Author: Kenn Carlo Gutierrez
Last Updated: Wed, Sep 1, 2021Discord is a video, voice, and text communication platform that allows bots to perform automated tasks based on user commands. This article explains how to run a Python-based Discord bot on a Docker application.
Go to the Discord Developer Portal and log in.
Click the New Application button.
Enter an application name and click Create.
Select the Bot tab from the Settings menu.
Click Add Bot then click Yes, do it!.
Click Copy to copy your bot's token to the clipboard. Save a copy to use later in this guide.
Deploy a Docker application on Ubuntu 20.04 cloud server Instance from Vultr Marketplace Apps
Login as root
Install the Discord API wrapper for Python.
# pip install discord.py
Switch to your home directory.
# cd ~
Create a project folder.
# mkdir discord-bot
Switch to the project folder.
# cd discord-bot
Create a python file named discord_bot.py
.
# nano discord_bot.py
Paste this sample code to your discord_bot.py
file. Replace <YOUR BOT TOKEN>
with the token you saved in section 1.
import discord
TOKEN = '<YOUR BOT TOKEN>'
client = discord.Client()
@client.event
async def on_ready():
print('We have successfully loggged in as {0.user}'.format(client))
@client.event
async def on_message(message):
if message.author == client.user:
return
if message.content.lower() == 'hello':
await message.channel.send(f'Hello, {message.author.display_name}!')
return
if message.content.lower() == 'bye':
await message.channel.send(f'See you later, {message.author.display_name}!')
return
client.run(TOKEN)
The Discord bot should respond to commands such as hello
, and bye
.
Save and exit the file.
Create a Dockerfile
.
# nano Dockerfile
Paste this to your Dockerfile
.
FROM python:3
FROM gorialis/discord.py
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/bot
WORKDIR /usr/src/bot
COPY . .
CMD [ "python3", "discord_bot.py" ]
Save and exit the Dockerfile
.
Change to the Discord bot project directory.
# cd ~/discord-bot
Build the docker container for the Discord bot.
# docker build -t discord-bot .
Run the docker container.
# docker run -d discord-bot
Running the bot with -d
flag runs the container in detached mode (it runs in the background).
List all docker processes:
# docker ps
Stop the docker container (discord bot):
# docker stop <CONTAINER ID>
Restart the docker container:
# docker restart <CONTAINER ID>
You can find the <CONTAINER ID>
when you list all the Docker processes.
Go to the Discord Developer Portal and log in.
Click the Application that you have created.
Navigate to the OAuth2 Tab from the Settings menu.
In the Scopes Section, select bot.
In the Bot Permissions Section, select Administrator. This gives the bot an Administrator Role from the Discord Server.
Click the Copy Button to copy the generated invite link.
Open the invite link on your browser.
Select the Discord server to add the bot to then click Continue.
Authorize the bot and complete the CAPTCHA.
The Discord bot is now up and running.
To learn more about Discord bots, please see these resources: