Discord

Discord is a Claude Code plugin from Anthropic's own, officially maintained claude-plugins-official repository that turns a self-created Discord bot into a full chat channel wired into a running Claude Code session. Instead of keeping a terminal window open, you can address Claude Code from Discord itself: the bot forwards incoming messages from direct messages or opted-in guild channels into the session, and Claude can reply, react with emoji, edit messages it already sent, and search a channel's recent message history. The folder lives under external_plugins/discord in the repository and includes its own LICENSE file, a README, and a detailed ACCESS.md covering access control — on its marketplace page at claude.com/plugins/discord, Anthropic's own count shows over 32,000 installs, though unlike the Telegram or Code Review plugins it does not carry the "Anthropic verified" badge.

Part of the official plugin directory, but without the verified badge

The anthropics/claude-plugins-official repository is Anthropic's own curated collection of Claude Code plugins and itself carries tens of thousands of GitHub stars. The Discord folder is released under the repository's Apache-2.0 license like the other entries and is distributed the same way, through the built-in plugin marketplace. Its detail page, however, lacks the "Anthropic verified" mark shown on some other first-party plugins in the same repository (such as Telegram or Code Review) — a sign that the review status within the official directory isn't applied uniformly. Anyone needing an independent Discord integration outside Claude Code will find dedicated bot frameworks on Discord's own developer portal; this plugin is purpose-built for pairing with a running Claude Code session.

How the chat channel works

After setting up a dedicated bot through the Discord Developer Portal, Claude Code starts the MCP server through the Bun JavaScript runtime; per its package.json it's built on the official @modelcontextprotocol/sdk and the discord.js library. Five tools are exposed per the source code: reply, for sending messages and file attachments (up to ten files at 25 MB each) with optional native threading via the reply feature; react, for adding an emoji reaction to any message; edit_message, for revising a message the bot already sent; fetch_messages, for pulling a channel's last 100 messages including message IDs for targeted replies; and download_attachment, for fetching a specific attachment into a local inbox folder on demand. While the bot processes a request, Discord automatically shows a typing indicator; incoming attachments are deliberately not auto-downloaded, only fetched on demand through the dedicated tool.

Access control: pairing, allowlists, and guild channels

Security is an explicit part of the feature set. In the default "pairing" mode, an unknown sender's first direct message gets a six-digit code and no substantive reply; only after confirming it via /discord:access pair in the running Claude Code terminal does the user get access. Alternatively, a fixed allowlist can be maintained with /discord:access allow and /discord:access remove keyed on the numeric Discord user ID (snowflake), where unauthorized messages are silently dropped, or the channel can be locked entirely via the "disabled" policy. Guild channels are disabled by default and must be enabled individually with /discord:access group add keyed on the channel ID; there, the bot by default only responds to @-mentions or direct replies, extendable with custom regex patterns via mentionPatterns. The entire configuration lives locally in ~/.claude/channels/discord/access.json and is re-read on every incoming message; on the Discord side, the "Public Bot" toggle in the Developer Portal additionally controls who can even add the bot to a new server.

Installation and requirements

Installation goes through Claude Code's built-in plugin marketplace with /plugin install discord@claude-plugins-official, followed by /discord:configure with the bot token generated in the Discord Developer Portal and starting a channel process via claude --channels plugin:discord@claude-plugins-official. Per the documentation, the Bun JavaScript runtime is a prerequisite and can be added with a one-line install script if missing, along with a bot that has "Message Content Intent" enabled in the Developer Portal so incoming messages aren't received empty. The plugin's source code and license file are released under the Apache-2.0 license; neither the repository nor the marketplace page states a separate price for the plugin itself, and it is usable as a free part of a Claude Code installation.

Who should use it

The plugin is a good fit for anyone who doesn't want to keep a terminal permanently attached to Claude Code but would rather send quick status checks, approvals, or follow-up instructions from an existing Discord server or a direct message — say, while a code change, a deployment, or a longer agent run is in progress and they're away from their desk, or to turn an existing team or community Discord into an additional channel for the session. Because a Discord-connected coding agent can potentially do a lot, choosing the access policy deliberately matters: pairing is usually enough for purely personal use, while servers with multiple participants are better served by a maintained allowlist and tightly scoped, individually enabled channels. Anyone who just wants to chat with a single bot via direct message can rely on the default pairing flow described in the README without further configuration.

/plugin install discord@claude-plugins-official