Getting Started

CommandKit is a powerful framework for building Discord bots. In this guide, we'll walk you through the process of getting started with CommandKit.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have installed discord.js and commandkit in your project.

Building a simple bot

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It is recommended to use modules instead of commonjs for commandkit projects. CommandKit will allow you to use both require and import in modules projects.

First of all, create a commandkit.config.ts at the root of your project. This file is used to configure CommandKit and its plugins.

import { defineConfig } from 'commandkit';

export default defineConfig({});

Then, create a src folder and add app.ts file inside it.

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You can also use .js files instead of .ts. CommandKit supports both JavaScript and TypeScript out of the box.

The app.ts file is the entrypoint of your bot. This file exports your discord.js client.

import { Client } from 'discord.js';

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

// must export the client here
export default client;

You don't need to call client.login() as commandkit will do that for you. You should store your bot token in .env file under DISCORD_TOKEN or TOKEN variable.

Now, lets create a simple command. Create a src/app/commands folder and add ping.ts file inside it.

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

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

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

// you can also add a message command handler
export const message: MessageCommand = async (ctx) => {
  await ctx.message.reply('Pong!');
};

This command will reply with Pong! when the user types /ping or !ping in the chat.

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You can override the default prefix for message commands using:

import { commandkit } from 'commandkit';

commandkit.setPrefixResolver(async (message) => {
  // you can use `message` to fetch guild specific prefixes if needed
  return '?';
});

An example of this could be:

import { commandkit, cacheTag } from 'commandkit';
import { database } from '../database.ts';

// this function's result will be automatically cached
async function fetchGuildPrefix(guildId: string) {
  'use cache';

  cacheTag(`prefix:${guildId}`);

  const setting = await database.findUnique({
    where: { guildId },
    select: { prefix: true },
  });

  // if no prefix is found, return the default prefix
  return setting?.prefix ?? '!';
}

commandkit.setPrefixResolver((message) => {
  return fetchGuildPrefix(message.guildId);
});

You can also return array of prefixes.

Now, lets run the bot. You can use commandkit dev to start the bot in development mode. This will automatically reload the bot when you make changes to your code.

npx commandkit dev

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

Production build

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

Starting the bot in production mode

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

npx commandkit start

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

node dist/index.js

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The index.js file is autogenerated by CommandKit.