Discord App for Defang

This is a Discord bot developed for Defang Software Labs. It provides helpful resources in a Discord server and interacts with users via slash commands. The bot is built using Discord's official template.

Features

Slash Commands

/ask: A command to ask Defang-related questions to the bot. The bot accesses the Ask Defang (ask.defang.io) API endpoint for retrieving responses.

/test: A basic command to test functionality using the Discord API, without relying on external APIs.

Development

Project structure

Below is a basic overview of the project structure:

├── .env.       -> .env file (not shown)
├── app.js      -> main entrypoint for app
├── commands.js -> slash command payloads + helpers
├── utils.js    -> utility functions and enums
├── package.json
├── README.md
└── .gitignore

Setup project

Before you start, you'll need to install NodeJS and create a Discord app with the proper permissions:

• applications.commands
• bot (with Send Messages enabled) Configuring the app is covered in detail in the getting started guide.

Install dependencies

cd discord-bot
npm install

Get app credentials

Fetch the credentials from your app's settings and add them to a .env file. You'll need your app ID (DISCORD_APP_ID), bot token (DISCORD_TOKEN), and public key (DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY). You will also need an ASK_TOKEN to authenticate API calls to the Ask Defang endpoint.

Install slash commands

The commands for the example app are set up in commands.js. All of the commands in the ALL_COMMANDS array at the bottom of commands.js will be installed when you run the register command configured in package.json:

cd discord-bot
npm run register

Running the app locally

After your credentials are added, go ahead and run the app:

cd discord-bot
npm run start

Set up interactivity

The project needs a public endpoint where Discord can send requests. To develop and test locally, you can use something like ngrok to tunnel HTTP traffic.

Install ngrok if you haven't already, then start listening on port 3000 in a separate terminal:

ngrok http 3000

You should see your connection open:

Tunnel Status                 online
Version                       2.0/2.0
Web Interface                 http://127.0.0.1:4040
Forwarding                    https://1234-someurl.ngrok.io -> localhost:3000

Connections                  ttl     opn     rt1     rt5     p50     p90
                              0       0       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00

Copy the forwarding address that starts with https, in this case https://1234-someurl.ngrok.io, then go to your app's settings.

On the General Information tab, there will be an Interactions Endpoint URL. Paste your ngrok address there, and append /interactions to it (https://1234-someurl.ngrok.io/interactions in the example).

Click Save Changes, and your app should be ready to run 🚀