This is the simplest possible JDA bot. It demonstrates the basic setup required to get a bot running.
Basic Setup
Create a JDABuilder
The JDABuilder is the entry point for creating your bot. You can choose from different factory methods:
createLight(token, intents) - Minimalistic cache profile (lower RAM usage)createDefault(token, intents) - Balanced cache and featurescreate(token, intents) - Full control over configuration
JDA jda = JDABuilder.createLight(token, intents)
.build();
Provide your bot token
Your bot token can be provided in several ways:// 1. From a file (recommended)
String token = new String(Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(args[0])), StandardCharsets.UTF_8).trim();
// 2. From environment variable
String token = System.getenv("TOKEN");
// 3. From system property
String token = System.getProperty("token");
Never hardcode your token in source code or share it publicly!
Configure Gateway Intents
Intents control which events your bot receives. Only enable what you need for better performance:EnumSet<GatewayIntent> intents = EnumSet.of(
GatewayIntent.GUILD_MESSAGES,
GatewayIntent.DIRECT_MESSAGES
);
Build and start the bot
Call build() to start the bot and connect to Discord:JDA jda = JDABuilder.createLight(token, intents)
.setActivity(Activity.watching("Hello World"))
.build();
// Wait for the bot to be ready
jda.awaitReady();
System.out.println("Bot is ready!");
Complete Example
import net.dv8tion.jda.api.JDA;
import net.dv8tion.jda.api.JDABuilder;
import net.dv8tion.jda.api.entities.Activity;
import net.dv8tion.jda.api.requests.GatewayIntent;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.EnumSet;
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
// Read token from file
String token = new String(Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(args[0])), StandardCharsets.UTF_8).trim();
// Configure minimal intents
EnumSet<GatewayIntent> intents = EnumSet.noneOf(GatewayIntent.class);
try {
// Create and start the bot
JDA jda = JDABuilder.createLight(token, intents)
.setActivity(Activity.watching("the world"))
.build();
// Check REST API ping
jda.getRestPing().queue(ping ->
System.out.println("Logged in with ping: " + ping)
);
// Wait for bot to be fully ready
jda.awaitReady();
System.out.println("Guilds: " + jda.getGuildCache().size());
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
What’s Next?
Now that you have a basic bot running, you can:
The bot won’t do anything yet - it’s just connected and idle. Check out the other examples to add functionality!