DiscoClaw

A personal AI orchestrator that turns Discord into a persistent workspace — built on three pillars: Memory, Tasks, and Crons.

DiscoClaw is an orchestrator: it coordinates between a user interface (Discord), one or more AI runtimes (Claude Code, OpenAI, Codex), and local system resources — managing conversation state, task routing, scheduling, and tool access. The intelligence is rented; the coordination is owned.

It turns a private Discord server into a persistent AI workspace. Your assistant remembers you across sessions, tracks work in forum threads, and runs scheduled tasks autonomously — all through natural conversation.

It's designed for a single user on a fresh, private server — your own sandbox. Not a shared bot, not a multi-user platform. Just you and your assistant in a space you control.

No gateways, no proxies, no web UI to deploy — Discord is the interface. Run DiscoClaw on a Linux or macOS machine (see Platform support) and talk to your assistant from anywhere Discord works: desktop, mobile, browser.

The codebase is intentionally small — small enough to read, audit, and modify directly. Customization means changing the code, not configuring a plugin system.

Why Discord?

Discord gives you channels, forum threads, DMs, mobile access, and rich formatting for free. DiscoClaw maps its three core features onto Discord primitives so there's nothing extra to learn — channels become context boundaries, forum threads become task cards and job definitions, and conversation history is the raw material for memory.

Memory — the bot knows you

Your assistant carries context across every conversation, channel, and restart.

• Durable facts — !memory remember prefers dark mode persists across sessions and channels
• Rolling summaries — Compresses earlier conversation so context carries forward, even across restarts
• Per-channel context — Each channel gets a markdown file shaping behavior (formal in #work, casual in #random)
• Customizable identity — Personality, name, and values defined in workspace files (SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, etc.)
• Group chat aware — Knows when to speak up and when to stay quiet in shared channels

Why Discord fits: channels = context boundaries, DMs = private deep context, conversation history is the raw material.

Tasks — the bot tracks your work

A lightweight in-process task store that syncs bidirectionally with Discord forum threads.

• Create from either side — Ask your assistant in chat or use task commands
• Bidirectional sync — Status, priority, and tags stay in sync between the task store and Discord threads
• Status emoji and auto-tagging — Thread names show live status at a glance
• Discord actions — Your assistant manages tasks through conversation: create channels, send messages, search history, run polls, and more

Why Discord fits: forum threads = task cards, archive = done, thread names show live status.

Crons — the bot acts on its own

Recurring tasks defined as forum threads in plain language — no crontab, no separate scheduler UI.

• Plain-language schedules — "every weekday at 7am, check the weather and post to #general"
• Edit to change, archive to pause, unarchive to resume
• Full workspace access — File I/O, web search, browser automation, Discord actions
• Multi-turn sessions — A live process persists between runs, so context carries across executions

Why Discord fits: forum threads = job definitions, archive/unarchive = pause/resume, no separate scheduler UI needed.

How it works

DiscoClaw orchestrates the flow between Discord and AI runtimes (Claude Code by default, with OpenAI, Codex, and OpenRouter adapters available via PRIMARY_RUNTIME). It doesn't contain intelligence itself — it decides when to call the AI, what context to give it, and what to do with the output. When you send a message, the orchestrator:

1. Checks the user allowlist (fail-closed — empty list means respond to nobody)
2. Assembles context: per-channel rules, conversation history, rolling summary, and durable memory
3. Routes to the appropriate runtime adapter, running in your workspace directory
4. Streams the response back, chunked to fit Discord's message limits
5. Parses and executes any Discord actions the assistant emitted

OpenRouter

Set PRIMARY_RUNTIME=openrouter to route requests through OpenRouter, which provides access to models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and others via a single API key — useful if you want to switch models without managing multiple provider accounts.

Required: OPENROUTER_API_KEY. Optional overrides: OPENROUTER_BASE_URL (default: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1) and OPENROUTER_MODEL (default: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4). See .env.example for the full reference.

Customization

Shareable integration recipes

DiscoClaw supports a shareable markdown recipe format for passing integrations between users:

• Spec: docs/discoclaw-recipe-spec.md
• Template: templates/recipes/integration.discoclaw-recipe.md
• Example files: recipes/examples/*.discoclaw-recipe.md
• Skills:
  • skills/discoclaw-recipe-generator/SKILL.md
  • skills/discoclaw-recipe-consumer/SKILL.md
• Install/refresh invocable skill symlinks:
  • pnpm claude:install-skills

Author one recipe file for an integration, share it, then let another user's DiscoClaw agent consume it and produce a local implementation checklist before coding.

Prerequisites

End users:

• Node.js >=20 — check with node --version
• One primary runtime:
  • Claude CLI on your PATH — check with claude --version (see Claude CLI docs to install), or
  • Codex CLI on your PATH — check with codex --version, or
  • OpenAI-compatible API key via OPENAI_API_KEY, or
  • OpenRouter API key via OPENROUTER_API_KEY (access to many providers)
• Runtime-specific access for your chosen provider (Anthropic plan/API credits for Claude, OpenAI access for Codex/OpenAI models)

Contributors (from source):

• Everything above, plus pnpm — enable via Corepack (corepack enable) or install separately

Quick start

Discord setup (private server + bot)

1. Create a private Discord server dedicated to DiscoClaw (not a shared/public server).
2. In the Discord Developer Portal, create an application, then go to Bot -> Add Bot.
3. Under Bot -> Privileged Gateway Intents, enable Message Content Intent.
4. Copy the bot token and set it in .env as DISCORD_TOKEN=....
5. Invite the bot to your server:
   • Go to OAuth2 -> URL Generator
   • Under Scopes, tick bot
   • A Bot Permissions grid appears below. For a private server, tick Administrator (top-left, under General Permissions) — it's one checkbox and covers everything. For tighter permissions, see the permission profiles in the full guide.
   • Copy the generated URL at the bottom, open it, pick your server, and authorize
6. In Discord, enable Developer Mode (User Settings -> Advanced), then copy IDs and set:
   • DISCORD_ALLOW_USER_IDS=<your user id> (required; fail-closed if empty)
   • DISCORD_GUILD_ID=<server id> (recommended; required for auto-creating forum channels)

Full step-by-step guide: docs/discord-bot-setup.md

Install and run

1. Install globally:

   npm install -g discoclaw

2. Run the interactive setup wizard (creates .env and scaffolds your workspace):

   discoclaw init

3. Register the system service:

   discoclaw install-daemon

   Optional: pass --service-name <name> to use a custom service name (useful on macOS when running multiple instances, or to match your own naming convention):

   discoclaw install-daemon --service-name personal

From source (contributors)

git clone <repo-url> && cd discoclaw
pnpm install
pnpm setup            # guided interactive setup
# Or manually: cp .env.example .env and fill in required vars:
#   DISCORD_TOKEN
#   DISCORD_ALLOW_USER_IDS
# For all ~90 options: cp .env.example.full .env
pnpm dev

Updating

Global install:

npm update -g discoclaw
discoclaw install-daemon   # re-register the service after updating
# If you used a custom service name, pass it again:
# discoclaw install-daemon --service-name personal

From source:

git pull
pnpm install
pnpm build

Run pnpm preflight — it flags configuration options from .env.example that aren't in your .env yet.

If running as a systemd service, restart it:

systemctl --user restart discoclaw.service

Platform support

• All platforms — pnpm dev works everywhere Node.js runs (Linux, macOS, Windows)
• Linux — systemd service file provided for production deployment (see .context/ops.md)
• macOS / Windows — use pm2, screen, or another process manager for long-running deployment; or just pnpm dev in a terminal

Windows is not tested for production use in v0.x. The session scanner has known path-handling issues on Windows, and the Claude CLI primarily targets Linux and macOS.

Safety

DiscoClaw orchestrates powerful local tooling via AI runtimes, often with elevated permissions. Treat it like a local automation system connected to Discord.

• Use a private Discord server — don't start in a shared or public server
• Use least-privilege Discord permissions
• Keep DISCORD_ALLOW_USER_IDS tight — this is the primary security boundary
• Empty allowlist = respond to nobody (fail-closed)
• Optionally restrict channels with DISCORD_CHANNEL_IDS
• External content (Discord messages, web pages, files) is data, not instructions

Workspace layout

The orchestrator runs AI runtimes in a separate working directory (WORKSPACE_CWD), keeping the repo clean while giving your assistant a persistent workspace.

• Set DISCOCLAW_DATA_DIR to use $DISCOCLAW_DATA_DIR/workspace (good for Dropbox-backed setups)
• Or leave it unset to use ./workspace relative to the repo
• Content (channel context, Discord config) defaults to $DISCOCLAW_DATA_DIR/content

Development

pnpm preflight  # preflight check (Node, pnpm, Claude CLI, .env)
pnpm dev        # start dev mode
pnpm build      # compile TypeScript
pnpm test       # run tests

Built with

Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, discord.js, and Croner.

License

MIT. See DISCLAIMER.md for important usage terms.