n8n-nodes-discord-channel-trigger

Two custom n8n nodes for Discord automation using your own bot — no polling, no webhooks, no leaving Discord to approve something.

1. Discord Channel Trigger — starts a workflow the instant your bot sees a new message in a channel or DM
2. Discord Send and Wait for Reply — sends a message and pauses the workflow until someone actually responds in Discord itself, either by clicking a button or by replying with free text

n8n's official Discord node has no trigger for incoming messages, and its built-in "Send and Wait for Response" free-text option sends people to an n8n-hosted web form outside Discord. These two nodes fill both gaps using a real, persistent bot connection to Discord's Gateway.

Table of Contents

• Discord Channel Trigger
• Discord Send and Wait for Reply
• Requirements
• Install
• Credentials
• Local Development
• Author
• License

Discord Channel Trigger

Unlike a polling or webhook-based trigger, this node keeps a persistent connection to Discord's Gateway (via discord.js) using your existing bot's token, and emits a workflow execution for every matching message in real time.

Configuration

Output

{
  "messageId": "...",
  "content": "...",
  "channelId": "...",
  "guildId": "...",
  "isDirectMessage": false,
  "authorId": "...",
  "authorUsername": "...",
  "authorBot": false,
  "attachments": [{ "url": "...", "name": "...", "contentType": "..." }],
  "createdTimestamp": 1234567890
}

Discord Send and Wait for Reply

Unlike n8n's built-in "Send and Wait for Response" (which generates an n8n-hosted web form link), this node waits for an actual Discord-native response — a real interactionCreate button click, or a real text message sent using Discord's "Reply" feature (the reply arrow/swipe-to-reply, which attaches message.reference pointing back at the bot's message).

Configuration

Each execution opens its own Gateway connection, sends the message, waits for the response (or timeout), then closes the connection. If you're processing many items at once, this happens sequentially per item — expect roughly 1–3 seconds of connection overhead per item in addition to however long people take to respond.

Buttons mode edits the message to show the selection and removes the buttons once clicked.
Text Reply mode reacts with ✅ on the message it captured. By default it captures the very next non-bot message posted in the channel/DM (optionally restricted to one user ID) — it does not require Discord's Reply feature unless you turn "Require Explicit Discord Reply" on.

Output

Buttons mode:

{
  "messageId": "...",
  "channelId": "...",
  "timedOut": false,
  "responseType": "buttons",
  "buttonId": "btn_0",
  "buttonLabel": "Approve",
  "respondedBy": { "id": "...", "username": "..." },
  "respondedAt": 1234567890
}

Text Reply mode:

{
  "messageId": "...",
  "channelId": "...",
  "timedOut": false,
  "responseType": "textReply",
  "replyContent": "Sounds good, let's do option 2",
  "replyMessageId": "...",
  "wasExplicitReply": false,
  "respondedBy": { "id": "...", "username": "..." },
  "respondedAt": 1234567890,
  "attachments": [{ "url": "...", "name": "...", "contentType": "..." }]
}

Requirements

• A Discord bot application already created in the Discord Developer Portal, invited to your server
• The Message Content privileged intent enabled for the bot (Developer Portal → your app → Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents)
• Self-hosted n8n (this node has a runtime dependency, discord.js, so it is not eligible for n8n Cloud — Cloud only allows dependency-free community nodes)

Install

Option A — n8n's built-in Community Nodes installer (recommended)

In your n8n instance: Settings → Community Nodes → Install, then enter:

n8n-nodes-discord-channel-trigger

n8n installs it and restarts automatically. Both nodes then appear in the node panel by their display names.

Option B — manual install

In your n8n instance's custom extensions folder (usually ~/.n8n/custom, or wherever N8N_CUSTOM_EXTENSIONS points):

npm install n8n-nodes-discord-channel-trigger

Then restart n8n.

Credentials

Create a Discord Bot API credential in n8n with your bot's token (Developer Portal → your app → Bot → Reset/Copy Token).

Local Development

npm install
npm run build       # compile + copy static files to dist/
npm run lint         # n8n community-node lint rules

To test against a local n8n instance:

npm link
cd ~/.n8n/custom
npm link n8n-nodes-discord-channel-trigger
n8n start

Or use the included Dockerfile / docker-compose.yml to build and run inside a container (see comments in those files).

Author

Built and maintained by Sotiris R. Meletiou.

• GitHub: @smeletiou
• LinkedIn: sotiris-meletiou
• Portfolio: smeletiou.github.io

Found a bug or want a feature? Open an issue on GitHub — PRs welcome.

License

MIT © Sotiris R. Meletiou — see LICENSE.md