Template for a Python Discord Bot:

A simple template or startingpoint for Discord bot which uses discord.py to interact with Discord services.

Quickstart

1. Clone the repo.

2. Create a copy of .env.template for configuration:

cp .env.template .env

3. Create an application with a bot at https://discordapp.com/developers/applications,

4. Add your bot's token to your .env file:

DISCORD_TOKEN=<your-token-here>

5. Generate an OAuth2 invite-URL and use it to invite the bot to your server (https://discordapp.com/developers/applications >> [your application] >> [OAuth2] >> [URL Generator])

The bot needs the following permissions:

• Send Messages

6. Start the bot python bot.py

Installation

Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/jonascj/python-discord-bot-template.git

or download files in some other manner from the repo.

Install dependencies

pip install -r reqs.txt

or

pip install discord.py python-dotenv

Create an .env file for configuration

Make a copy of .env.template called .env:

cp .env.template .env

This is the configuration for the bot

Create a Discord application

Go to https://discordapp.com/developers/applications, login with an discordapp.com user and follow the steps as indicated in the screenshot below:

Add a bot to the application

Bot token

Obtain your bots security token and place it in your local .env file:

DISCORD_TOKEN=<your-token-here>

Important! Keep this token secret. Anyone who knows the token can impersonate your bot/application with the consequences falling back on your account (since Discord will think it is you, with your token).

1. Reset your bot's token to obtain a new one. The original one created (upon bot creation) is not visible to me (bug in discord.com user interface?).

2. Copy the token displayed (either manually or using the [Copy] button).

If you misplace your token you can not view it again, you will have to create a new again.

If you create a new token again (by pressing [Reset Token]) your bot will not be able to run (join servers/guilds) before you update your .env file with the new token.

Priveleged Intents

For the bot to be able to read messages (and hence respond to commands typed in messages) you need to enable the MESSAGE CONTENT INTENT:

OAuth2 URL

Obtain an OAuth2 URL used to invite your bot to a server / guild.

Follow the steps as indicated in the screenshot below:

In step 4 you need to select the following permissions:

• Send Messages
• Read Messages/View Channels

Invite your bot to your server/guild

1. Visit the copied OAuth2 URL (https://discordapp.com/api/oauth2/auth...) in your browser.

2. Login the user account used to create your guild/server and select the server you wish to add the bot to.

If you login as a user which has created no servers and does not have Manage Server permission on any other servers the Select a server dropdown menu will be empty.

Start the bot

Finally start the Python bot:

python bot.py

You should now see your bot join your server.
Test it by sending a message !hello or !yo.

The bot is only connected to the server as long as this Python process is running. To have a permanent persence on your discord server the bot should be run on a machine which is always on.