🤖 Build a Discord Bot with Python

Register your bot application and get a token.

# Steps to create your bot:
# 1. Go to https://discord.com/developers/applications
# 2. Click "New Application" and give it a name
# 3. Go to the "Bot" tab on the left
# 4. Click "Add Bot" then "Reset Token" — copy this token (keep it secret!)
# 5. Under "Privileged Gateway Intents", enable:
#      - Presence Intent
#      - Server Members Intent
#      - Message Content Intent
# 6. Go to "OAuth2 > URL Generator"
#      - Scopes: bot
#      - Bot Permissions: Send Messages, Read Messages, Read Message History
# 7. Copy the generated URL and open it to invite the bot to your server

Write the basic bot script that connects to Discord and logs in.

# bot.py
import discord

TOKEN = 'YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE'  # paste your token

intents = discord.Intents.default()
intents.message_content = True
intents.members = True

client = discord.Client(intents=intents)

@client.event
async def on_ready():
    print(f'Logged in as {client.user} (ID: {client.user.id})')
    print('Bot is online!')

client.run(TOKEN)

Logged in as MyBot#1234 (ID: 123456789012345678)
Bot is online!

import random

JOKES = [
    "Why do programmers prefer dark mode? Because light attracts bugs!",
    "How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None — that's a hardware problem.",
    "Why do Java developers wear glasses? Because they don't C#.",
]

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.author == client.user:
        return  # ignore messages from the bot itself

    if message.content.lower() == '!hello':
        await message.channel.send(f'Hello, {message.author.name}!')

    elif message.content.lower() == '!joke':
        await message.channel.send(random.choice(JOKES))

    elif message.content.lower() == '!ping':
        latency = round(client.latency * 1000)
        await message.channel.send(f'Pong! Latency: {latency}ms')

User: !hello
Bot:  Hello, John!

User: !joke
Bot:  Why do programmers prefer dark mode? Because light attracts bugs!

User: !ping
Bot:  Pong! Latency: 42ms

@client.event
async def on_member_join(member):
    channel = discord.utils.get(member.guild.text_channels, name='general')
    if channel:
        await channel.send(
            f'Welcome to the server, {member.mention}! '
            f'We now have {member.guild.member_count} members.'
        )

@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.name}!')

    elif message.content.lower() == '!joke':
        await message.channel.send(random.choice(JOKES))

    elif message.content.lower() == '!ping':
        latency = round(client.latency * 1000)
        await message.channel.send(f'Pong! Latency: {latency}ms')

    elif message.content.lower() == '!stats':
        guild = message.guild
        embed = discord.Embed(title=f'{guild.name} Stats', color=0x5865F2)
        embed.add_field(name='Members',  value=guild.member_count, inline=True)
        embed.add_field(name='Channels', value=len(guild.channels), inline=True)
        embed.add_field(name='Roles',    value=len(guild.roles),    inline=True)
        embed.set_thumbnail(url=guild.icon.url if guild.icon else None)
        await message.channel.send(embed=embed)

User: !stats
Bot:  [Embed card showing]
      Server Name Stats
      Members: 47   Channels: 12   Roles: 8