Set up the Discord bot

The bot is a normal Discord application with a bot user. This page takes you from an empty developer portal to the values .env asks for. Run bunx roundtable doctor at the end; it checks everything below and says what is missing.

Create the application and the bot

1. Open the Discord developer portal and create a new application.

2. Open the Bot page and copy the token. This is DISCORD_TOKEN in .env. To replace a token that was rejected, reset it on the same page and put the new one in .env.

3. On the same page, turn on Message Content Intent and save. Without it the agents cannot read what you write in the channels. doctor fails with “the Message Content intent is off” until it is on.

Invite the bot to your server

The invitation asks for the bot and applications.commands scopes and these permissions:

Permission	What the bot uses it for
View Channels	See the channel
Send Messages	Answer in it
Send Messages in Threads	Answer in threads
Read Message History	Read what was said before
Embed Links	Post cards
Attach Files	Post pictures and files
Pin Messages	Pin the status message
Create Public Threads	Open threads for background reports
Manage Channels	Create the agents’ channels
Manage Webhooks	Let each agent speak under its own name

The permission integer for exactly this list is 2252109588319248. Open an address of this form in a browser and pick your server; <bot id> is the bot’s user id:

https://discord.com/oauth2/authorize?client_id=<bot id>&scope=bot+applications.commands&permissions=2252109588319248

You do not have to build the link by hand. When the bot is not in your server, bunx roundtable doctor prints this link, filled in, as the fix.

Note

doctor checks these permissions in the entry channel, after the server’s roles and the channel’s own overrides. A channel override that denies one of them counts as missing, even when the role grants it. A bot with the Administrator permission passes the check.

Copy the ids

Turn on Developer Mode in Discord, then right-click to copy ids.

.env variable	Where it comes from
DISCORD_GUILD_ID	Right-click the server and copy its id
DISCORD_ENTRY_CHANNEL_ID	Right-click the channel you will talk to the coordinator in and copy its id
OWNER_ID	Right-click your own name and choose Copy User ID
OWNER_NAME	The name the agents call you

The channel must belong to that server, and the bot must be able to see it. doctor names the variable to fix when either is wrong.

Check it

bunx roundtable doctor

The Discord checks run in this order: the token is accepted, the bot is in the server, the Message Content intent is on, and the bot has every permission in the entry channel. Continue with Your first conversation.