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Overview

This guide will walk you through creating a Discord bot application, configuring permissions, and obtaining your bot token to run the Streamer Alerts Bot.
Never share your bot token with anyone. Treat it like a password - it gives full control over your bot.

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Prerequisites

  • A Discord account
  • A Discord server where you have administrator permissions
  • Node.js installed (v18 or higher)

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Creating Your Bot Application

1

Access Discord Developer Portal

Navigate to the Discord Developer Portal and sign in with your Discord account.
2

Create New Application

Click the New Application button in the top-right corner.
Give your application a name (e.g., “Streamer Alerts”). You can change this later.
3

Navigate to Bot Section

In the left sidebar, click on Bot to access the bot settings.If you haven’t created a bot yet, click Add Bot and confirm.
4

Configure Bot Settings

Under the bot settings, configure the following:
  • Username: Set your bot’s display name
  • Icon: Upload a profile picture (optional)
  • Public Bot: Toggle OFF if you only want to add it to your own servers
5

Enable Required Intents

Scroll down to Privileged Gateway Intents and enable:
  • ✅ SERVER MEMBERS INTENT (required for guild operations)
  • ✅ MESSAGE CONTENT INTENT (required for message handling)
These intents are required for the bot to function properly. Without them, certain features will not work.
6

Copy Bot Token

Under the TOKEN section, click Reset Token (or Copy if you haven’t reset it).Save this token securely - you’ll need it for the next section.
You can only view the token once. If you lose it, you’ll need to reset it again.

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Configuring Bot Permissions

The bot requires specific permissions to function:

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Required Permissions

  • Send Messages - To send live alerts and command responses
  • Embed Links - To display rich embeds with stream information
  • Use External Emojis - To show platform emojis (🟣 Twitch, 🔴 YouTube, etc.)
  • View Channels - To access channels where alerts will be posted
Users need Manage Channels permission to add or remove streamers using /streamer add and /streamer remove commands.

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Inviting the Bot to Your Server

1

Navigate to OAuth2

In the Discord Developer Portal, go to OAuth2 > URL Generator in the left sidebar.
2

Select Scopes

Under SCOPES, select:
  • ✅ bot
  • ✅ applications.commands
3

Select Permissions

Under BOT PERMISSIONS, select:
  • ✅ Send Messages
  • ✅ Embed Links
  • ✅ Use External Emojis
  • ✅ View Channels
4

Copy Invite URL

Copy the generated URL at the bottom of the page.
5

Invite to Server

Paste the URL in your browser, select your server, and click Authorize.

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Installing and Running the Bot

1

Clone or Download the Bot

Download the bot source code to your machine.
2

Install Dependencies

Open a terminal in the bot directory and run:
npm install
3

Configure Environment

Create a .env file in the root directory:
cp .env.example .env
Open .env and add your bot token:
DISCORD_TOKEN=your_token_here
Replace your_token_here with the actual token you copied earlier.
4

Deploy Slash Commands

Register the bot’s slash commands with Discord:
npm run deploy
You only need to run this once, or whenever you update the bot’s commands.
5

Start the Bot

Run the bot:
npm start
For development with hot reload:
npm run dev
6

Verify Bot is Online

Check your Discord server - the bot should now appear online!Test it with /ping to verify it’s responding to commands.

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Next Steps

Adding Streamers

Learn how to add streamers and configure alerts

Managing Alerts

Manage your streamer list and notifications

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Keeping the Bot Running 24/7

For production use, consider hosting your bot on:
  • VPS (DigitalOcean, Linode, AWS EC2)
  • Cloud Platforms (Heroku, Railway, Render)
  • Process Managers (PM2, systemd)
Use PM2 to keep your bot running automatically:
npm install -g pm2
pm2 start npm --name "streamer-bot" -- start
pm2 save
pm2 startup

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