General Improvements - (Export "hidden dms", export friends/blocked, export servers list)

[pcfreak30]

The following approaches were vibe coded (though I am a SWE, so im not running blind on it). I did a bit of poking to figure these out so im sharing back to help anyone else who wants to put in their own version.

The following is an AI summary.

I am posting now since I successfully grabbed all the private convo data that was available to me based on this effort.

Kudos.

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Server & Relationship Export

Commands Added

- export-servers [-o path] [--pretty]  # Exports all servers with metadata
- dump-friends [-o path] [--pretty]    # Dumps friends list to JSON
- dump-blocked [-o path] [--pretty]    # Dumps blocked users to JSON

API Endpoints Used

Endpoint	Method	Purpose
/users/@me/guilds	GET	Fetch all servers the user is in
/users/@me/relationships	GET	Fetch relationships (type=1=friends, type=2=blocked)

Approach

• Uses existing GetJsonResponseAsync with rate limiting via ResponseResiliencePipeline
• Server metadata includes: banner/splash URLs, member counts, permissions, owner status
• JSON serialization uses DefaultJsonTypeInfoResolver (.NET 10 requirement)

Files Added/Modified

• DiscordChatExporter.Core/Discord/Data/Guild.cs - Added metadata fields
• DiscordChatExporter.Core/Discord/Data/Relationship.cs - New data model
• DiscordChatExporter.Core/Discord/Data/RelationshipKind.cs - Enum (Friend, Blocked, etc.)
• DiscordChatExporter.Cli/Commands/ExportServersCommand.cs - New command
• DiscordChatExporter.Cli/Commands/DumpFriendsCommand.cs - New command
• DiscordChatExporter.Cli/Commands/DumpBlockedCommand.cs - New command
• DiscordChatExporter.Core/Discord/Data/Common/ImageCdn.cs - Added CDN URL helpers

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Hidden DM Discovery & Export

Commands Added/Enhanced

- discoverdm [--delete-after]                                    # List hidden DMs, optionally re-hide them
- exportdm [--skip-existing] [--discover-hidden] [--dry-run]    # Export all DMs including hidden ones

API Endpoints Used

Endpoint	Method	Purpose
/users/@me/channels	GET	Fetch visible DM channels
/users/@me/channels	POST	Silently open/create DM channel with recipient
/channels/{id}	DELETE	Delete/re-hide DM channel

Hidden DM Detection Algorithm

1. Get friends list via /users/@me/relationships (type=1)
2. Get visible DM channels via /users/@me/channels (GET)
3. For each friend missing from visible channels:
   • POST /users/@me/channels with {"recipient_id": "..."} → returns channel object
   • If last_message_id is not null → hidden DM with message history!
4. Optional re-hide: DELETE /channels/{id} to re-hide after access

Key Implementation Details

• Silent access: POST opens DM without touching the chat/alerting anyone (tested by user)
• Rate limiting: All new HTTP methods wrap requests in ResponseResiliencePipeline for automatic retries on rate limits (code 1015, 429)
• StringContent lifecycle: Content created at method level to prevent premature disposal that caused previous ObjectDisposedException
• Channel ID = Recipient ID: For 1-on-1 DMs, the channel.id equals the recipient.user.id (used for matching friends to DMs)

Code Organization

• HiddenDmDiscoveryHelper: Shared discovery logic reused by discoverdm and exportdm
• Dry-run mode: Queries friends + visible DMs without POSTing discovery
• Skip existing: Checks output directory for *.json files matching channel ID or name pattern

Files Added/Modified

• DiscordChatExporter.Cli/Commands/DiscoverDmsCommand.cs - New command
• DiscordChatExporter.Cli/Commands/Helpers/HiddenDmDiscoveryHelper.cs - Shared discovery utility
• DiscordChatExporter.Cli/Commands/ExportDirectMessagesCommand.cs - Enhanced with discovery support
• DiscordChatExporter.Core/Discord/DiscordClient.cs - Added POST/DELETE methods with rate limiting

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Discord Client API Methods Added

Method	Purpose
PostResponseAsync(url, content)	Generic POST with rate limiting
PostJsonResponseAsync(url, JsonElement)	POST JSON payload with rate limiting
CreateDirectMessageChannelAsync(recipientId)	POST to /users/@me/channels for hidden DMs
DeleteDirectMessageChannelAsync(channelId)	DELETE channels to re-hide

All methods use Polly resilience pipeline for automatic retry on rate limits and transient errors.

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Rate Limiting Strategy

The existing ResponseResiliencePipeline (defined in DiscordChatExporter.Core/Utils/Http.cs) handles:

• Automatic retry on rate limit errors (HTTP 429, 1015)
• Uses Retry-After header from Discord responses when available
• Exponential backoff with max 4 retry attempts for non-rate-limit errors
• Max 8 retry attempts for rate-limited responses

[raimiblack-design]

Ive been looking for a way to get all the hidden DMs. I am not much of a coder.. can you help me figure out how you to implement this?