Discord Platform

The Discord adapter runs your Ethos agent as a Discord bot using the Discord.js gateway. It handles slash commands, message events, DMs, and server channels with per-channel session isolation.

Installation

The Discord adapter ships with the Ethos CLI. If you've already installed @ethosagent/cli, you don't need to install anything else — just enable it in your config.

Setup

1. Create a Discord application

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal
2. Click New Application, give it a name
3. Go to Bot → Reset Token → copy the token
4. Under Privileged Gateway Intents, enable Message Content Intent
5. Go to OAuth2 → URL Generator → select bot + applications.commands
6. Copy the invite URL and add the bot to your server

2. Configure

adapters:
  - discord

discord:
  token: "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
  clientId: "YOUR_APPLICATION_ID"
  guildId: "YOUR_SERVER_ID"     # optional: register commands to one server (instant)
                                 # omit to register globally (up to 1hr propagation)

Slash commands

The adapter registers these application commands:

Command	Description
/ask <message>	Send a message to the agent
/new	Start a fresh session in this channel
/personality <id>	Switch personality
/usage	Show token usage
/help	Show available commands

Message events

The bot also responds to direct mentions:

@YourBot what is the meaning of life?

And to DMs without requiring a mention.

Access control

Restrict to specific roles or channels:

discord:
  token: "..."
  clientId: "..."
  allowedRoleIds:
    - "1234567890123456789"   # role ID
  allowedChannelIds:
    - "9876543210987654321"   # channel ID

Streaming responses

Discord doesn't support true streaming, but the adapter simulates it by editing messages as text accumulates. The bot shows a "thinking..." indicator while generating.

Threads

For long responses, the adapter can automatically create a thread:

discord:
  token: "..."
  clientId: "..."
  useThreads: true            # create a thread for each conversation
  threadAutoArchive: 60       # archive after 60 minutes of inactivity

Sessions

Context	Session key
Server channel	discord:<channel-id>
Thread	discord:<thread-id>
DM	discord:<user-id>

Permissions required

The bot needs these Discord permissions:

• Send Messages
• Read Message History
• Add Reactions (for thinking indicator)
• Embed Links (for formatted responses)
• Create Public Threads (if useThreads: true)
• Use Application Commands

Deployment

Deploy the same way as any Ethos adapter — see the Deploy a Telegram Agent guide for the PM2 pattern (it applies to Discord too).