readme.md

Discordless

Automatically save local archives of Discord conversations and render them as HTML or DiscordChatExporter-frontend compatible JSON.

How it works

Discord uses an HTTPS REST API and Websocket API to transfer data. Discordless's mitmproxy addon, Wumpus In The Middle, intercepts that traffic and saves it locally as it is fetched. Discordless's exporter scripts can then render that saved data as HTML or DiscordChatExporter-frontend-compatible JSON for easy viewing.

Once you connect your Discord client to mitmproxy, Wumpus In The Middle automatically saves any data that your client fetches. Therefore, all messages, attachments, icons, etc. that you view will be saved. If you want to archive an entire channel at once, you will have to scroll through the whole thing, and maybe click on image attachments to load full-res versions.

Motivation

Discord has a history of arbitrary, unexpected, unappealable bans, which make you lose access to all your messages. If you want to keep records of your heartfelt conversations, you should probably save your own copies in case you lose access to your account or Discord shuts down someday. There are also a lot of communities that treat Discord as a documentation hub that ought to be archived.

There already exist tools to archive Discord channels, the most popular one being DiscordChatExporter, but they violate Discord's frustratingly strict Terms of Service. Exporting DMs with these tools requires "self-botting", which is a bannable offense - though it anecdotally seems to be rarely enforced against exporter tools. Nobody knows how Discord's auto-moderation and botting detection algorithms work, so I'd rather not risk it.

Discordless does not create any API requests or modify client behavior at all, so I don't think it violates Discord's Terms of Service, and it should be harder for Discord to detect. It also runs in the background, so you don't have to remember to backup regularly. It also works for mobile devices (as long as they are connected to Discordless's proxy server), which is nice for me since I primarily use Discord on my phone.

The archives are also "archive-grade" if you care about that; Discordless stores the raw API responses.

Install and setup - Debian-based Linux

You'll need to install Python, mitmproxy, and Discord's erlpack library.

Here are example commands you can use on Ubuntu. Assumes you use Python 3.9, but any 3.x version should work.

• Install Python: sudo apt install python3.9 python3.9-dev python3.9-idle
• Update pip: python3.9 -m pip install --upgrade pip
• Install mitmproxy: download the binaries from mitmproxy.org
• Install mitmproxy's certificate on every device with a Discord client that you want to archive with. (Sometimes you also have to install it on the browser level.)
• Install erlpack: python3.9 -m pip install erlpack

erlpack installation issue workaround

Not sure if this is still the case; try this if you get an error when trying to install erlpack.

Discord uses a tool called erlpack to deserialize objects sent over the Gateway websocket, but it's currently(?) broken. There's a pull request open for oliver-ni's branch, which fixes the problem, but Discord hasn't merged it. So, just install Oliver's version:

pip install git+https://github.com/oliver-ni/erlpack.git#egg=erlpack`

Install and setup - Mac

Mostly the same as the Debian-based Linux setup.

• Install Python 3.9+
• Install erlpack: pip install git+https://github.com/oliver-ni/erlpack.git#egg=erlpack
• Install mitmproxy: brew install mitmproxy
• Run mitmproxy at least once to generate its certificate: mitmproxy
• Install mitmproxy's certificate: sudo security add-trusted-cert -d -p ssl -p basic -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain ~/.mitmproxy/mitmproxy-ca-cert.pem

Install and setup - Windows

Make sure Python 3.9+ is installed. There is a problem with installing erlpack dependency on Windows, so Python 3.11+ is not supported. To check if Python is installed, open command prompt (Windows key + R, type cmd and press Enter) and run command:

py --version

If Python is not installed, download and install version 3.9.X or 3.10.X from official site. During installation, don't forget to check "Add Python 3.X to PATH".

Clone this project (Open folder where you want to clone this project in file explorer, press Alt + D, type cmd and press Enter)

git clone https://github.com/Roachbones/discordless
cd discordless

Update pip and install erlpack and python-dateutil dependencies:

py -m pip install --upgrade pip
py -m pip install git+https://github.com/oliver-ni/erlpack.git#egg=erlpack
py -m pip install python-dateutil

Install mitmproxy from official site. Mitmproxy installer for windows should automatically add mitmproxy, mitmdump and mitmweb to path. Close all opened command prompts to update PATH variable.

Open elevated command prompt (Windows key + R, type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter)

Generate certificates by running mitmproxy the first time:

mitmproxy.exe

Install mitmproxy certificate:

cd %UserProfile%\.mitmproxy\
certutil -addstore root mitmproxy-ca-cert.cer

Usage

Step one: data collection - Debian based Linux

Start the proxy server: mitmdump -s wumpus_in_the_middle.py --listen-port=8080 --allow-hosts '^(((.+\.)?discord\.com)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.com)|((.+\.)?discord\.net)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.net)|((.+\.)?discord\.gg))$'

Start Discord, connected to the proxy server. If you're on a PC, you can do discord --proxy-server=localhost:8080 to start an instance of Discord connected to the proxy without having to configure your whole computer to use the proxy. You can replace localhost:8080 with some other address if the proxy server is running on a different device. If you're on mobile, or otherwise don't want to use that commandline argument, then configure the whole device to use the proxy server in the network settings. Due to the --allow-hosts argument we pass to mitmproxy, it should not interfere much with non-Discord traffic.

You can tell that data collection is working if traffic_archive/requests/ starts filling up.

Step one: data collection - Windows

Start the proxy server in the first command prompt (Windows key + R, type cmd and press Enter):

mitmdump -s wumpus_in_the_middle.py --listen-port=8080 --allow-hosts '^(((.+\.)?discord\.com)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.com)|((.+\.)?discord\.net)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.net)|((.+\.)?discord\.gg))$'

Discord executable is not in PATH; we need to find it manually. Open second command prompt (Windows key + R, type cmd and press Enter)

cd %LocalAppData%\Discord\app-<version>\
cd app-
[tab]
[enter]
discord --proxy-server=localhost:8080

Step two: export archived traffic to DCE-style JSON (or HTML)

If Wumpus In The Middle is still running, restart it (ctrl+c in the terminal) to ensure it flushes its file buffers. Then run dcejson_exporter.py or html_exporter.py to turn the data in traffic_archive/ into an export.

DCE-style JSON

dcejson_exporter.py reads the data in traffic_archive and outputs a DiscordChatExporter-style JSON export to dcejson_exports/export_{current Unix time}/. You can feed that export into DiscordChatExporter-frontend to neatly display it in a Discord-style interface.

HTML

HTML exporting is half-baked at this point; embeds do not work, and there's no pagination. It can show some extra data, though, like message edit history.

You can run html_exporter.py similar to dcejson_exporter.py.

Step three: view the export

DiscordChatExporter-style JSON

Use DiscordChatExporter-frontend to view JSON exports. JSON exports should also be compatible with other DiscordChatExporter-based tools, such as chat-analytics.

HTML

Open one of the folders in the export (each folder corresponding to a channel, but good luck distinguishing them) and open chatlog.html in your favorite web browser. Unlike the JSON export, each channel folder contains its own assets, so any channel folder can be individually moved outside the export folder without breaking image links.

More technical details

Here's a breakdown of the Wumpus In The Middle invocation command (mitmdump -s wumpus_in_the_middle.py --listen-port=8080 --allow-hosts '^(((.+\.)?discord\.com)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.com)|((.+\.)?discord\.net)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.net)|((.+\.)?discord\.gg))$'):

• --listen-port=8080 tells mitmdump to run the proxy server on port 8080. Feel free to change this.
• --allow-hosts '^(((.+\.)?discord\.com)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.com)|((.+\.)?discord\.net)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.net))$' tells mitmproxy to not intercept any https traffic besides traffic to Discord. This is a little redundant since Wumpus In The Middle is also programmed to focus on Discord traffic, but this improves performance and helps to avoid interfering with any sites that have strict certificate policies.
• In theory, you can also add --proxyauth 'username:password' to the end to require authentication to connect to the proxy. However, I haven't been able to get this to work when connecting to the proxy from my iPhone; I get 407 errors even if I specify proxy authentication in my phone's network settings. Let me know if you get it to work!

Although you can connect multiple devices to the same Wumpus In The Middle instance, do not do so with multiple Discord accounts; Discordless currently assumes that all traffic is from one account and does not distinguish between multiple accounts. (I guess you could make a conglomerate archive of all of the servers of multiple accounts if you wanted, though.)

Directory structure

• Wumpus In The Middle saves Discord traffic to a neighboring directory called traffic_archive/. chatlog_exporter.py reads the data in this directory. This directory will grow over time. Contents:
  • request_index: Keeps track of metadata for each recorded HTTPS response. Each line is structured like {timestamp} {method (GET or POST)} {url} {response hash} {filename}. The filename points to a file in traffic_archive/requests/ which contains the response contents.
  • requests/: Stores response contents. Contents tracked in request_index/.
  • gateway_index: Tracks metadata for each recorded Gateway (websocket) connection. Each line is structured like {timestamp} {url} {filename prefix}. The filename prefix points to a pair of files in traffic_archive/gateways/, which end in _data and _timeline.
  • gateways/: Stores compressed Gateway "message" contents and timing information, in pairs of files ending in _data and _timeline respectively. Each Gateway lasts a long time (like, until you quit the client), and is tranport compressed via zlib. The _data file contains the entire Gateway "response"/"stream" (every "message" concatenated together) while the _timeline file keeps track of when each compressed "chunk"/"message" was received. Each line of the _timeline file is structured like {timestamp} {chunk length}.
• dcejson_exporter.py exports to dcejson_exports/. Each export is a directory named something like export_1686901312 where the number is the Unix time that the export was made.
• html_exporter.py similarly exports to html_exports/.
• html_template/ stores some static files that html_exporter.py uses to generate HTML exports.
  • html_template/style.css is a stylesheet that gets copied to every HTML export.
  • html_template/index.html is a Jinja template that gets filled with chatlog data to render HTML exports.

Limitations

iOS websocket traffic ignores proxy settings

iOS seems to ignore HTTP proxy settings for websockets (pls tell me if you know why this is and how to fix it), so Discordless fails to sniff websocket traffic from iOS devices. However, much of the archived data comes from regular REST endpoints instead, so you can still get decent data coverage without websockets!

In a nutshell: regular REST endpoints are used for you to say stuff to Discord like "Load the messages in this channel!" and "Load this image!". Websockets are for the server to tell you stuff like "Hey, this person sent you a message!". The latter should be mostly redundant if you often switch between different channels (thus reloading the messages via REST).

Comparison to DiscordChatExporter

Discordless requires technical knowledge to set up and its realtime archive-grade backups are overkill for most people. Here's a feature comparison between it and DiscordChatExporter, the most popular Discord archiving tool:

	DiscordChatExporter	Discordless
Easy to use?	Yes, more or less! Thus, it remains superior for most people.	Not yet! Requires some technical setup. Hoping to make it easier eventually.
Obeys Discord's ToS?	Not if you export DMs (which requires self-botting), though its violations are probably rarely enforced.	Yes
Archives in realtime, automatically?	No, but you could run it in a nightly cron job.	Yes!
Works on mobile?	No	Yes, if you connect your mobile device to a proxy server running Discordless's proxy server (Wumpus In The Middle)
Slows down Discord?	No; it's not running all the time.	Yes. Discord traffic must be processed through Wumpus In The Middle, which adds latency.
Disk space usage	Uses less space. Saves the exports and nothing else.	Uses more space; see above. My usage runs about 70mb per day.
Export to HTML?	Yes	Sorta; some features missing
Export to JSON?	Yes	Yes, following DiscordChatExporter's (undocumented) JSON format for compatibility with DiscordChatExporter-frontend. Some features WIP.
"Archival grade"?	No, but this probably doesn't matter for most people.	Yes; records all data received by the Discord API, allowing exporter updates to be backported to old data. Can track stuff like message edits and deletions. See also: Discard, Discard2, and DiscordLogEverything.

Other notes

How to get the Discord desktop app to trust your mitmproxy certificate

For me, the usual mitmproxy workflow of installing a mitmproxy root certificate on an operating system level worked for everything on my computer except the Discord desktop app. Discord in browser worked fine, but not the desktop app. I had to add the certificate in Chrome, for some reason, to make the Discord app trust it. This might be an Ubuntu thing.

Development tips for Wumpus In The Middle

If you want to work on Wumpus In The Middle (the mitmproxy script), then it can be handy to prepare a .flow file for testing purposes. Mitmproxy's .flow files are used to "replay" web traffic. This way, instead of having to open Discord every time you want to test Wumpus In The Middle, you can just record a sample of Discord traffic to a file ("discord_dump.flow") and feed that into Wumpus In The Middle every time you test it.

Part one: record traffic

mitmproxy -w discord_dump.flow --set stream_large_bodies=100k --allow-hosts '^(((.+\.)?discord\.com)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.com)|((.+\.)?discord\.net)|((.+\.)?discordapp\.net)|((.+\.)?discord\.gg))$' -w discord_dump.flow tells mitmproxy to output all the traffic logs to a file named discord_dump.flow. This clobbers any existing file at that path.

Once you start recording, do some stuff on Discord. Scroll through channels, send messages, that sort of thing. You may want to restart your Discord client, and disable cache if you're using in-browser Discord, to make sure you re-fetch assets.

Part two: parse traffic

mitmdump -s wumpus_in_the_middle.py --rfile discord_dump.flow This replays the flow to Wumpus In The Middle. It should archive the traffic in traffic_archive. Then you can run one of the exporter scripts as normal.

To do

Some features of the JSON export are incomplete. Namely:

• reactions
• stickers
• emojos ("Custom Emoji")

However, Wumpus In The Middle still archives this data, so any enhancements to the exporter scripts to include these features will be backwards-compatible with existing traffic archives.