GuidesOnly show guides for your app
GuidesGuidesCreate the application, grab its token, switch on the intents it needs, and invite it to your server — the Developer Portal half that every bot needs before a single line of code runs.
Every Discord bot starts the same way, and it isn't with code. Before your bot can do anything, it has to exist as an application in Discord's own dashboard, get a secret token, and be invited to a server. This guide covers that whole half — the part every language-specific guide assumes you've already done. At the end you'll have a token in hand and a (still offline) bot sitting in your server, ready for code to bring it to life.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| You need | a Discord account and a server you own or have Manage Server permission on |
| Time | about ten minutes |
| Plan | none — no Falix server needed yet, this all happens on Discord's side |
Go to the Discord Developer Portal and click New Application. Give it a name (this is the bot's name to start with — you can change it later) and accept the terms. You now have an application: a container for one bot, its token, and its permissions.
In the left sidebar, open Bot. Discord attaches a bot user to every application, so it's already there waiting.
Under the username you'll see the token controls. Click Reset Token, confirm, and Discord shows you the token once. Copy it now and keep it somewhere safe. Three things to burn into memory:
That string is what you'll paste into your code's .env file later. If you're not setting up hosting today, just save it securely.
While you're on the Bot page, two quick extras worth doing now:
Intents are Discord's way of asking "what kinds of events does this bot actually need?" Most stay on by default. Three are privileged and have their own toggles on this same Bot page:
| Intent | You need it when |
|---|---|
| Message Content | your bot reads the text of messages — prefix !command bots, auto-moderation, reacting to what people type (not slash commands) |
| Server Members | you want member join/leave/update events |
| Presence | you want members' online status and activities |
Turn on only what your code uses. And if you're just building slash commands (which the starter guides do), you can leave all three off.
⚠️ Heads up: If your code asks for a privileged intent you haven't enabled here, Discord rejects the login outright.
A bot can't add itself — you generate an invite URL and open it. In the sidebar go to OAuth2 → URL Generator:
bot and applications.commands. The second one is what lets your slash commands register in the server, so don't skip it.Paste that URL into your browser. Discord asks which server to add the bot to — pick one you have Manage Server on — then confirm the permissions and Authorize.
Open your Discord server and look at the member list. Your bot is there — shown offline (grey). That's exactly right. The application exists, it's a member of your server, but nothing is running it yet.
🎯 Good to know: A bot is just a program somewhere on the internet holding a connection open with that token; until that program is running, the bot is dark.
That "somewhere" is what the next guides set up on Falix.
bot scope; select it and the Bot Permissions box appears.You have a token and an invited bot. Now give it code to run: