Arborist

Discord forum archiver bot. Archives forum posts to a GitHub Pages static site.

How it works

A Python bot connects to Discord, watches configured forum channels, and mirrors every thread, message, and attachment to a local folder. Changes are committed and pushed to a GitHub repo's gh-pages branch, which GitHub Pages serves as a static site.

Setup

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/yourname/arborist.git
cd arborist

# 2. Install
uv sync

# 3. Configure
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Discord bot token, channel IDs, and GitHub repo

# 4. Run
uv run python -m bot.main

Discord bot setup

1. Go to https://discord.com/developers/applications
2. Create a new application → Bot → Add Bot
3. Enable Message Content Intent and Server Members Intent
4. Copy the token into .env
5. Invite bot with bot + application.commands scopes

Required env vars

Variable	Description
DISCORD_TOKEN	Bot token from Discord Developer Portal
CHANNEL_IDS	Comma-separated forum channel IDs to watch
GIT_REMOTE_URL	GitHub repo URL (https://...)
GIT_USER_NAME	Commit author name
GIT_USER_EMAIL	Commit author email

Optional env vars

Variable	Default	Description
OUTPUT_DIR	./output	Where archived content lives
GIT_BRANCH	gh-pages	Branch to push to

Commands

• /archive channel <id> — archive a specific channel (or all)
• /archive status — (planned) show archive status

Output structure

output/
├── index.html                 ← root: all channels
├── styles.css                 ← dark green Discord-like theme
├── attachments/
│   └── {channel_id}/
│       └── {attachment_id}/
│           └── {filename}
└── channels/
    └── {channel_id}/
        ├── index.html         ← channel: thread list
        └── {thread_id}/
            ├── index.html     ← thread: all messages
            └── {message_id}.md  ← raw markdown reference

Design

Dark theme, Discord-like layout, grassy green accent (#4ade80), faint green-black background (#0e100f).