Your Discord bot's token, intents and permissions

Create the application

1. Open the Discord Developer Portal and sign in.
2. Press New Application, name it and accept the terms.

Get the token

1. Pick Bot in the menu.
2. Press Reset Token, confirm, then Copy.
3. Add it to your bot's variables under the name your code reads, usually DISCORD_TOKEN, and mark it Sensitive.

If you change the token later, update it in your variables and press Redeploy. A second copy on the same token, such as one on your computer, connects too, and both copies answer, so every reply comes twice. Stop any other copy of your bot.

Turn on the intents your code asks for

On the same Bot page, under Privileged Gateway Intents, there are three switches. Turn on only the ones your code asks for in intents when it creates the Client, then press Save Changes:

• GatewayIntentBits.GuildPresences needs Presence Intent.
• GatewayIntentBits.GuildMembers needs Server Members Intent.
• GatewayIntentBits.MessageContent needs Message Content Intent. Without it, messages in server channels reach your bot without their text. Direct messages and messages that mention the bot still carry it.

If your code asks for an intent that is off, your bot stops at sign-in and discord.js prints one of these lines:

Error: Used disallowed intents
Error [DisallowedIntents]: Privileged intent provided is not enabled or whitelisted.

Turn on the missing intent, then start your bot again. You don't need a new token.

Add the bot to your server

The token tells us your application's id, so your bot card shows an Add it to a Discord server button. Press it and pick the server.

This button adds the bot with the scopes bot and applications.commands, so the bot and its slash commands, with no permissions of its own. To give it the permissions it needs, pick one way:

• In your Discord server's Server Settings, open Roles, create a role with the permissions the bot needs and give it to the bot, or grant the permissions channel by channel.
• Or build the link yourself in the Developer Portal: open OAuth2, then URL Generator, tick bot and applications.commands, pick the permissions under Bot Permissions, and open the link it gives you.

When the bot lacks a permission, Discord answers its request with error code 50013, and with 50001 when it can't reach the channel at all.

Your personal account token? No

Running your personal account as a bot (a self-bot) breaks Discord's rules and can get the account banned. Always use the bot token from the Developer Portal.