Claude Remote Sessions

Claude Remote Sessions

Each Discord channel or thread maps to its own independent Claude Code session running in a tmux pane. Discord messaging is handled natively by the MCP plugin inside each session. A watchdog daemon keeps sessions alive and auto-discovers new channels/threads.

Prerequisites

• Claude Code with --channels support (v2.1.80+)
• Discord bot configured: /discord:configure <token>
• tmux installed
• Discord bot invited to your server with permissions: View Channels, Send Messages, Read History, Attach Files, Add Reactions, Manage Channels, Create Threads

Setup

1. Configure environment

Create ~/.claude/discord-sessions/config.env:

# Required
DISCORD_ALLOWED_USER_ID="your-discord-user-id"
DISCORD_GUILD_ID="your-guild-server-id"

# Optional (defaults shown)
DISCORD_SESSION_WORKDIR="$HOME"          # Default workdir for new sessions
DISCORD_WATCHDOG_INTERVAL=30             # Respawn check frequency (seconds)
DISCORD_DISCOVER_INTERVAL=60             # Channel/thread discovery frequency (seconds)
DISCORD_CLEANUP_INTERVAL=300             # Stale session cleanup frequency (seconds)

Find your user ID: Discord Settings → Advanced → Enable Developer Mode → right-click your name → Copy User ID. Find your guild ID: Right-click your server name → Copy Server ID.

2. Install scripts

Copy scripts to your project:

cp scripts/discord-session-manager.sh ~/your-project/scripts/
cp scripts/discord-watchdog.sh ~/your-project/scripts/
chmod +x ~/your-project/scripts/discord-session-manager.sh
chmod +x ~/your-project/scripts/discord-watchdog.sh

3. Start

# Discover all channels + threads and spawn sessions
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh discover-all

# Start the watchdog (auto-respawn + auto-discover every 60s)
./scripts/discord-watchdog.sh --daemon

Session Manager

Script: scripts/discord-session-manager.sh

Spawn

# Channel session
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh spawn <channel_id> --name <label> [--workdir <path>]

# Thread session (fetches last 20 parent messages as context)
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh spawn-thread <thread_id> <parent_id> [--name <label>] [--workdir <path>]

# Fresh session — resets conversation history for a channel
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh spawn <channel_id> --name <label> --fresh

Default workdir comes from config.env. Override per-session with --workdir to scope a session to a specific project — it loads that project's CLAUDE.md chain automatically.

Each session gets:

• A tmux session dc-<id> running Claude Code with --channels discord
• A deterministic --session-id (UUID v5 derived from the channel ID) so conversation history persists across watchdog respawns
• A per-channel DISCORD_STATE_DIR with scoped access.json
• A persisted .session-id file in the state directory
• A registry entry in sessions.json

Auto-Discovery

./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh discover           # new channels
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh discover-threads    # new threads with parent context
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh discover-all        # both

The watchdog runs discover-all every 60 seconds. Create a channel or thread on Discord → a session spawns automatically.

Create a Channel

./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh create-channel <name>

Creates the Discord channel via API AND spawns its session.

Stale Session Cleanup

./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh cleanup-stale

Checks each registered session against the Discord API. Kills and deregisters sessions whose channel has been deleted (HTTP 404) or whose thread has been archived (thread_metadata.archived: true). The watchdog runs this automatically every 5 minutes (configurable via DISCORD_CLEANUP_INTERVAL).

Manage

./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh list           # UP/DOWN status
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh status          # overview
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh attach <id>     # attach to tmux session
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh kill <id>       # kill and deregister
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh kill-all        # kill everything

Watchdog Daemon

Script: scripts/discord-watchdog.sh

./scripts/discord-watchdog.sh --daemon    # start in tmux: dc-watchdog
./scripts/discord-watchdog.sh --stop      # stop
./scripts/discord-watchdog.sh --status    # check if running

Every 30s: respawns dead sessions. Every 60s: discovers new channels and threads. Every 5m: cleans up stale sessions (deleted channels, archived threads).

Boot Persistence (macOS)

See references/launchd.md for a launchd plist template that starts the watchdog on login.

Session Persistence

Sessions survive watchdog respawns by using Claude Code's --session-id flag. When a session is spawned, a deterministic UUID v5 is generated from a fixed namespace and the channel/thread ID. This means:

• Same channel = same session ID — the conversation resumes where it left off after a crash or respawn.
• The UUID is persisted to $SESSIONS_DIR/<channel_id>/.session-id so respawn-dead reads it back and passes it to the new claude process.
• Use --fresh when spawning to generate a random UUID v4 instead, resetting the conversation history for that channel.

How it works

1. spawn / spawn-thread calls _generate_session_id(channel_id) which produces a deterministic UUID v5 via python3 -c "uuid.uuid5(namespace, channel_id)".
2. The UUID is saved to <state_dir>/.session-id and passed as --session-id <uuid> to the claude command.
3. When the watchdog calls respawn-dead, the persisted UUID is read from .session-id and passed back to _spawn_tmux, so claude resumes the same conversation.
4. --fresh overrides this with a new random UUID v4, giving the channel a clean slate.

Thread Detection (In-Session)

When a session receives a message where chat_id differs from its assigned channel, it is a thread message. The session should:

1. Check if a session exists: ./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh list
2. If not, spawn one: ./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh spawn-thread <chat_id> <channel_id>
3. Reply acknowledging the handoff

In practice, the watchdog handles this automatically via discover-threads.

Channel-to-Workdir Mapping

By default, all sessions use the DISCORD_SESSION_WORKDIR from config.env. To assign different project directories to specific channels, create a mapping file:

File: ~/.claude/discord-sessions/workdir-map.json

{
  "general": "$HOME/myproject",
  "health-os": "$HOME/myproject/apps/healthOS",
  "life": "$HOME/myproject/core/life",
  "design-system": "$HOME/myproject/apps/arcan-glass"
}

How it works:

• When discover or discover-threads spawns a new session, it looks up the channel/thread name in workdir-map.json.
• If a match is found, the session starts in that directory (with that project's CLAUDE.md chain).
• If no match is found, the default DISCORD_SESSION_WORKDIR is used.
• If the file does not exist, everything works as before — the feature is fully optional.
• Environment variables in paths (like $HOME) are expanded automatically.

You can also use --workdir on individual spawn / spawn-thread commands to override the mapping for a single session.

Tip: After updating workdir-map.json, run kill-all then discover-all to re-spawn all sessions with the new workdir assignments. Existing sessions are not affected until they are killed and re-spawned.

Slash Commands

The slash command daemon provides Discord-native /command interaction for managing sessions without leaving the chat interface.

Starting the Daemon

The watchdog automatically manages the slash daemon. When the watchdog runs, it checks for the dc-slash-daemon tmux session and spawns it if missing.

# Manual start (standalone)
cd scripts && bun discord-slash-daemon.ts

# Or let the watchdog handle it
./scripts/discord-watchdog.sh --daemon

Available Commands

Autocomplete

The /session workdir command supports autocomplete. It reads entries from ~/.claude/discord-sessions/workdir-map.json and suggests matching paths as the user types.

Skills Install + Refresh

/skills install <name> sends the install command directly to the tmux session. After installation completes, use /session refresh to kill and respawn the session so it picks up the newly installed skill.

Registering Commands

Commands are registered automatically when the daemon starts. To register or update commands without running the full daemon:

bun scripts/register-slash-commands.ts           # Register/update commands
bun scripts/register-slash-commands.ts --clear    # Remove all guild commands

Adding Custom Commands

1. Add the command definition to the SLASH_COMMANDS array in discord-slash-daemon.ts
2. Add a handler function (handleYourCommand)
3. Add the routing case in handleInteraction
4. Run bun scripts/register-slash-commands.ts to update Discord
5. Restart the daemon (or let the watchdog cycle pick it up)

Prerequisites

The daemon requires:

• bun runtime
• discord.js v14 (install: cd scripts && bun install)
• Bot token at ~/.claude/channels/discord/.env
• Guild ID in ~/.claude/discord-sessions/config.env
• The bot must have the applications.commands scope in the guild

Troubleshooting

Sessions crash immediately after account switch

Symptom: After logging into a new Claude account (claude login), sessions spawn but immediately die. Only the first session survives; all subsequent ones exit silently.

Cause: Stale .session-id files from the previous account. Claude Code's --session-id flag tries to resume a conversation that doesn't exist under the new account, causing the process to exit.

Fix:

# 1. Kill all sessions
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh kill-all

# 2. Clear stale session IDs
for d in ~/.claude/discord-sessions/*/; do rm -f "$d/.session-id"; done

# 3. Clear session state
echo '{}' > ~/.claude/discord-sessions/sessions.json

# 4. Update OAuth token in config.env (if using CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN)
# Edit ~/.claude/discord-sessions/config.env with your new token

# 5. Respawn all sessions
./scripts/discord-session-manager.sh discover-all

Sessions start but Discord messages don't arrive

Symptom: Sessions show the Claude Code TUI prompt but no "Listening for channel messages from: plugin:discord" banner.

Cause: The --channels plugin:discord@claude-plugins-official flag is missing from the spawn command. The Discord plugin MCP server only connects when launched with --channels.

Fix: Ensure the session manager includes --channels in the claude command. The flag is required even though the plugin is installed globally.

"You're out of extra usage" rate limit

Symptom: Session shows a rate-limit prompt with options to wait, switch to extra usage, or upgrade.

Fix: Use /session send 2 from Discord to select "Switch to extra usage", or /session send 1 to wait for reset.

Architecture

Discord #general   →  tmux: dc-<a>  →  Claude Code (workdir A, CLAUDE.md chain A)
Discord #project-x →  tmux: dc-<b>  →  Claude Code (workdir B, CLAUDE.md chain B)
Thread: "design"   →  tmux: dc-<c>  →  Claude Code (parent context injected)
                      dc-watchdog    →  Respawns dead + discovers new + cleans stale
                      dc-slash-daemon → Handles /session, /skills, /ask, /discover