How to make a discord.js bot from scratch (v14)

A minimal discord.js v14 bot is one package.json and one index.js: create a Client with the intents you need, listen for events, and call client.login() with your token. This guide builds that on your own computer so you can test before deploying to Schokr.

Prerequisites

A recent LTS version of Node.js. Check the discord.js docs for the current minimum version.
A bot application and token. See create a bot and get its token.

1. Create the project

mkdir my-bot
cd my-bot
npm init -y
npm install discord.js dotenv

2. Add your token to .env

Create a file named .env next to your code:

DISCORD_TOKEN=paste-your-token-here

If you use git, add .env and node_modules to .gitignore so the token never gets committed.

3. Write index.js

require('dotenv').config();
const { Client, Events, GatewayIntentBits } = require('discord.js');

const client = new Client({
  intents: [
    GatewayIntentBits.Guilds,
    GatewayIntentBits.GuildMessages,
    GatewayIntentBits.MessageContent,
  ],
});

client.once(Events.ClientReady, (readyClient) => {
  console.log(`Logged in as ${readyClient.user.tag}`);
});

client.on(Events.MessageCreate, async (message) => {
  if (message.author.bot) return;
  if (message.content === '!ping') {
    await message.reply(`Pong! ${client.ws.ping} ms`);
  }
});

client.on(Events.Error, (error) => console.error('Client error:', error));

client.login(process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN);

What the intents do

Intent	Needed for
`Guilds`	Basic server, channel and role data. Almost every bot needs it.
`GuildMessages`	Receiving `messageCreate` events in server channels.
`MessageContent`	Reading the text of messages. Privileged: must also be enabled in the Developer Portal.

If you only use slash commands you can drop GuildMessages and MessageContent. Slash commands are the recommended approach for new bots; see slash commands in discord.js.

4. Add a start script

In package.json, add a start script and make sure main points at your file:

{
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js"
  }
}

5. Enable Message Content and run it

In the Developer Portal, on the Bot page, turn on Message Content Intent. Without it, login fails with "Used disallowed intents" (see privileged intents).
Run npm start.
You should see Logged in as YourBot#1234. Type !ping in a channel the bot can see.

Deploy it

Once it works locally, follow deploy a discord.js bot to Schokr to run it 24/7.

Common mistakes

Requiring Intents instead of GatewayIntentBits: that's v13 syntax and fails in v14.
message.content is empty: the MessageContent intent is missing in code or in the portal.
Using the client secret instead of the bot token: the OAuth2 client secret is not the token. Get the token from the Bot page.