.

Project status

In my opinion, the project is feature-complete for now. I will still update it regularly - bug fixes, discord.js changes, and small improvements as needed.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• discord.js ^14.26.4 or ^15 (peer dependency - install it yourself)
• sharp (optional peer dependency - recommended for saveImages: true)

Sharp is not bundled. Install it yourself if you want WebP resize/compression (strongly recommended for ticket bots - without sharp, inlined transcripts can get very large).

Install

Base install (no image compression)

npm install better-discord-transcripts discord.js

package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "better-discord-transcripts": "^2.0.0",
    "discord.js": "^14.26.4"
  }
}

With sharp (highly recommended)

npm install better-discord-transcripts discord.js sharp

package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "better-discord-transcripts": "^2.0.0",
    "discord.js": "^14.26.4",
    "sharp": "^0.34.3"
  }
}

Migration from discord-html-transcripts

One line change. Same options, same return types:

- const { createTranscript } = require('discord-html-transcripts');
+ const { createTranscript } = require('better-discord-transcripts');

Your existing ticket code still works.

Quick start

Create a full channel transcript in 3 lines of code!:

const { createTranscript } = require('better-discord-transcripts');

const attachment = await createTranscript(channel, { limit: -1 });
await logChannel.send({ files: [attachment] });

If you omit limit (or set -1), the full channel history is fetched, including thread messages on posts with hasThread.

Image compression (sharp)

With default options, attachments and embed images are downloaded and embedded as WebP base64 instead of raw PNG/JPEG. That keeps transcript file size down while everything still opens from a single .html file with no external CDN links.

Not recommended: turning sharp off (useSharp: false) while keeping saveImages: true. Images stay full resolution and original format (often PNG/JPEG), so a single ticket transcript can easily reach tens or hundreds of MB. Use it only as a fallback when sharp cannot load on your platform.

Sharp is probed when your bot loads the package (require('better-discord-transcripts')). If it is not installed or fails to load, you get a one-time warning at startup (with install instructions). During transcript generation the library falls back to the original image format and still produces HTML - but files may be much larger.

// Default - images compressed with sharp
await createTranscript(channel);

// Skip images - smallest output, but Discord CDN links may expire later
await createTranscript(channel, { saveImages: false });

// Fallback only - not recommended for production (transcripts can get very large)
await createTranscript(channel, { useSharp: false });

Options

Same options as discord-html-transcripts, plus saveVoiceMessages:

Disable image or voice inlining

// No images (voice messages still inlined by default)
await createTranscript(channel, { saveImages: false });

// Voice only (images stay as Discord CDN links, but links may break later - remember that!)
await createTranscript(channel, { saveImages: false, saveVoiceMessages: true });

// Neither - smallest file, but CDN links may break later - remember that!
await createTranscript(channel, { saveImages: false, saveVoiceMessages: false });

TypeScript

import { createTranscript, ExportReturnType } from 'better-discord-transcripts';

const transcript = await createTranscript(channel, {
  returnType: ExportReturnType.String,
});

generateFromMessages - when you already have messages

createTranscript fetches messages from Discord for you.

generateFromMessages skips that step. You pass a Message[] or Collection you already loaded (custom fetch, cached ticket log, filtered list, etc.) and get the same HTML output.

Use it when:

• you fetched messages yourself (custom pagination, database, bot cache)
• you want to render only a subset without calling the API again
• you deleted the channel but still have message objects in memory

const { generateFromMessages } = require('better-discord-transcripts');

// messages = Message[] or Collection from channel.messages.fetch(), your DB, etc.
const attachment = await generateFromMessages(messages, channel, {
  poweredBy: false,
  filename: 'ticket-log.html',
});

Same options as createTranscript, except there is no limit or filter (you control the array yourself). saveImages, useSharp, and saveVoiceMessages default to true here as well.

Interactive HTML viewer

Built into every transcript:

• Search - find messages by text or ID, keyboard navigation
• Pinned messages - header panel with jump-to-message
• Member list - participants and message counts
• Thread modal - click a thread bar to read the full thread inline
• Image lightbox - click images to zoom
• Voice playback - play button and waveform (works offline when saveVoiceMessages is on)
• Spoiler reveal - click to reveal spoilers

Content rendered

• Plain text, markdown, mentions, emojis, timestamps
• Embeds, attachments, stickers, reactions
• Replies, forwards, slash command headers
• Components V2 - Container, Section, TextDisplay, Media Gallery, Thumbnail, File, Separator, buttons
• Polls with vote bars
• Voice messages - waveform from attachment.waveform, duration, inline <audio>
• System messages - pins, thread created, joins, and more
• Server tags, role icons, verified bot badges
• Cross-server reply indicators

Included by default

• Full channel fetch when limit is omitted
• Full thread fetch on messages with hasThread
• Image inlining when saveImages: true (WebP via sharp when installed)
• Images inlined as WebP base64 with sharp (720px max, ~70% quality)
• Voice messages inlined as base64 (saveVoiceMessages: true) for offline playback

API

Changelog

License

Apache-2.0

Fork and successor of discord-html-transcripts by ItzDerock.