Exploring Discord APIs

As usual, I was quite bored and nearly on the verge of doomsday scrolling — let’s be candid, I was already scrolling like a maniac — when I came across some shorts on YouTube with the caption, “Here’s how to build your own Discord bot in under 10 minutes.” Me being me, I thought, “How hard can it be?” Lo and behold, I found a cure for my boredom.

It turned out to be quite simple indeed. Just go over to the https://discord.com/developers/docs/getting-started which is just discord for developers and before that make sure to enable developer mode on your discord profile and then log in to the portal and get started with making apps.

First, create a new application by clicking “New Application,” give it a name, and click “Create.” In the application settings, go to the “Bot” section, click “Add Bot,” and confirm to create a bot user. Take note of the token provided for your bot, as this token is used to authenticate your bot with the Discord API.

Next, set up your development environment by choosing a programming language — popular choices include JavaScript/TypeScript with Node.js or Python. For JavaScript, you might use the discord.js library, while for Python, discord.py is a common choice. Write code to handle events and commands. For example, in JavaScript using discord.js, you can write a simple bot that responds to a ping command. Similarly, in Python using discord.py, you can achieve the same functionality.

Once your bot code is ready, generate an OAuth2 URL to invite your bot to your server from the “OAuth2” section in the Developer Portal. Select the “bot” scope and assign the necessary permissions. Use the generated URL to invite the bot to a server you manage. Finally, execute your bot’s code to start the bot. It will connect to Discord and start responding to events and commands as programmed.

For instance, I made my bot, Seth, perform several tasks that greatly enhanced the experience on my server. Seth can engage in a decent conversation, suggest random songs, quotes, and jokes, and even display the profile picture (PFP) of the user who interacts with him. Additionally, Seth can join and leave voice channels (VC) on command, although he is currently unable to play any audio. I plan to resolve this issue at the earliest and also explore the possibility of Seth playing basic games (maybe or maybe not depends on how bored i am feeling). These functionalities not only made the server more interactive but also showcased the versatility of what you can achieve with Discord’s API. By using the Discord API, you can make your bot perform a wide variety of tasks, such as moderating channels, playing music, fetching data from external APIs, and much more. The possibilities are endless and only limited by your imagination and coding skills.