Concord

Concord is a feature-rich TUI (terminal user interface) client for Discord, written in Rust with ratatui. Full Discord experience, right in your terminal.

Table of contents

• Installation
• Features
• Configuration
• Performance
• FAQ
• Security
• Contributing
• License

Installation

Homebrew

brew install concord

Or with the tap for the latest version:

brew install chojs23/tap/concord

npm

npm install -g @chojs23/concord

You can also run Concord without a global install:

npx @chojs23/concord

The npm package installs a prebuilt binary from the GitHub Release artifacts.

Cargo

Install native dependencies first.

On macOS with Homebrew:

brew install opus pkg-config

On Fedora:

sudo dnf install opus-devel alsa-lib-devel pkgconf-pkg-config

On Debian or Ubuntu:

sudo apt install libopus-dev libasound2-dev pkg-config

cargo install concord --locked

To install without local voice playback and microphone support:

cargo install concord --locked --no-default-features

To install the latest unreleased version directly from the Git repository:

cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/chojs23/concord

Nix

Run without installing (requires flakes enabled):

nix run github:chojs23/concord

Install into your profile:

nix profile install github:chojs23/concord

Or add the flake as an input in your own flake.nix:

{
  inputs.concord.url = "github:chojs23/concord";
}

GitHub Release installer

Install the latest release with the cargo-dist shell installer:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/chojs23/concord/releases/latest/download/concord-installer.sh | sh

On Windows, use the PowerShell installer instead:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://github.com/chojs23/concord/releases/latest/download/concord-installer.ps1 | iex"

The installer places concord under $CARGO_HOME/bin, which is usually ~/.cargo/bin on Unix and %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin on Windows.

Build from source

You need the Rust stable toolchain, Cargo, and the native dependencies listed in the Cargo install section.

git clone https://github.com/chojs23/concord.git
cd concord
cargo build --release

The release binary is produced at:

target/release/concord

To build without local voice playback and microphone support, disable default features:

cargo build --release --no-default-features

On WSLg, audio is usually exposed through PulseAudio instead of a real ALSA sound card. If playback does not start, check that PulseAudio and ALSA routing work before debugging Discord voice itself:

pactl info
paplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
aplay -D pulse /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

Features

Authentication

• Token : paste an existing Discord token.
• Email / Password : login with credentials. MFA (TOTP, SMS) is fully supported.
• QR Code : scan the code from the Discord mobile app.

Email and QR code logins may trigger a CAPTCHA challenge on Discord's side. We cannot solve that, so I strongly recommend using token authentication.

By default, tokens are saved in the system keychain when available. In the default auto mode, Concord falls back to its state directory when keychain storage is unavailable. See the Security section below for details.

To sign out with the default keys, open your profile with Space, p, then choose [o] Sign out.

Guilds & Channels

• Browse servers with guild folder grouping
• Navigate text channels, threads, and forum channels
• View and filter forum posts (active / archived)
• Load pinned messages per channel
• Open channel actions for pinned messages, thread lists, and mark-as-read
• Join and leave voice channels
• Highlight active voice speakers in voice channel participant rows
• Track unread messages and mention counts per channel
• Mute and unmute channels and servers
• Leave the selected server after confirmation

Messaging

• Send, edit, and delete messages
• Upload / Download attachments
• Search messages with filters with /
• Use @mention autocomplete
• Use custom emoji from other servers when your account supports it
• Send custom emoji your account cannot use directly as image links when enabled
• View full message history
• Rich content display (embeds, attachments, stickers, and mentions)
• Detect URLs in message bodies and markdown links, then open them in your default browser
• Direct message shortcuts for copy, reply, edit, delete, reactions, URL opening, and image viewing. More message actions are available from the action menu.

Markdown Rendering & Code syntax highlighting

Concord renders a practical subset of Discord-style Markdown in message bodies:

• Headings: # H1, ## H2, ### H3
• Quotes: > quoted text
• Bullets: - item and * item
• Inline styles: **bold**, *italic*, and `inline code`
• Fenced code blocks with optional language labels, rendered as compact boxes with syntax highlighting
• Raw URLs and markdown link destinations are underlined and can be opened from message actions

Reactions & Polls

• View, add, and remove emoji reactions (Unicode and custom server emoji)
• Use custom emoji from other servers as reactions when your account supports it
• Browse who reacted with a specific emoji
• View and vote on polls

Media & Images

Image rendering is powered by ratatui-image. On startup, Concord queries the terminal to detect the best available graphics protocol. Supported protocols:

• Kitty Graphics Protocol - Kitty, WezTerm, Ghostty, etc.
• iTerm2 Inline Images - iTerm2, WezTerm, mintty, etc.
• Sixel - foot, mlterm, xterm (if compiled with Sixel support), etc.
• Halfblocks (fallback) - works on any terminal, but uses block characters instead of true pixels.

If your terminal does not support any graphics protocol, images will be rendered as halfblock approximations. For the best experience, use a terminal that supports the Kitty or iTerm2 protocol.

You can toggle image viewing on or off in the configuration file. When image viewing is off, attachments and emojis will be shown as text placeholders.

Video playback uses mpv. Make sure mpv is installed and in your PATH. YouTube playback depends on your local mpv setup, such as yt-dlp support.

Members & Profiles

• Member list with grouping
• Search members in server
• Presence indicators (Online, Idle, DND, Offline)
• Configure user profile and custom activity status

Typing Indicators & Read State

• Live "user is typing..." indicators
• Unread message tracking with mention counts
• Mark server, channel as read

Notifications

• Desktop notifications for Discord messages that pass your Discord notification settings
• Active channel notifications are suppressed so Concord does not notify for the conversation you are already viewing
• Voice join and leave notification sounds while you are connected to voice. You can keep the built-in tones or configure custom WAV files.

Navigation & Keyboard shortcuts

⚠️ Keymap action names and default bindings may have breaking changes between releases.

All default key settings in this section can be customized. See Keymap options for the config format and supported actions.

Concord has a four-pane. Guilds (1), Channels (2), Messages (3), Members (4)

With default vim-style navigation:

Ctrl+n and Ctrl+p are fixed row movement keys. The default j and k row movement keys are SelectNext and SelectPrevious and can be changed in keymap.toml.

Leader key

Press Space to open the leader shortcut window.

Action menus

Focus a pane, then press Space, a to open actions for that pane. Action shortcuts are shown inside the leader popup and only run when the action is enabled. In the Messages pane, the selected message also supports these direct shortcuts:

Message shortcuts:

Message action menu shortcuts:

When the attachment viewer is open, press x to play the current video attachment in an external player, or d to download the current attachment directly.

Server actions:

Channel actions:

Voice commands:

Composer

You can paste copied files into the composer to attach them. Pending uploads are shown above the input before sending.

Mention picker

When the @mention picker is open, use Up / Down, Ctrl+p / Ctrl+n, Tab, or Enter to choose a mention.

Emoji picker

Type : plus at least two letters, such as :he, to pick Unicode, server, or cross-server custom emoji while writing a message.

When emojis_as_links is enabled, custom emoji your account cannot send directly are inserted as Discord image links instead.

To react from the composer, select a message, enter insert mode, then type +:. The reaction picker opens for that message. Press / to search, Enter to lock the filter, then Enter again or use a shown shortcut to react.

Bot commands

When the composer input starts with a slash /, the command suggestion popup

Configuration

Concord options are stored under Concord's config directory. If XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, Concord uses config.toml for app options and keymap.toml for key settings. Otherwise it uses the platform config directory.

Local UI state and plaintext fallback credentials are stored under Concord's state directory instead. If XDG_STATE_HOME is set, Concord uses $XDG_STATE_HOME/concord/state.toml and $XDG_STATE_HOME/concord/credentials.toml. Otherwise it uses ~/.local/state/concord/state.toml and ~/.local/state/concord/credentials.toml.

You can change some configuration from the in-app Options menu, and Concord saves them back to config.toml. Key settings are read from keymap.toml.

[display]
# Master switch that hides all image previews when true.
disable_image_preview = false

# Show user avatars next to messages and in profile views.
show_avatars = true

# Render inline image previews for attachments and embeds.
show_images = true

# Preview quality: efficient, balanced, high, or original.
image_preview_quality = "balanced"

# Render custom Discord emoji as images when possible.
show_custom_emoji = true

# Crop avatars into circles instead of showing square images.
circular_avatars = false

[composer]
# Send custom emoji your account cannot use directly as image links.
emojis_as_links = false

[credentials]
# Credential storage: auto, keychain, or plain.
# auto tries the system keychain first and falls back to the state file.
store = "auto"

[notifications]
# Show desktop notifications for Discord messages that pass notification rules.
desktop_notifications = true

# Optional notification icon to include in notifications. May not work on all platforms.
# When unset, no icon is used. It must either be a name of an icon (typically in /usr/share/icons)
# or a path to an icon.
notification_icon = "/path/to/icon.svg"

# Optional WAV files for voice join and leave notification sounds.
# When unset, Concord uses built-in generated tones.
voice_join_sound = "/path/to/join.wav"
voice_leave_sound = "/path/to/leave.wav"

[voice]
# Join or update Discord voice with Concord self-muted.
self_mute = false

# Join or update Discord voice with Concord self-deafened.
self_deaf = false

# Allow microphone transmit while this session is joined and not self-muted.
allow_microphone_transmit = false

# Voice activity threshold in dB. Lower values transmit quieter input.
microphone_sensitivity = -30

# Microphone input volume percentage, from 0 to 100.
microphone_volume = 100

# Received voice playback volume percentage, from 0 to 100.
voice_output_volume = 100

image_preview_quality supports these values:

• efficient: smaller preview requests to reduce bandwidth and memory use.
• balanced: default quality with bounded resource use.
• high: sharper resized previews using lossless quality.
• original: request the original source image for previews when possible.

This setting only applies to attachment, embed, and attachment viewer previews. Avatars and custom emoji keep their separate small-image behavior.

credentials.store supports these values:

• auto: try the system keychain first, then fall back to the state-file credential store.
• keychain: use only the system keychain. If keychain storage is unavailable, the token is not saved.
• plain: use only the plain-text state-file credential store.

[keymap]
leader = "space"
StartComposer = "i"
OpenPaneFilter = "/"
ClosePopup = "q"
FocusGuildPane = "1"
FocusChannelPane = "2"
FocusMessagePane = "3"
FocusMemberPane = "4"
SelectNext = "j"
SelectPrevious = "k"
CycleFocusNext = { keys = ["tab", "l", "right"] }
CycleFocusPrevious = { keys = ["<S-tab>", "h", "left"] }
HalfPageDown = "<C-d>"
HalfPageUp = "<C-u>"
ScrollViewportDown = "J"
ScrollViewportUp = "K"
JumpTop = "gg"
JumpBottom = "G"
ScrollHorizontalLeft = "H"
ScrollHorizontalRight = "L"
ResizePaneLeft = { keys = ["<A-h>", "<A-left>"] }
ResizePaneRight = { keys = ["<A-l>", "<A-right>"] }
Quit = "q"
CopyMessage = "y"
ReactMessage = "r"
ReplyMessage = "R"
DeleteMessage = "d"
EditMessage = "e"
OpenMessageUrl = "o"
PlayMedia = "x"
ViewMessageAttachment = "v"
ToggleGuildPane = "<leader>1"
ToggleChannelPane = "<leader>2"
ToggleMemberPane = "<leader>4"
OpenFocusedPaneAction = "<leader>a"
OpenCurrentUserProfile = "<leader>p"
OpenOptions = "<leader>o"
ChannelSwitcher = "<leader><leader>"
VoiceDeafen = "<leader>vd"
VoiceMute = "<leader>vm"
VoiceLeave = "<leader>vl"

[keymap.groups]
"<leader>v" = "Voice"

[keymap.guild_actions]
MarkAsRead = "m"
MuteServer = "u"
LeaveServer = "l"
RenameFolder = "r"

[keymap.channel_actions]
JoinVoice = "j"
LeaveVoice = "l"
ShowPinnedMessages = "p"
ShowThreads = "t"
MarkAsRead = "m"
MuteChannel = "u"

[keymap.message_actions]
CopyMessage = "y"
ReactMessage = "r"
ReplyMessage = "R"
DeleteMessage = "d"
EditMessage = "e"
OpenMessageUrl = "o"
RemoveMessageEmbeds = "D"
PlayMedia = "x"
ViewMessageAttachment = "v"
GoToReferencedMessage = "g"
ShowMessageProfile = "p"
PinMessage = "P"
OpenThread = "t"
ShowReactionUsers = "u"
OpenPollVotePicker = "c"

[keymap.member_actions]
ShowProfile = "p"

[keymap.composer]
OpenEditor = "<C-e>"
PasteClipboard = "<C-v>"
InsertNewline = { keys = ["<C-j>", "<S-enter>", "<C-enter>", "<A-enter>"] }
Submit = "enter"
Close = "esc"
ClearInput = "<C-c>"
RemoveLastAttachment = "delete"
DeletePreviousChar = "backspace"
DeletePreviousWord = { keys = ["<A-backspace>", "<C-backspace>", "<C-w>"] }
MoveCursorUp = "up"
MoveCursorDown = "down"
MoveCursorWordLeft = "<C-left>"
MoveCursorLeft = "left"
MoveCursorWordRight = "<C-right>"
MoveCursorRight = "right"
MoveCursorHome = "home"
MoveCursorEnd = "end"

You can customize key bindings. Check the Keymap options for the config format, supported actions.

Performance

Concord is designed to stay lightweight in normal terminal use. In observed typical use, it usually uses about 20-40 MB of memory.

Image-heavy screens can temporarily use more memory because compressed image bytes need to be decoded before they can be rendered in the terminal. When many images are loaded, memory can briefly rise to around 100-200 MB while decoding and then drop again as work completes and caches are pruned.

To keep resource usage bounded, Concord limits media work in several places:

• Attachment previews are downloaded with an 8 MiB per-preview cap.
• Up to 4 attachment previews are fetched at once.
• Up to 2 inline image previews are decoded at once.
• Inline image previews, avatars, and custom emoji use small LRU caches.
• Image preview requests prefer resized Discord proxy URLs sized for the terminal instead of original full-size media when possible.
• The preview quality preset can lower preview source dimensions or opt into original source images. It does not change avatar or custom emoji sizing.

Message history is also cached with a per-channel limit, so long-running sessions do not keep every message in memory forever.

FAQ

Can my account be blocked?

Honestly, no.

There are some path that did trigger a account block:

• Trying to create a new DM channel and send a message to an unknown user(meaning there was no pre-existing DM created through the Discord client) can immediately block your account temporarily.
• Some features that requires a hCapcha challenge on Discord's side.

Other features have not caused blocks in my testing.

That said, Concord is not an official Discord client. Using unofficial clients, automated user accounts, or self-bots can violate Discord's TOS, so there is always some risk. Use it at your own discretion.

Does Concord support CAPTCHA?

No. If Discord requires a CAPTCHA during login, use token login instead.

Security

• By default, tokens are stored in the system keychain when available.
• On Linux, keychain storage uses Secret Service when a compatible service is available.
• In credentials.store = "auto", Concord falls back to plain text credentials under Concord's state directory when keychain storage is unavailable. In keychain mode, Concord does not fall back to plain storage. Keep fallback credential files secure and do not share them. You can use a token from that file to log in to the official Discord client, so treat it like a password.
• On Unix, the fallback credential's parent directory is created with 0700 and the credential file with 0600 permissions.

Contributing

Any issues, pull requests, and feedback are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

License

Concord is licensed under GPL-3.0-only.