Starting on Nov. 28, 2022, free Heroku dynos will no longer be available. This guide will still be relevant, but hosting your bot through Heroku will be a paid service.
Prerequisites
Create accounts for the following:
- Discord: https://discord.com/developers/applications/
- GitHub: https://github.com/join
- Heroku: https://signup.heroku.com/
Creating a Discord application and bot
Discord Developer Portal: https://discord.com/developers/applications/
- Create a new developer application using the 'New Application' button.
- Open up your application and create your bot using the 'Add Bot' button under the Bot settings.
- Make sure to use the 'Copy' button under Token to copy your bot token. Take note of your token as you will need it to connect to your bot.
Forking the repository and setting up Heroku
- Fork a copy of this repository using the 'Fork' button on GitHub.
- Create a Heroku application: https://dashboard.heroku.com/new-app?org=personal-apps
- Navigate to the 'Deploy' section and do the following:
- Under Deployment method, connect your GitHub account to Heroku.
- Use the search field to search for the forked repository to connect to your Heroku application.
- You can 'Enable Automatic Deploys' to automatically redeploy the application after every commit on GitHub.
Connecting your bot to Discord
- Navigate to the 'Settings' section and do the following:
- Under Config Vars, 'Reveal Config Vars' to reveal KEY and VALUE and enter the following:
- KEY: DISCORD_TOKEN
- VALUE: (Enter the bot token copied from the Discord Developer Portal)
- 'Add' your bot token to Config Vars.
- Under Config Vars, 'Reveal Config Vars' to reveal KEY and VALUE and enter the following:
- Navigate to the 'Resources' section and do the following:
- Switch on your worker by using the 'Pencil' icon and confirming your decision.
Note: You are given 550 free Dyno hours, which will not span the entire month; however, if you provide a credit card to verify your identity, you are given an additional 450 Dyno hours, which will allow your bot to run 24/7.This will no longer be applicable as of Nov. 28, 2022.