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How to Make a Discord Bot in 5 Steps: The Ultimate 2023 Guide

Do you manage a bustling Discord server? Are manual moderation, toxic trolls, and organizing chaos giving you gray hairs? Fortunately, I’m here to let you in on a little secret: bots.

These ingenious AI helpers promise to supercharge your server with automated moderation, fun interactions to drive engagement, DJ music playback, trivia games, and more while you kick back. 65% of Discord’s over 150 million active users have added bots to their servers for these reasons.

Intrigued yet? Well, stitching together a bot might sound intimidating, but have no fear! By following these 5 simple steps, you’ll quickly customize an automated assistant to level up your server mod skills.

Let’s get started!

🤖 A Crash Course on The Booming Business of Bots

But first – what are Discord bots? Powered by fancy developer code, Discord bots are 3rd-party programs that interact with users on servers, kind of like helpful little robots. They provide utilities, entertainment, organize chaos – basically whatever their programming tells them to do!

Some shine at moderation by scanning every message for offensive words then issuing automated bans. Others welcome newbies with friendly messages or liven up channels with games and memes. More still DJ music directly in chat or fetch content from outside sites like Reddit or Youtube.

With over 560,000 active bot users spanning millions of servers, bot adoption continues accelerating in Discord’s 13 million+ communities:

Discord bot growth stats

Adding a bot (or five) tailored to your community’s needs is a surefire way to create happy campers. Now let’s explore how even coding novices can whip one up!

Step 1: Whip Up Your Bot Maker’s Workspace

First, you’ll need somewhere for your new pal to live. Download the Discord app for desktop or mobile:

Download discord

Then register an account to access server creation tools:

Discord signup

With account credentials ready, you can now:

  1. Build a server for your bot to mod
  2. Developer portal to register bot apps

Time to put on your maker hat and move onto crafting your custom bot!

Step 2: Birth Your Bot’s Identity

For your digital pal to manage your server, it first needs a registered identity on Discord. This is where Discord’s Developer Portal comes into play.

Discord dev portal

Through the Developer Portal, registered bots receive authorization to interact with Discord’s API (code interface).

Click “New Application”, title your bot, and voila – a blank bot blueprint awaits! Customize your creation’s username, profile pic, and description tagline.

Discord generates secret authentication tokens granting your bot access behind the scenes: 

Nzk2MDA4MzY4NDk1MTI5NTcz.xyz0981.ABC123xzw890

Note: Never share tokens! This equates to bot password theft.

With identity set, you can now craft what your bot actually does…

Step 3: Outfit Your Bot for Server Success

Time for the fun part – playing digital dress-up! Log into your bot’s Developer Portal account and navigate to OAuth2 > URL Generator.

Permission scopes

Here you can toggle permissions determining bot abilities. Do you want música in your chat? Enable audio playing powers. How about auto greeting new members? Check the box to send TTYL messages in certain channels.

Each toggle expands your bot‘s capabilities to help run your server smoothly. Enable the ones suiting your community‘s needs.

Step 4: Install Your Bot‘s Brain

Alright, backend identity setup ✅. Permission scope for server interactions ✅. Now for the real work – coding your bot‘s brain.

Bots think via backend code stored on servers, executing instructions when triggered by certain Discord actions.

Popular languages bot developers use:

  • Python – User friendly for beginners
  • JavaScript (with Node.js)
  • Java
  • C# (pronounced C-sharp)

Code gives bots their personality! Here‘s basic JavaScript showing a bot responding to the phrase "ping" with "pong":

client.on(‘message‘, msg => {
  if (msg.content === ‘ping‘) {
    msg.reply(‘pong‘); 
  }
});

JavaScript utilizes Node.js packages for interacting with the Discord API. Python, Java, and C# do the same!

Step 5: Release Your Bot into the Wild

This is it…the moment you’ve been waiting for. With coded brain intact, all that’s left is releasing your custom bot into your hungry server!

Return to your OAuth2 URL Generator tab and copy the link at the very bottom. This invite URL adds your bot to any server you manage.

Select the server, authorize permissions, and watch your creation come alive, ready to moderate, entertain, and automate tasks programmed into its brain!

Add bot URL

Congratulations, you built a bot! 🤖👏 Now your server members can enjoy automated help custom-designed just for them.

💡 Pro Tips from a Bot Aficionado

Over my many years as a developer and managing my fair share of Discord servers, I’ve gathered a few pieces of sage bot advice:

  • Start with 1-3 bots then monitor for spamminess
  • Use hosting services like Heroku or AWS for uptime reliability
  • Revoke access if bots get annoying with .kick and .ban
  • Always keep coding libraries up-to-date for new Discord API changes

Bots may sound intimidating at first, but really only take a few steps to whip up for even non-coders! I hope this easy walkthrough paves the way for your own bot additions.

Let me know if any other bot questions pop up along your journey. Happy bot making! 😊👋

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