Create Discord Bot

Create Discord bots using a simple widget-based framework.

Table of contents

• Getting started
  • Create bot
  • Create application
• Documentation
  • Updating
  • Command widget
  • Widget conventions
• Widgets
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing

Getting started

Create bot

1. Go to Discord's Developer Portal.

2. Create a new application.

3. Go to the bot tab and add a bot user to your application.

   Take note of the bot token on this page—you will need it in the next section.

   Keep your token and any file containing it private. If it ever leaks or you suspect it may have leaked, simply regenerate a new token to invalidate your compromised token.

4. In the bot tab, scroll down to the Privileged Gateway Intents section and enable the toggles for both Presence Intent and Server Members Intent. More details on Gateway Intents can be found here:

   • Gateway Update FAQ
   • Privileged Intents

Create application

npx peterthehan/create-discord-bot

Follow the instructions given by the utility. Once the bot is running, verify the setup is working by sending the .ping command on Discord. If there are issues, check Troubleshooting for tips.

You're ready to create your own Discord bot! 🎉

Documentation

Updating

Update your core bot files to the latest version in this project by running npx peterthehan/create-discord-bot and entering the same name as your existing Discord bot when asked for the application name. This will update:

• src/index.js
• src/core/

Command widget

create-discord-bot includes a command widget. Follow the design of the ping command to start building your own commands.

Widget conventions

• All widgets must live under the src/widgets/ folder.
• All widgets must have a handlers folder.
• A handlers folder can only contain event handler files.
• All event handler files must be named exactly the same as the events found on the Client page.

An example file tree diagram of these requirements may look like:

src/
  widgets/
    command/
      handlers/
        ready.js
        message.js
    widget1/
      handlers/
        messageReactionAdd.js
        messageUpdate.js
        other event handlers
    widget2/
      handlers/
        typingStart.js
        userUpdate.js
        other event handlers

Widgets

The following widgets can be used by this framework by adding them into the src/widgets/ folder:

• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-active-role-bot
• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-audit-log-bot
• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-birthday-role-bot
• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-cron-bot
• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-emoji-log-bot
• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-reaction-role-bot
• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-starboard-bot
• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-superactive-role-bot
• https://github.com/peterthehan/discord-twitter-bot

Troubleshooting

• Remove bots that may conflict in functionality, e.g. multiple reaction role bots.
• Use Git Bash instead of the Command Prompt (cmd.exe) if you are on Windows.
• npm -v to check if your npm version supports npx (v5.2+).
• node -v to check if you have the latest LTS version of Node.js (v12+).
• npm install if running the application outputs Error: Cannot find module '...'.

Visit for more help or information!

Contributing

Read the Contributing documentation to get started!