Running the bot

A guide on how to create and run the bot.

Intro

• CroissantBot’s main file is aptly named main.py. It start the tasks required to run the bot and loads the base cog. This includes the exit, help, ping, test and version commands.

• The bot uses cogs, which are kind of like plugins, to add commands by categories. Some require additional setup (for example, an API token), so not all cogs are enabled by default. For more information, see Intro to cogs.

• CroissantBot uses a file called .env to store its settings and credentials.

New in version 3.0.0: A configuration script, config.py, is provided to ease the first setup of the bot.

Dependencies

This a list of all the packages used by the bot and its cogs. You can install all of them with the instructions below, or check which ones are actually needed by the commands you want to use.

Package	Usage	Cog using it
discord.py[voice]	API wrapper for Discord with voice support	The base bot
python-dotenv	To store API keys and other secrets in a .env file	The base bot
packaging	To check the bot’s current version	The base bot
asyncpraw	Asynchronous Python Reddit API Wrapper, to get memes from Reddit	Meme
yt-dlp	To get music and livestream information from Youtube	Music, Youtube and Playlist
streamlink	To check for YouTube livestreams	Youtube
asyncpg	To connect to the PostgreSQL database	Playlist

Deprecated since version 1.1.0: The youtube-dl package was used for the Music cog, but since it appears to no longer be maintained, using yt-dlp is recommended.

New in version 2.0.0: The asyncpg package.

New in version 2.0.0: The Playlist cog, which also uses the yt-dlp package.

Changed in version 3.0.0: The youtube-dl package is no longer used, please install yt-dlp instead.

Creating the bot

First, you have to create an application on Discord, in order to create a bot and get its token.

Creating the application

To create the application and the bot, I recommend following this guide. Here’s a quick rundown of the steps to follow:

• If needed, create a Discord account and verify your email.

• Login to Discord’s developer portal.

• Create a new application.

• In the Bot section (on the left), create a bot. You can change the default name.

• Grab the token.

• Scroll down and enable the server members intent under Privileged Gateway intents.

Adding the bot to a server

To add the bot to a server (a guild in the API’s terminology) see this part of the previous guide. Essentially:

• In the developer portal, go to the OAuth2 tab.

• In the OAuth2 URL Generator, select bot in Scopes.

• As for permissions, there are two options:

  • For a private server, Administrator is the easier choice.

  • For a bigger or more public server, it’s better to select only the permissions needed for the bot to run correctly.

For now, the permissions I’m using with the bot are:

Permissions
View channels	Send messages
Embed links	Attach files
Add reactions (not used yet)	Manage messages
Read message history	Use Application Commands
Connect	Speak
Use voice activity

Note

You can set the bot to public, allowing anyone who has the link you generated to invite the bot to their server, provided they have the necessary permissions (Manage server permission). Or you can leave the bot as private, which means only you can use the link to add the bot to any server in which you have the Manage server permission.

Installation and setup

Now, time to install the source code and run the bot!

• Clone the repo or download the code from the releases page.

  Note

  Cloning the repo is recommended in order to use Git to easily update the bot.

• Install Python 3.6+: use your package manager or head over to the download page.

• Optional but recommended: use pipenv to avoid conflicts with the dependencies. Previously, I used virtual environments, so the requirements.txt is still included.

• To install all the package dependencies, use:

pipenv

pipenv install

pip (Linux/MacOS)

python3 -m install -U -r requirements.txt

pip (Windows)

py -m pip install -U -r requirements.txt

• If you haven’t already, create the bot on Discord and get its token with the section above.

• Launch the configuration script and follow the instructions:

Unix (Linux/MacOS)

python3 config.py

Windows

py config.py

Important

This copies the .env.example to .env. This is important for two reasons: the bot looks for and uses the file called .env, and when updating the bot with Git the contents of .env.example may be overwritten.

• Add the bot to a server: for instructions see above.

• Then, run main.py:

Unix (Linux/MacOS)

python3 main.py

Windows

py main.py

Adding features

That’s it! The bot should be running.

But just running the base bot is not really that interesting: it barely has commands. This is where cogs come in. They are like extensions to the bot and contain most of its commands. To find out more about them and how to use them, see Intro to cogs.