Glossary
Discord bot words, explained
One line each, with a link where there is more to say.
- Application
- What you create in the Developer Portal. It has a name, an icon and an ID, and it can have a bot user, slash commands and an OAuth2 sign-in.
- Application ID
- Also called the client ID. The application's public number, used in invite links. Not a secret.
- Bot user
- The account your code logs in as. It shows in member lists with an APP tag.
- Bot token
- The password your code logs in with. Three parts joined by dots. Anyone holding it can act as the bot. See token security.
- Client secret
- Used for OAuth2 sign-in on websites, not for logging a bot in. A common mix-up with the token.
- Gateway
- The always-open connection a bot holds to Discord, over which events arrive. Why a bot needs to run all the time, unlike a website.
- Heartbeat
- A small message the bot sends every forty seconds or so to show the gateway it is still there. Miss enough and Discord drops the connection.
- Intents
- The kinds of events a bot asks the gateway for. Three are privileged and need switching on in the portal. Pick yours.
- Guild
- What the API calls a server. Your bot's "guild count" is how many servers it is in.
- Shard
- One of several gateway connections a big bot splits its servers across. Required from 2,500 servers; most bots never need it.
- Slash command
- A command typed with /, registered with Discord in advance, with options Discord checks for you. Also called an application command.
- Interaction
- What Discord sends when someone uses a slash command, button or menu. The bot has three seconds to answer, or to say it is working on it.
- Ephemeral
- A reply only the person who used the command can see.
- Embed
- The boxed message with a title, colour, fields and images. discord.py, discord.js.
- Cog
- In discord.py, a class that groups related commands and listeners, loaded and reloaded as an extension. Guide.
- Rate limit
- How many requests Discord allows in a time window. Going over gets a 429 answer. What to do.
- Snowflake
- The ID format Discord uses for everything. It contains the moment the thing was created.
- Permissions integer
- Every permission is one bit; the number in an invite link is all the bits added up. Build one.
- Webhook
- A URL that posts messages into a channel without a bot. How crash alerts and many integrations post.
- Environment variable
- A setting given to a program from outside its code, like the token. Keeps secrets out of files you share.
- Process manager
- Something that starts your bot, restarts it when it crashes and brings it back after a reboot: pm2, systemd, or a host that does it for you.
- Uptime
- How much of the time the bot is online. Ninety-nine percent sounds high and is still seven hours a month offline.
Missing a word? Tell us and it goes in.