Concord - C Discord API library

October 11, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

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Concord - C Discord API library

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About

Concord is an asynchronous C99 Discord API library with minimal external dependencies, and a low-level translation of the Discord official documentation to C code.

ContentsDescription
Build InstructionsHow to build libcurl and Concord
Environment SetupProject setup and compilation
ConfigurationHow to configure Concord with config.json
Example BotTest Concord with a simple copycat bot
Build OptionsSpecial flags and build targets
InstallationInstalling Concord on your system
ContributingHow to contribute to Concord

Getting Started

Configuration

Discord Features

Debugging & Troubleshooting

  • Debugging - Debug your Concord applications

Following are other standalone guides created by the community to help you get started with Concord, organized by category:

Examples

The following are minimalistic examples, refer to examples/ for a better overview.

Slash Commands (new method)

#include <string.h>
#include <concord/discord.h>

#define GUILD_ID 1234567898765431 // replace with your guild ID

void on_ready(struct discord *client, const struct discord_ready *event) {
    struct discord_create_guild_application_command params = {
        .name = "ping",
        .description = "Ping command!"
    };
    discord_create_guild_application_command(client, event->application->id,
                                             GUILD_ID, &params, NULL);
}

void on_interaction(struct discord *client, const struct discord_interaction *event) {
    if (event->type != DISCORD_INTERACTION_APPLICATION_COMMAND)
        return; /* return if interaction isn't a slash command */

    if (strcmp(event->data->name, "ping") == 0) {
          struct discord_interaction_response params = {
                .type = DISCORD_INTERACTION_CHANNEL_MESSAGE_WITH_SOURCE,
                .data = &(struct discord_interaction_callback_data){
                      .content = "pong"
                }
          };
          discord_create_interaction_response(client, event->id,
                                              event->token, &params, NULL);
    }
}

int main(void) {
    struct discord *client = discord_from_token(BOT_TOKEN);
    discord_set_on_ready(client, &on_ready);
    discord_set_on_interaction_create(client, &on_interaction);
    discord_run(client);
}

Message Commands (old method)

#include <string.h>
#include <concord/discord.h>
#include <concord/logmod.h>

void on_ready(struct discord *client, const struct discord_ready *event) {
    logmod_log(INFO, NULL, "Logged in as %s!", event->user->username);
}

void on_message(struct discord *client, const struct discord_message *event) {
    if (strcmp(event->content, "ping") == 0) {
        struct discord_create_message params = { .content = "pong" };
        discord_create_message(client, event->channel_id, &params, NULL);
    }
}

int main(void) {
    struct discord *client = discord_from_token(BOT_TOKEN);
    discord_add_intents(client, DISCORD_GATEWAY_MESSAGE_CONTENT);
    discord_set_on_ready(client, &on_ready);
    discord_set_on_message_create(client, &on_message);
    discord_run(client);
}

Supported operating systems (minimum requirements)

  • GNU/Linux 4.x
  • FreeBSD 12
  • NetBSD 8.1
  • Windows 7 (Cygwin)
  • GNU/Hurd 0.9
  • Mac OS X 10.9

Note: big-endian processors running certain OSes like SPARC Solaris, PowerPC AIX, System Z z/OS or Linux, or MIPS IRIX are NOT supported. There are currently a few issues that prevent some of the logic from correctly on big-endian systems. This will be fixed soon.

Build Instructions

The only dependency is curl-8.7.1 or higher with websockets support. Since many system package managers don't provide this specific version with websockets enabled, we recommend compiling from source.

Important

Libcurl must be compiled with the --enable-websockets flag to work with Concord.

On Windows

  • Install Cygwin
  • During Cygwin installation, select packages: gcc, make, git, autoconf, libtool, pkg-config, openssl-devel, zlib-devel
  • Follow the Windows tutorial here
  • Then compile libcurl from source (instructions below)
# Install build dependencies
# Ubuntu/Debian:
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y build-essential autoconf libtool pkg-config libssl-dev zlib1g-dev

# Fedora/RHEL/CentOS:
$ sudo dnf install -y gcc make autoconf libtool pkgconfig openssl-devel zlib-devel

# Arch/Manjaro:
$ sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel openssl zlib

# Alpine:
$ apk add build-base autoconf libtool pkgconfig openssl-dev zlib-dev

# FreeBSD:
$ pkg install autoconf libtool pkgconf openssl

# OS X:
$ xcode-select --install
$ brew install autoconf libtool pkg-config openssl@3
# or with MacPorts:
$ port install autoconf libtool pkgconfig openssl

# Download and compile libcurl
$ curl -LO https://curl.se/download/curl-8.7.1.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf curl-8.7.1.tar.gz
$ cd curl-8.7.1
$ ./configure --with-openssl --enable-websockets
$ make
$ sudo make install

# You might need to inform the system's dynamic linker about the new library location with:
$ echo "/usr/local/lib" > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/curl.conf
$ sudo ldconfig

Setting up your environment

Clone Concord into your workspace

$ git clone https://github.com/cogmasters/concord.git && cd concord

Compile Concord

$ make

Optional: speed up compilation

You can speed up the compilation process by using -j flag with make:

$ make -j$(nproc)

This will use all available CPU cores to compile Concord. You can also specify a number instead of $(nproc) to limit the number of jobs.

Special notes about Voice Connections

Concord does not support voice connections yet. If you want to use voice connections, you can use CogLink instead. CogLink is a separate project that provides a LavaLink client for Concord. It is not part of the Concord library, but it is designed to work seamlessly with Concord.

Special notes for non-Linux systems

You might run into trouble with the compiler and linker not finding your Libcurl headers. You can do something like this:

$ CFLAGS=-I<some_path> LDFLAGS=-L<some_path> make

For instance, on a FreeBSD system:

$ CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib make

On OS X using MacPorts:

$ CFLAGS=-I/opt/local/include LDFLAGS=-L/opt/local/lib make

On OS X using a self-compiled libcurl:

$ CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/include make

On Windows with Cygwin, you might need to pass both arguments to use POSIX threading:

$ CFLAGS="-pthread -lpthread" make

Special note about linking Concord against another library

In some cases, you might want to link Concord into a shared object, or link it as a shared object into another shared object. In that case, you will need to compile Concord with CFLAGS="-fpic" make.

Special notes about compiling Concord with C compilers besides GCC or Clang

Concord will compile with compilers that aren't GCC or Clang, but you may need to do some work. For instance, support exists for Sun Studio C (specifically, Oracle Developer Studio 12.6), but you will need to change options in the Makefiles (look for CFLAGS and WFLAGS) to prevent errors about unknown compiler option flags.

Configuring Concord

discord_config_init() is the initialization method that allows configuring your bot without recompiling.

The following outlines config.json fields:

{
  "token": "YOUR-BOT-TOKEN", // replace with your bot token
  "log": {                   // logging directives
    "level": "TRACE",           // TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL
    "trace": "bot.log",         // the log output file (null to disable)
    "quiet": false,             // true to disable logs in console
    "overwrite": true,          // true overwrites the file on each run
    "color": true,              // display color on console
    "http": "http.log",         // the HTTP log output file (null to disable)
    "ws": "ws.log",             // the WebSockets log output file (null to disable)
    "disable": ["WEBSOCKETS", "HTTP"] // disable logging for specific modules
  }
  // here you can add your custom fields *
}

* Your custom field contents can be fetched with discord_config_get_field()

See more information about the config.json file in the config.json directives guide.

Test Copycat-Bot

  1. Get your bot token and add it to config.json, by assigning it to discord's "token" field. There are well written instructions from discord-irc explaining how to get your bot token and adding it to a server.
  2. Build example executables: 
    $ make examples
  3. Run Copycat-Bot: 
    $ cd examples && ./copycat

Get Copycat-Bot Response

Type a message in any channel the bot is part of and the bot should send an exact copy of it in return.

Terminate Copycat-Bot

With Ctrl+c or with Ctrl+|

Configure your build

The following outlines special flags and targets to override the default Makefile build with additional functionalities.

Special compilation flags

  • -DCCORD_SIGINTCATCH
    • By default Concord will not shutdown gracefully when a SIGINT is received (i.e. Ctrl+c), enable this flag if you wish it to be handled for you.
  • -DCCORD_DEBUG_WEBSOCKETS
    • Enable verbose debugging for WebSockets communication.
  • -DCCORD_DEBUG_HTTP
    • Enable verbose debugging for HTTP communication.

Example:

$ CFLAGS="-DCCORD_SIGINTCATCH -DCCORD_DEBUG_HTTP" make

Special targets

  • make shared
    • Produce a dynamically-linked version of Concord. This Makefile is intended for GNU-style compilers, such as gcc or clang.
  • make shared_osx
    • Produce a dynamically-linked version of Concord, for OS X and Darwin systems.
  • make debug
    • Enable some flags useful while developing, such as -O0 and -g

Installing Concord

(note -- # means that you should be running as root)

# make install

This will install the headers and library files into $PREFIX. You can override this as such:

# PREFIX=/opt/concord make install

Cross-compiling Concord

To cross-compile Concord, see the manual here.

Included dependencies

The following are stable and well documented dependencies that are packaged with Concord and can be included to your projects:

FileDescription
cog-utilsGeneral purpose functions aimed at portability
logmodA modular logging library
carray*Macro-based implementation of type-safe arrays
anomap*Sorted key/value storage for C99
oa_hashA lightweight open-addressing hashtable
json-buildTiny, zero-allocation JSON serializer
jsmn-findTiny, zero-allocation JSON tokenizer

* Concord uses its own modified version that may be not up to date with the original

Note that included headers must be concord/ prefixed:

#include <concord/discord.h>
#include <concord/logmod.h>

Standalone executable

GCC

$ gcc myBot.c -o myBot -pthread -ldiscord -lcurl

Clang

$ clang myBot.c -o myBot -pthread -ldiscord -lcurl

UNIX C compilers

This includes the following compilers:
  • IBM XL C/C++ (AIX, z/OS, IBM i)
  • Sun/Oracle Studio (Solaris)
  • IRIX MIPSpro C++ (IRIX) -- NOTE: currently not supported
  • HP aCC (HP-UX)
  • Compaq C (Tru64 UNIX) -- NOTE: also currently not supported Note: if you want to actually compile this on one of the systems listed above, please see the "Compiling on old computers" guide.
$ cc myBot.c -o myBot -ldiscord -lcurl -lpthread

Note: some systems such as Cygwin require you to do this:

$ gcc myBot.c -o myBot -pthread -lpthread -ldiscord -lcurl

(this links against libpthread.a in /usr/lib)

Support

Problems? Check out our Discord Server

Contributing

All kinds of contributions are welcome, all we ask is to abide to our guidelines! If you want to help but is unsure where to get started then our Discord API Roadmap is a good starting point. Check the following guides for more information on how to contribute: