Discord Archive Pro

A professional, open-source desktop application for archiving and exporting Discord servers, channels, forums, and direct messages.

Getting Started Guide

Prerequisites

Node.js (Version 18 or higher recommended)
npm or yarn

Installation and Development

Clone or download the repository.
Install dependencies:
```
npm install
```
Run in development mode (Hot Reload):
```
npx electron-vite dev
```

Packaging and Production

To generate a portable executable for Windows (.exe):

Build the source files:
```
npx electron-vite build
```
Package the application:
```
npx electron-builder --win portable
```

The executable will be generated in the dist/ directory.

Overview

Discord Archive Pro is a production-grade Electron desktop application that enables power users to export the complete history of Discord communities — forum threads, text channels, group DMs, and direct messages — into multiple portable formats: Markdown, HTML, JSON, PDF, and EPUB.

All exports are self-contained, offline-readable, and beautifully formatted. The HTML export mirrors Discord's own visual design system with a professional sidebar layout, proper avatar rendering, and responsive day/night theming.

Important: This tool uses your personal Discord token to access the API. It is intended for personal archiving of communities you participate in. Never share your token with anyone. Review Discord's Terms of Service before use.

Screenshots

Browse View	Downloads Panel	Archive Viewer

Navigate guilds, forums, and channels with Discord's exact dark palette	Real-time download queue with phase-by-phase progress logging	Tree-based file explorer with live Markdown, HTML and image preview

Key Features

Archival Engine

Downloads complete message histories including all replies, edits, and timestamps
Full pagination support for arbitrarily large channels (10,000+ messages)
Intelligent rate-limit management with exponential back-off and per-route tracking
Concurrent download queue (configurable 1–5 simultaneous threads)
Resume-safe: skips unchanged posts via content hash comparison (SQLite cache)
Automatic retry on transient failures with configurable retry budget

Export Formats

Format	Description
Markdown	GitHub-flavored `.md` with YAML frontmatter, rendered images, relative asset paths, and reaction metadata
HTML	Self-contained `.html` with Discord's exact dark-mode UI — sidebar, avatars, attachment tiles, reaction pills
JSON	Full structured dump including nested reactions, embeds, sticker references, and author metadata
PDF	Print-ready, paginated document generated via `pdf-lib`
EPUB	E-reader compatible book format generated via `epub-gen-memory`

Supported Channel Types

Type	Symbol	Notes
Forum Channels	`#`	Full thread+reply tree
Media Channels	`#`	Full thread+reply tree
Text Channels	Chat icon	Full message history — Ultra-Heavy mode
Announcement Channels	Chat icon	Full message history — Ultra-Heavy mode
Direct Messages	User icon	1-on-1 conversations — Ultra-Heavy mode
Group DMs	User icon	Multi-participant group chats — Ultra-Heavy mode

User Interface

Authentic Discord dark-mode color palette (#1e1f22 / #2b2d31 / #313338)
Lucide icon set throughout — no emojis in the application UI
Configurable interface zoom (100%–200%) for high-DPI displays, persisted across sessions
Live breadcrumb navigation: Server > Channel > Posts
Rich post preview panels with author avatar, full content, and attachment chips
Resizable archive file tree with color-coded file-type icons

Architecture

src/
├── main/               # Electron main process
│   └── index.ts        # BrowserWindow, IPC handlers, tray, window state
├── preload/
│   └── index.ts        # Context bridge (contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld)
├── renderer/           # React SPA
│   ├── App.tsx         # Root shell, tab routing, titlebar
│   ├── components/     # ServerList, ChannelList, PostList, DownloadsView, SettingsView, ArchiveViewer
│   ├── stores/         # Zustand state: browserStore, downloadStore, authStore
│   └── assets/styles/  # CSS variables, animations, markdown styles
└── core/               # Business logic (runs in main process)
    ├── discord/
    │   ├── api-client.ts       # DiscordClient — REST abstraction, pagination, caching
    │   ├── rate-limiter.ts     # Per-route bucket rate limiter with global guard
    │   ├── markdown-parser.ts  # Discord → Standard Markdown transformer
    │   ├── endpoints.ts        # All API URL definitions
    │   └── types.ts            # Full TypeScript interfaces for all Discord entities
    ├── export/
    │   ├── markdown-generator.ts   # .md + YAML frontmatter generator
    │   ├── html-generator.ts       # Self-contained Discord-styled HTML
    │   ├── json-exporter.ts        # Full structured JSON dump
    │   ├── folder-builder.ts       # Output directory organizer
    │   └── index-generator.ts      # _INDEX.md generator
    ├── storage/
    │   ├── database.ts         # better-sqlite3 WAL-mode database
    │   ├── migrations.ts       # Versioned SQL schema migrations
    │   └── cache-manager.ts    # Content-hash deduplication
    └── download-manager.ts     # Queue orchestrator, concurrency, retry logic

Data Flow

User selects posts
       │
       ▼
DownloadManager.addToQueue()
       │
       ▼
DiscordClient.getAllThreadMessages()   ←── Rate Limiter (per-route buckets)
       │
       ▼
Asset downloader (images, files, stickers)
       │
       ▼
Export Pipeline (MD / HTML / JSON / PDF / EPUB)
       │
       ▼
FolderBuilder organizes output directory
       │
       ▼
SQLite cache updated (content hash)

Installation

Prerequisites

Node.js 20 or higher
npm 9 or higher
Windows 10/11 (primary platform; macOS/Linux untested)

Development Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-username/discord-archive-pro.git
cd discord-archive-pro

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start in development mode (hot reload)
npm run dev

Production Build

# Compile TypeScript and bundle
npm run build

# Package as Windows installer
npm run dist

Authentication

Discord Archive Pro supports two authentication methods:

Automatic Token Detection (Windows)

On first launch, the application automatically scans common LevelDB paths used by the Discord desktop client and web app to extract your token without any manual steps.

Supported sources:

Discord Stable (%AppData%\discord\Local Storage\leveldb)
Discord PTB (%AppData%\discordptb\Local Storage\leveldb)
Chrome / Edge Discord web sessions

Manual Token Entry

Open Discord in your browser
Open DevTools (F12) > Application tab > Local Storage > https://discord.com
Find the key token and copy its value
Paste it into the token input field in Discord Archive Pro

Configuration Reference

All settings persist across sessions via localStorage and electron-store.

Setting	Default	Description
Output Directory	Desktop	Destination folder for exported files
Export Formats	Markdown	One or more of: `markdown`, `html`, `json`, `pdf`, `epub`
Thread Mode	Single file	`single` (thread.md), `separate` (one file per reply), or `both`
TOC Generation	Off	Generate `_INDEX.md` with links to all archived posts
Simultaneous Downloads	2	Concurrent download workers (1–5)
File Size Limit	Unlimited	Skip individual asset files above threshold
Auto-open Folder	Off	Open output folder in Explorer on completion
Interface Zoom	100%	Scale entire UI for high-DPI displays
Ultra-Heavy Mode	Off	Expose text channels and DMs in addition to forums

Ultra-Heavy Mode

When enabled in Settings > Advanced, Discord Archive Pro exposes standard text channels, announcement channels, direct messages, and group DMs alongside forum channels.

Warning: Archiving large text channels can take significant time and generate many API requests. A channel with 100,000 messages will require approximately 500 paginated API calls. The built-in rate limiter handles this automatically, but the process may take 15–60+ minutes for very large channels.

DMs and group chats appear in the server list under the Direct Messages entry. Each conversation shows participant avatars and names extracted from the Discord API.

Output File Structure

A typical archive output looks like this:

Discord Archive Pro/
└── My Server/
    └── general-forum/
        ├── _INDEX.md
        ├── How to get started/
        │   ├── post.md
        │   ├── thread.md
        │   ├── post.html
        │   ├── post.json
        │   ├── assets/
        │   │   ├── screenshot.png
        │   │   └── document.pdf
        │   └── replies/
        │       ├── 001_username.md
        │       └── 002_otheruser.md
        └── Project showcase/
            ├── post.md
            └── assets/

Privacy and Security

Your Discord token is stored exclusively in your local operating system's secure keychain / user profile. It is never transmitted to any external server other than Discord's official API endpoints.
All downloaded data is stored locally on your machine.
The SQLite cache database is located at ./data/foro-downloader.db relative to the application executable.
You can purge all cached metadata from Settings > Cache Management without deleting your downloaded files.

Technical Stack

Layer	Technology
Desktop Shell	Electron 36
UI Framework	React 18 + TypeScript
State Management	Zustand
Database	better-sqlite3 (WAL mode)
Markdown Parsing	`react-markdown` + `remark-gfm`
PDF Export	`pdf-lib`
EPUB Export	`epub-gen-memory`
Icon System	Lucide React
Code Highlighting	`react-syntax-highlighter`
Build System	Vite + Electron Builder

Development

Running Tests

npm run test

Type Checking

npx tsc --noEmit

Linting

npm run lint

Adding a New Export Format

Create src/core/export/your-format-generator.ts implementing the generator class
Register it in src/core/download-manager.ts within the _runExports() method
Add the format key to ExportFormats type in src/core/discord/types.ts
Add the UI toggle in SettingsView.tsx

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please:

Fork the repository and create a branch from main
Ensure npx tsc --noEmit reports zero errors before submitting
Follow the existing code style (no emojis in production code, full TypeScript types, documented public methods)
Submit a pull request with a clear description of the change and its motivation

Roadmap

Search across archived messages via SQLite FTS5 full-text index
Scheduled automatic archiving via node-cron
Desktop notifications on completion via node-notifier
Incremental sync (re-archive only new messages since last run)
Role and emoji metadata export
Voice channel message history support
Localization via i18next

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

Built with the Electron, React, and TypeScript ecosystem. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Discord Inc.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
locales		locales
resources		resources
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
electron.vite.config.ts		electron.vite.config.ts
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
skills-lock.json		skills-lock.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
tsconfig.node.json		tsconfig.node.json
tsconfig.web.json		tsconfig.web.json
vitest.config.ts		vitest.config.ts

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Repository files navigation

Discord Archive Pro

Getting Started Guide

Prerequisites

Installation and Development

Packaging and Production

Overview

Screenshots

Key Features

Archival Engine

Export Formats

Supported Channel Types

User Interface

Architecture

Data Flow

Installation

Prerequisites

Development Setup

Production Build

Authentication

Automatic Token Detection (Windows)

Manual Token Entry

Configuration Reference

Ultra-Heavy Mode

Output File Structure

Privacy and Security

Technical Stack

Development

Running Tests

Type Checking

Linting

Adding a New Export Format

Contributing

Roadmap

License

About

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Repository files navigation

Discord Archive Pro

Getting Started Guide

Prerequisites

Installation and Development

Packaging and Production

Overview

Screenshots

Key Features

Archival Engine

Export Formats

Supported Channel Types

User Interface

Architecture

Data Flow

Installation

Prerequisites

Development Setup

Production Build

Authentication

Automatic Token Detection (Windows)

Manual Token Entry

Configuration Reference

Ultra-Heavy Mode

Output File Structure

Privacy and Security

Technical Stack

Development

Running Tests

Type Checking

Linting

Adding a New Export Format

Contributing

Roadmap

License

About

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