---
title: "Read Discord channel history from your bot"
description: "Let your bot pull message history from any Discord channel it can access, for cross-channel summaries or messages older than its usual context."
canonical_url: "https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/discord"
last_updated: "2026-09-25"
---

# Read Discord channel history from your bot

**Available on:** Basic, Standard, Pro, Enterprise plans.

Add the **Discord Get Channel History** power-up so your bot can read messages from a Discord channel when it needs them, for example to summarise another channel or to find messages older than the recent context it sees when someone @mentions it.

**Who can do this:** [team owners and admins](https://chatthing.ai/docs/account/teams#what-each-role-can-do).

> **Connect the Discord channel first**
>
> This power-up uses your bot's Discord connection. Set up the [Discord channel](https://chatthing.ai/docs/channels/discord) before adding it. Until you do, the power-up's settings page shows **Discord channel not setup**.

## Steps

1. Open your bot, go to the **Power-ups** tab and click **New power-up**.
2. Choose **Discord Get Channel History** and click **Create power-up**.
   ![The Discord Get Channel History card in the power-up catalog, found by searching for discord](https://res.cloudinary.com/djyjvrw5u/image/upload/v1777999111/docs/discord-get-history-power-up-card.png)
3. Edit the **Power-up name** and **Description**. For example: "Use this to read recent messages in a channel when the user asks what's been discussed there."
4. Optionally choose a **Channel** under **Channel settings** to limit the bot to one channel. Leave it blank to let the bot choose a channel by name.
   ![Discord get channel history settings with the power-up name, description and an optional Channel dropdown](https://res.cloudinary.com/djyjvrw5u/image/upload/v1777999161/docs/discord-get-history-power-up-settings.png)
5. Click **Save**.

The bot reads up to 100 messages per request (50 by default), and can page back to older messages.

## Check it works

In Discord, @mention your bot and ask "What was discussed in #general today?" The bot should reply with a summary of that channel.

## Troubleshooting

### The bot can't read a channel

Your bot can only read channels its Discord role has permission to view. Give it access to the channel in Discord's channel permissions, then try again.

## Related

- [Add your bot to a Discord server](https://chatthing.ai/docs/channels/discord): Connect your bot to Discord so it answers slash commands, @mentions and direct messages in your server, using your knowledge and power-ups.
- [Send and read Slack messages from your bot](https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/slack): Let your bot post messages to Slack channels and threads, and read channel history to answer questions like "What happened in