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setting up your bot

this is a step-by-step guide for setting up a discord bot using this repo.

install python

python comes pre-installed on mac and most linux distributions, but the pre-installed version is often somewhat dated. it's recommended to ensure you're running an up-to-date version of python

windows | mac

go to python.org/downloads and download the version for your system. use the default settings save for one exception: on windows, be sure to check the Add Python to PATH option during installation
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*nix

# debian / ubuntu / linux mint
sudo apt install python3

# fedora
sudo dnf install python3

# redhat / rhel / centos
sudo yum install python

install pycord

pycord is the most recent, actively updated python discord library. install it with pip:

pip install py-cord

or for voice channel support:

pip install py-cord[voice]

download the code

on the main repo page, click the Code button and select "Download ZIP". once the download completes, unzip the archive

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alternative: replit

replit.com is essentially a cloud based IDE. through it, you can copy the project, edit it, and run the code all from your webbrowser. if you'd prefer to run the bot on your own computer, feel free to skip this section. to use replit, follow these steps:

  1. follow the below instructions to get a bot token
  2. create a replit account
  3. visit the bot's replit
  4. click the Fork repl button
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  5. on the left side of your new replit, go to the Secrets tab
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  6. add a new "secret" with the name BOT_TOKEN and paste your bot token for the value
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  7. click Run!

caveat

replit.com doesn't allow you to run programs long-term without a paid subscription. if you want to leave the bot running, you'll have to set up python and run it on your personal computer

get a bot token

1. go to the discord developer portal

visit the discord developer portal:
https://discordapp.com/developers/applications/

this portal shows you all of your apps and bots. if you've already created a bot, click it in the list and skip to step 4. if you don't have one yet, click the New Application button

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2. name your bot

after clicking the New Application button, you'll be asked to create a name for your bot. once you've entered the name, click Create

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3. icon and description

all that's left is to create an icon and description! the recommended size is 1024x1024, but you can use lower resolution images and still achieve good quality results

iconfinder has a huge collection of free awesome icons:
iconfinder.com/free_icons

once you've added an icon and added a description, click Save Changes!

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the remaining options can be ignored unless you intend to post your bot on a website like discordbotlist.com for the general public to use

4. retrieve your token

next we need to get a token that we can use in our code to login as our bot. NEVER share this token with anyone. it's not only against the discord terms; they can use it to log in to your bot's account and destroy the world.

head over to the Bot section in the left menu bar and then click the Add Bot button

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if it was successful, you'll see the message "A wild bot has appeared!"

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you can now grab your bot token! under the Build-A-Bot section, click the link that reads "Click to Reveal Token"

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add the token to your code

copy the token and then head to your code. in the root folder, you should see a file named settings-example.py. rename this file to settings.py and open it in the editor of your choice. you should see a line that reads:

#token = 'YOUR BOT TOKEN HERE'

uncomment the line by deleting the # in the beginning and then replace the text with your bot token, e.g.:

token = 'abc123def456'

the settings.py file is listed in the gitignore, so you can safely add your token to this file and share your code with others via github 🙂

token environment variable

optionally, you can also set your bot token using the BOT_TOKEN environment variable. many IDE's will allow you to set specific environment variables when running code, replit allows you to set environment variables in the Secrets tab in the left hand menu bar, and on mac/linux you can set an environment variable when running a program like so:

BOT_TOKEN="abc123def456" python bot.py

this is the preferred method over using the settings.py file if you're running the bot on replit.com or if you're using a shared computer where you don't feel comfortable saving the token in a file

set your bot prefix

in the settings.py, you should see the line:

prefix = ['BOT PREFIX']

edit the line and add your bot prefix in the strings:

prefix = ['!']

optionally, you can add multiple prefixes if you want multiple options with how you run commands:

prefix = ['!', ':', '.']

run the bot!

you're ready to run it! at this point, you can open up a command prompt (cmd on windows, terminal on mac) and run:

cd path/to/bot/folder/
python3 bot.py

if you don't know what to put for path/to/bot/folder/, you can just drag and drop the bot folder from your desktop onto the terminal after typing cd (with a space after cd)

add some commands

and be sure to add some commands 🙂 this bot implementation uses cogs, a method of writing commands that involves separating them into separate files in a specific folder. in this project, that's the cogs/ folder. each cog follows the following structure:

import discord
from discord.ext import commands

# You can change 'Fun' to anything.
class Fun(commands.Cog):
    def __init__(self, client):
        self.client = client

    @commands.command()
    async def hello(self, ctx):
        """make the bot say hello"""
        await ctx.send("hello")

def setup(client):
    client.add_cog(Fun(client))

Fun can be anything you choose but should describe the category of commands included in the file. for each command itself, the function name (in this case def hello() defines the command name. the text inside of the"""triple quotes""" is the syntax python uses for documenting functions & classes, and it's used to set the help text for your bot's commands.

there are several example cogs provided, and there are a plethora of cogs you can find on google and github! search discord.py bot cogs to find more examples for inspiration and guidance with your own bot commands. happy coding!

resources

py-cord python discord library:
https://docs.pycord.dev/en/master/api.html
https://github.com/Pycord-Development/pycord

more example cogs:
advanced help command: gist/1c7060a14a9d94e7929aa2ef14c41bc2
miscellaneous cogs: gist/d78c061a4798ae81be9825468fe146be