Discraft is a modern, developer-friendly framework for building Discord bots with ease. It provides a robust CLI and a set of tools to streamline the development process, allowing you to focus on creating amazing bot experiences. Think of it as a "batteries-included" approach, letting you get started quickly and efficiently. It's like Next.js for Discord bots.
Note: If you are viewing this documentation on npm, check out the GitHub repository for more up-to-date documentation.
- 🚀 Getting Started
- ⚙️ Core Features
- 💻 CLI Reference
- 🚀 Deploying to Vercel
- 📁 Project Structure
- 🛠️ Development
- 🧪 Beta Releases
- 🤝 Contributing
- 📜 License
You can install Discraft locally in your project using npm
, which is recommended for project-specific dependencies:
npm install discraft --save-dev
Alternative Package Manager Commands
If you prefer to use other package managers, here are the equivalent commands:
pnpm:
pnpm add discraft -D
bun add discraft --dev
yarn add discraft -D
Alternatively, you can install Discraft globally to use the CLI from any directory:
npm install -g discraft
When installed globally, you can use the discraft
command directly instead of npx discraft
.
To get started quickly, use the discraft init
command:
npx discraft init
Or, if Discraft is installed globally:
discraft init
This will guide you through creating a new Discraft bot project, asking for details such as the project directory, package manager, and template.
After initialization, you will need to copy the .env.example
file to .env
and then edit the .env
file with your bot token and client ID.
# From `Bot > Token` | https://discord.com/developers/applications
DISCORD_TOKEN=''
# From `General Information > App ID` | https://discord.com/developers/applications
DISCORD_APP_ID=''
You can also specify options directly:
npx discraft init -d my-bot-dir -p bun -t ts # Initialize a project in 'my-bot-dir' using bun and the typescript template
See the CLI Reference for all options.
After creating your project, navigate into the project directory and use the following commands.
To start your bot in development mode:
npx discraft dev
Alternative Package Manager Commands
If you prefer to use other package managers, here are the equivalent commands:
pnpm:
pnpm discraft dev
bunx discraft dev
yarn discraft dev
Or, if Discraft is installed globally:
discraft dev
To start your bot in production mode:
npx discraft start
Alternative Package Manager Commands
If you prefer to use other package managers, here are the equivalent commands:
pnpm:
pnpm discraft start
bunx discraft start
yarn discraft start
Or, if Discraft is installed globally:
discraft start
Discraft offers a range of features designed to make Discord bot development a breeze.
Discraft uses the Discord.js API to create robust slash commands, as well as message and user context menu commands. Place your command files in the commands
directory, and Discraft will automatically register them with Discord on bot startup.
See examples of commands here.
Discraft simplifies registering event handlers. Place your event files in the events
directory, and Discraft will register them when the bot starts.
Example event handler (events/ready.ts
, which will be registered when the bot starts):
import { ActivityType, Client, Events } from "discord.js";
import { logger } from "../utils/logger";
export default {
event: Events.ClientReady,
handler: (client: Client) => {
if (!client.user) {
logger.error("Client user is not set.");
return;
}
client.user.setPresence({
activities: [
{
name: "Discraft",
// eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/ban-ts-comment
// @ts-ignore Discord.js does not have this property, but it is valid
state: "Created with Discraft",
type: ActivityType.Custom,
},
],
status: "online",
});
logger.success("Client logged in.");
},
};
See examples of more events here.
During development, Discraft supports hot reloading, meaning that your changes to command and event files will automatically restart your bot with the changes reflected. This allows for a more efficient and streamlined development process.
Discraft allows you to choose your preferred builder when building and running your application in development mode.
esbuild
: A fast and efficient JavaScript bundler.bun
: A fast all-in-one toolkit for JavaScript and Typescript
Discraft provides a set of powerful CLI commands to manage your bot development.
Initializes a new Discraft project.
Options:
-d, --dir <directory>
: Specify the project directory (defaults to current directory).-p, --package-manager <pm>
: Package manager to use (npm, yarn, pnpm, bun, or none).--skip-install
: Skip dependency installation.-t, --template <template>
: Template to use (js, ts, or vercel-ts-ai). Defaults to prompt.
Example:
npx discraft init -d my-bot -p bun --skip-install -t ts
Or, if Discraft is installed globally:
discraft init -d my-bot -p bun --skip-install -t ts
Starts the bot in development mode with hot reloading.
Options:
-b, --builder <builder>
: Specify the builder to use (esbuild or bun). Defaults to auto-detect.-r, --runner <runner>
: Specify the runner to use (node or bun). Defaults to auto-detect.-c, --clear-console
: Clear the console on each rebuild.
Example:
npx discraft dev -b esbuild -r bun -c
Or, if Discraft is installed globally:
discraft dev -b esbuild -r bun -c
Builds the bot for production.
Options:
-b, --builder <builder>
: Specify the builder to use (esbuild or bun). Defaults to auto-detect.
Example:
npx discraft build -b bun
Or, if Discraft is installed globally:
discraft build -b bun
Starts the bot in production mode.
Options:
-r, --runner <runner>
: Specify the runner to use (node or bun). Defaults to auto-detect.
Example:
npx discraft start -r node
Or, if Discraft is installed globally:
discraft start -r node
Builds the bot for deployment on Vercel. This command is a subcommand of discraft vercel
.
Options:
-b, --builder <builder>
: Specify the builder to use (esbuild or bun). Defaults to auto-detect.
Example:
npx discraft vercel build -b bun
Or, if Discraft is installed globally:
discraft vercel build -b bun
To deploy your Discraft bot to Vercel, follow these steps:
- Create a Vercel Project: If you haven't already, create a new project in your Vercel dashboard. You can import your project from GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket.
- Set Environment Variables: In your Vercel project settings, go to "Environment Variables" and add the following variables:
DISCORD_TOKEN
: Your Discord bot's token.DISCORD_APP_ID
: Your Discord application's ID.- For AI templates:
GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY
: Your Google AI API key.GOOGLE_AI_MODEL
: The Google AI model you wish to use (e.g.,gemini-2.0-flash-exp
). You can find the project settings here.
- Run a Discraft Vercel Build: In your project directory, run
npm run vercel-build
ordiscraft vercel build
to create the API routes and files for your bot. This command prepares your bot for serverless deployment by generating the necessary API routes.Alternative Package Manager Commands
If you prefer to use other package managers, here are the equivalent commands:
pnpm:bun:pnpm discraft vercel build
yarn:bunx discraft vercel build
yarn discraft vercel build
- Deploy: You can deploy your bot to Vercel by running
npm run deploy
or using thevercel
CLI. If using the CLI, you can runvercel
and select the project you created. If you imported your project from a git repo, it should automatically deploy on commits. You can now set your bot's interactions endpoint to thehttps://<your-project>.vercel.app/api
url.- To setup the interactions endpoint, please see the 'Discord Bot Setup' section of the Vercel + TypeScript + Google AI template README.
A typical Discraft project is structured as follows:
my-discraft-bot/
├── .discraft/ # Internal Discraft files (auto-generated)
├── clients/ # Discord.js client setup
│ └── discord.ts # Discord.js client configuration
├── commands/ # Your bot's command files
│ ├── ping.ts # Example ping command
│ └── ... # Other commands
├── events/ # Event handlers
│ ├── error.ts # Error handling
│ ├── messageCreate.ts # Example message handler
│ └── ready.ts # Client ready handler
├── utils/ # Utility functions
│ └── logger.ts # Logging configuration
├── index.ts # Main entry point for the bot
├── package.json # Project dependencies and scripts
├── tsconfig.json # TypeScript configuration
└── .env # Environment variables (e.g., bot token)
Discraft relies on the following key dependencies:
discord.js
: A powerful JavaScript library for interacting with the Discord API.commander
: A library for building command-line interfaces.consola
: A modern console logger.esbuild
orbun
: Fast JavaScript bundlers.dotenv
: To load environment variables.chokidar
: File watcher.fs-extra
: Extra file system methods.glob
: File globbing.inquirer
: Interactive CLI prompts.kleur
: Colorful console output.- All of these are included as dependencies to discraft itself.
Store your bot's token and client ID in a .env
file at the root of your project:
DISCORD_TOKEN=your_bot_token_here
DISCORD_APP_ID=your_client_id_here
- Command files are located in the
commands
directory. They export an object withdata
andexecute
properties. - Event files are located in the
events
directory. They export an object withevent
andhandler
properties.
Beta versions are available for testing new features. To install the latest beta:
npm install discraft@beta
Contributions are welcome! Please visit the GitHub repository to report issues or submit pull requests.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.