---
title: Special Discord Edition
id: 987
html_url: "https://acmcsuf.com/blog/987"
discussion_url: "https://github.com/EthanThatOneKid/acmcsuf.com/discussions/987"
author: "EthanThatOneKid (https://github.com/EthanThatOneKid)"
labels: []
created: "2023-11-30T23:46:45.000Z"
edited: "2024-03-22T03:20:06.000Z"
---
Special Discord Edition
=======================
SPECIAL DISCORD EDITION
Open Source Software team Special Discord Edition artwork for acmcsuf.com/special-discord-edition
[https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/31261035/285294884-d99ab5c2-73dd-4d4a-9ea6-ca74de353726.png?jwt=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJnaXRodWIuY29tIiwiYXVkIjoicmF3LmdpdGh1YnVzZXJjb250ZW50LmNvbSIsImtleSI6ImtleTUiLCJleHAiOjE3MjY0ODEyNDksIm5iZiI6MTcyNjQ4MDk0OSwicGF0aCI6Ii8zMTI2MTAzNS8yODUyOTQ4ODQtZDk5YWI1YzItNzNkZC00ZDRhLTllYTYtY2E3NGRlMzUzNzI2LnBuZz9YLUFtei1BbGdvcml0aG09QVdTNC1ITUFDLVNIQTI1NiZYLUFtei1DcmVkZW50aWFsPUFLSUFWQ09EWUxTQTUzUFFLNFpBJTJGMjAyNDA5MTYlMkZ1cy1lYXN0LTElMkZzMyUyRmF3czRfcmVxdWVzdCZYLUFtei1EYXRlPTIwMjQwOTE2VDEwMDIyOVomWC1BbXotRXhwaXJlcz0zMDAmWC1BbXotU2lnbmF0dXJlPTFkMzg0OGMyYmQyODAyYmM2NWY5NjY2N2Q1NGVlYWYwOWYwYWRhNGI2MzEwYWRlYmVhYzM1YWUxOTQ5YWVlYmEmWC1BbXotU2lnbmVkSGVhZGVycz1ob3N0JmFjdG9yX2lkPTAma2V5X2lkPTAmcmVwb19pZD0wIn0._WgmK1vnLMMbu9tahLY1RwEKOVDYEMNIc40RtnvGeJo]https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IOaUTnV37v2ovIG2yx69CgK8dlXMgTIJt0tYYX_LEDE/edit?usp=sharing
Self link: https://acmcsuf.com/special-discord-edition/
[https://acmcsuf.com/special-discord-edition/]
Created: Nov 29th, 2023
This special edition of the mini-workshop series serves as a reference for
building projects utilizing Discord API concepts. Designed as a handbook, this
blog post is tailored to guide you in deploying your project to operate beyond a
local environment, ensuring it remains functional even when your computer is
offline.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
* Discord API: An introduction to the Discord API.
* Questions to ask yourself: Questions to ask
yourself to help you decide what you need to build your Discord project.
* Websocket server versus interaction server versus webhook:
A table summarizing the differences between the three types of Discord
projects.
* Example projects: Example projects to reference when
building your Discord project.
* Conclusion
DISCORD API
This section serves as an introduction to the Discord API.
Note
The content of this blog post is not meant to be totally comprehensive. Please
reference Discord's official
API Reference [https://discord.com/developers/docs/reference] documentation
for more information.
DISCORD API CONCEPTS
Vocabulary Official Discord API Reference URL Application command
https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#application-commands
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#application-commands] Chat
input command https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#slash-commands
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#slash-commands] Chat input
autocomplete https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#autocomplete
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#autocomplete] Message command
https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#message-commands
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#message-commands] User
command https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#user-commands
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/application-commands#user-commands] Webhook
https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/webhook#webhook-resource
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/webhook#webhook-resource] Message component
https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/message-components
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/message-components] Modal
https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/receiving-and-responding#interaction-response-object-modal
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/interactions/receiving-and-responding#interaction-response-object-modal]
Grants https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/oauth2#state-and-security
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/oauth2#state-and-security]
DISCORD CREDENTIALS
In order to use the Discord API, you need to
create a new Discord application [https://discord.com/developers/applications]
which contains the credentials necessary to authenticate your project with
Discord.
Credential type Keep safe Description Client ID Public A.k.a application ID. Used to identify your
application to Discord. Client secret Private Used to authenticate client ID. Public key Public Used
to verify incoming Discord interactions. Bot token Private Used to authenticate a Discord
application bot, which represents an automated user.
SCOPES, PERMISSIONS, AND INTENTS
> OAuth2 Scopes [https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/oauth2#shared-resources-oauth2-scopes]
> determine what data access and actions your app can take, granted on behalf of
> an installing or authenticating user.
>
> Permissions [https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/permissions#permissions]
> are the granular permissions for your bot user, the same as other users in
> Discord have. They can be approved by the installing user or later updated
> within server settings or with
> permission overwrites
> [https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/permissions#permission-overwrites].
>
> Intents determine which events Discord will send your app when you're creating
> a
> Gateway API connection [https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/gateway].
> For example, if you want your app to do something when users add a reaction to
> a message, you can pass the GUILD_MESSAGE_REACTIONS (1 << 10) intent.
>
> Some intents are
> privileged [https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/gateway#privileged-intents],
> meaning they allow your app to access data that may be considered sensitive
> (like the contents of messages). Privileged intents appear and can be toggled
> on the Bot page in your app's settings. Standard, non-privileged intents don't
> require any additional permissions or configurations. More information about
> intents and a full list of available intents, along with their associated
> events, is in the
> Gateway documentation [https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/gateway#gateway-intents].
Edit your application's invite URL to specify the scopes and permissions your
application needs. See Discord's documentation on
creating an invite
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/oauth2#shared-resources-oauth2-scopes]
for more information.
From your Discord application's dashboard, you can build an invite URL with the
scopes and permissions you need.
Discord application dashboard OAuth2 URL generator screenshot
[https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/31261035/286751122-fe499311-a69e-4e64-b9b4-24f2e08e53fb.png?jwt=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.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.RcebWADIKviN23Yd16l0vF8ESF023GhpNupCCAvf9Es]https://discord.com/developers/applications
* From your
Discord applications dashboard [https://discord.com/developers/applications],
click on your application.
* Click on the "OAuth2" tab.
* Under "OAuth2 URL Generator", select the permissions you need.
* Copy the generated URL.
* Paste the generated URL into your browser's address bar and invite the bot to
your server.
Update the privileges of your application's bot to specify the intents that your
application needs as needed.
Discord application dashboard intents screenshot
[https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/31261035/286751006-822804e3-e6a3-44cd-a0a7-e3b2dc3d7d1d.png?jwt=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.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.bAr8kPaRkhmfq_-jdboeCuDwKPJf_0nljMUe56MxsWk]https://discord.com/developers/applications
* From your
Discord applications dashboard [https://discord.com/developers/applications],
click on your application.
* Click on the "Bot" tab.
* Under "Privileged Gateway Intents", select the intents you need.
* Click on the "Save Changes" button.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
Decisions decisions decisions. Need a refresher to help you decide what you
need? Here are some questions to ask yourself.
DOES YOUR PROJECT LISTEN TO REAL-TIME EVENTS ON DISCORD?
Examples of what real-time events are:
* A user sends/edits/deletes a message in a channel.
* A user reacts to a message in a channel.
* A user joins/leaves a voice channel.
Implications:
* Your project needs to make a websocket connection to Discord.
Special considerations:
* Your project needs to be accessible via a URL. Deploy your project to a
hosting provider such as
Fly.io [https://fly.io/docs/languages-and-frameworks/],
Render [https://render.com/docs], etc.
According to
Vercel's documentation [https://vercel.com/guides/can-i-deploy-discord-bots-to-vercel]:
> Discord Bots that require a server to be constantly listening and reacting to
> events will not work on Vercel since
> Serverless Functions [https://vercel.com/docs/concepts/functions/serverless-functions]
> have execution
> limits [https://vercel.com/docs/concepts/limits/overview#general-limits] that
> range from 5 to 30 seconds depending on your plan. You can consider
> alternatives like Google Cloud Run [https://cloud.google.com/run/],
> Fly [https://fly.io/], Render [https://render.com/], or
> Digital Ocean [https://www.digitalocean.com/] to host them instead.
Library recommendations, listed without a specific order as of the last edit:
* If you are using Go, I recommend
Arikawa v3 [https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/diamondburned/arikawa/v3]
* If you are using Deno, I recommend
Harmony [https://harmony.mod.land/guide/beginner/basic_bot.html].
* There is a variety of Discord libraries that can help you make a websocket
connection to Discord. See
Discord's official list of libraries
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/community-resources#libraries]
for more information.
DOES YOUR PROJECT RESPOND TO DISCORD INTERACTIONS?
Examples of what Discord interaction are:
* A user uses an application command: user command, message command, or chat
input (a.k.a. slash) command.
* A user uses a chat input command autocomplete.
* A user uses a message component.
* A user submits a modal.
Discord interaction types:
Interaction type Value PING (Discord heartbeat) 1 APPLICATION_COMMAND 2 MESSAGE_COMPONENT 3
APPLICATION_COMMAND_AUTOCOMPLETE 4 MODAL_SUBMIT 5
The interaction type is included in the type field of the interaction object.
{
"type": 2
}
Implications:
* Your project needs to respond to HTTP requests. Your project can be a
serverless function or a traditional web server.
Special considerations:
* If your project is a serverless function, you need to make sure your
serverless function provider supports serverless functions that respond to
HTTP requests such as
Vercel [https://vercel.com/docs/concepts/functions/serverless-functions],
Deno Deploy [https://docs.deno.com/deploy/manual],
Cloudflare Workers [https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/get-started/guide/],
etc. See Discord's tutorial on
Hosting a Reddit API Discord app on Cloudflare Workers
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/tutorials/hosting-on-cloudflare-workers].
* If your project is a traditional web server, you need to make sure your
traditional web server is accessible via a URL. Deploy your web server to a
hosting provider such as
Fly.io [https://fly.io/docs/languages-and-frameworks/],
Render [https://render.com/docs], etc.
According to
Vercel's documentation [https://vercel.com/guides/can-i-deploy-discord-bots-to-vercel]:
> Discord Apps that use Webhooks to respond quickly to an HTTP request and
> aren't invoked every second can be modelled effectively with Vercel's
> Serverless Functions.
Library recommendations, listed without a specific order as of the last edit:
* A library is not necessary to build a Discord interaction server. You can
build a Discord interaction server with any web framework that supports
responding to HTTP requests. Tip: Use a library for helping you type-check
your project, such as
discord_api_types [https://deno.land/x/discord_api_types] if you are using
TypeScript
(example projects by @acmcsufoss
[https://github.com/search?q=org%3Aacmcsufoss+%22from+%5C%22https%3A%2F%2Fdeno.land%2Fx%2Fdiscord_api_types%22&type=code]).
* Many popular Discord websocket libraries come with interaction server
capabilities. See
Discord's official list of libraries
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/community-resources#libraries]
for more information.
* I am currently building a Discord interaction server library for Deno.
discord_app leverages TypeScript's type system to ensure type-safety in
defining application commands, utilizing your application command schema to
inject type information into your interaction handlers. See
deno.land/x/discord_app [https://deno.land/x/discord_app] for more
information.
Relevant documentation as of the last edit:
* https://discord.com/developers/docs/tutorials/upgrading-to-application-commands#registering-commands
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/tutorials/upgrading-to-application-commands#registering-commands]
* https://discord.com/developers/docs/getting-started
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/getting-started]
DOES YOUR PROJECT SEND MESSAGES TO A DISCORD CHANNEL?
Discord webhook capabilities:
* Send messages to a Discord channel with a custom username and avatar.
Implications:
* Your project needs to send HTTP requests. Your project can exist anywhere that
can send HTTP requests e.g. serverless function, traditional web server,
workflow script, etc.
Relevant documentation as of the last edit:
* YouTube - How to get a Webhook URL on Discord [https://youtu.be/K8vgRWZnSZw]
* https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/webhook#execute-webhook
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/webhook#execute-webhook]
* https://birdie0.github.io/discord-webhooks-guide/index.html
[https://birdie0.github.io/discord-webhooks-guide/index.html]
DOES YOUR PROJECT ACCESS DISCORD USER DATA OR ALLOW USERS TO LOGIN WITH DISCORD?
Discord OAuth2 capabilities:
* Access Discord user data.
* Allow users to login with Discord.
Implications:
* Your project needs to send HTTP requests. Your project can exist anywhere that
can send HTTP requests e.g. serverless function, traditional web server,
workflow script, etc.
* To log a user in with Discord, you need to redirect the user to Discord's
OAuth2 login page. This means your project may need to be accessible via a
URL, most likely a website. See
Discord's State and Security documentation
[https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/oauth2#state-and-security]
for more information.
WEBSOCKET SERVER VERSUS INTERACTION SERVER VERSUS WEBHOOK
Here is a table summarizing the differences between the three types of Discord
projects.
Discord project type Program requirements Required information from Discord Discord websocket server
Ability to make websocket connection (traditional web server) Application/Bot credentials Discord
interaction server Ability to respond to HTTP requests (traditional web server or serverless
function) Application/Bot credentials Discord webhook Ability to send HTTP requests Webhook URL
IS YOUR PROJECT A DISCORD ACTIVITY?
Discord Activity capabilities:
* Multiple users join a Discord Activity to share media together and interact
with it in real time together.
* Creative multi-user experiences that are not possible with a traditional
Discord bot e.g. MMO RPG adventure, shared drawing canvas, etc.
Implications:
* Your project must be built with Discord's official
Game SDK [https://discord.com/developers/docs/game-sdk/sdk-starter-guide].
EXAMPLE PROJECTS
Here are some example projects to reference when building your Discord project.
Project name Technologies used Description AoC-Dailies
[https://github.com/tomasohCHOM/aoc-dailies#readme] Deno, Discord webhook A cron job that sends a
message to a Discord channel containing the current day's Advent of Code challenge. Shorter
[https://github.com/acmcsufoss/shorter#readme] Deno, Discord chat input command A Discord chat input
command that shortens URLs for acmcsuf.com [https://acmcsuf.com/]. Gitcord
[https://github.com/ethanthatonekid/gitcord#readme] Go, Discord API, GitHub workflow A program
integrating GitHub issues and PRs into Discord threads, syncing comments and reviews in real-time.
TLDR [https://github.com/acmcsufoss/tldr#readme] Deno, Discord message command A Discord interaction
server that allows users choose a message and generate a TL;DR summary. Triggers
[https://github.com/acmcsufoss/triggers#readme] Java, Discord bot, Discord chat input command A
command for custom chat triggers that notify users when a message matches.
CONCLUSION
We hope this blog post helped you decide what you need to build your Discord
project. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Ethan on Discord
at EthanThatOneKid. Written with 💜 by
@acmcsufoss [https://github.com/acmcsufoss].
Note
Edit (Mar 21, 2024): Open Source Software team board member Owen Sterling presented the "Discord Bot
Intro" workshop, https://acmcsuf.com/discord-bot-intro [https://acmcsuf.com/discord-bot-intro],
where he walked through every step required to write a Discord bot,
https://github.com/JOwen-ster/Discord_Bot_Workshop
[https://github.com/JOwen-ster/Discord_Bot_Workshop], from scratch.