Setup CommandKit manually

If you don't want to use the CLI to automatically generate a base CommandKit project, you can integrate CommandKit manually into your application.

info

While this guide primarily uses TypeScript, you can alternatively use JavaScript files to follow along if that's what you're comfortable with (e.g. commandkit.config.js, app.js, etc)

Configuration file

To get started, create a file called commandkit.config.ts at the root of your project. This file is used to configure CommandKit and its plugins.

commandkit.config.ts

import { defineConfig } from 'commandkit';

export default defineConfig({});

Entrypoint file

Then, create a folder called src, followed by a file called app.ts inside it. The file should look like this:

src/app.ts

import { Client } from 'discord.js';

const client = new Client({
  intents: ['Guilds', 'GuildMembers'],
});

client.token = '...'; // Optional: You can manually set your bot's token

// must export the `client` here
export default client;

With the current entrypoint file created, it's important to understand that:

1. The app.ts file is the entrypoint for this application. This file must export your discord.js client instance.
2. You don't have to call client.login() as CommandKit will handle that for you.
3. You should store your bot token as an environment variable with either DISCORD_TOKEN or TOKEN as the name.

Adding commands

To add a command, create a folder inside the src/app directory called commands and create your command file (e.g. ping.ts). This example will use a simple ping/pong command which will register as a chat input (slash) and message (legacy) command.

src/app/commands/ping.ts

import type { ChatInputCommand, CommandData, MessageCommand } from 'commandkit';

export const command: CommandData = {
  name: 'ping',
  description: 'Pong!',
};

export const chatInput: ChatInputCommand = async ({ interaction }) => {
  await interaction.reply('Pong!');
};

export const message: MessageCommand = async ({ message }) => {
  await message.reply('Pong!');
};

This command will reply with "Pong!" when the user runs the /ping slash command, or sends !ping in the chat.

tip

Prefixes for your message (legacy) commands can be changed. Learn more here.

Adding events

To register and handle events emitted by discord.js, create a folder inside the src/app directory called events and create a folder with the name of the discord.js event you'd like to handle (e.g. ready, messageCreate, etc). This example will use the ready event.

In the src/app/events/{eventName} directory, you can create files which will export default functions that will be called when the respective event is emitted by discord.js. Following the ready event example mentioned above, you may want to log when your bot comes online. The function for that will look like so:

src/app/events/log.ts

import type { Client } from 'discord.js';

export default function (client: Client<true>) {
  console.log(`Logged in as ${client.user.username}!`);
}

Running the app in development

To run your application in development mode, you can use the commandkit dev command in your terminal. This will automatically reload the bot when you make changes to your code.

npm

npx commandkit dev

Yarn

yarn dlx commandkit dev

pnpm

pnpm dlx commandkit dev

warning

When running in development mode, CommandKit will generate a .commandkit folder in the root of your project. This folder contains the compiled files used in development mode. You should not commit this folder to your version control system by making sure you add it to your .gitignore file.

Building for production

When you are ready to deploy your bot, you can use commandkit build to create a production build of your bot. This will create a dist folder in your project directory containing the compiled files.

npx commandkit build

warning

After running your build script, CommandKit will generate a .dist folder in the root of your project. This folder contains the compiled files used for production. You should not commit this folder to your version control system by making sure you add it to your .gitignore file.

Running the app in production

You can use commandkit start to start the bot in production mode. This will load the environment variables from the .env file in the root of your project directory.

npx commandkit start

If you want to manually start the bot in production mode, you can alternatively use the following command:

node dist/index.js