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How to Build a Smart Discord Bot with OpenClaw — No Coding Required

Turn your Discord server into an AI-powered workspace. OpenClaw gives you a bot with buttons, forms, voice messages, role-based routing, moderation, and 5,700+ installable skills — all without writing a single line of code.

Traditional Discord bots are rigid. They respond to slash commands with canned answers, break when someone phrases a question differently, and require a developer to add new features. OpenClaw takes a fundamentally different approach: it connects a full AI agent — with memory, tool use, interactive components, and natural language understanding — directly to your Discord server via the official Bot API.

The result is a Discord bot that can hold real conversations, send interactive buttons and forms, moderate your server intelligently, summarize threads, send voice messages, route premium members to better AI models, and do basically anything you can describe in plain English. Setup takes about 10 minutes.

Why OpenClaw Makes a Better Discord Bot

Most Discord bots are single-purpose tools. MEE6 does moderation. Midjourney does images. Carl-bot does auto-roles. You end up with a dozen bots cluttering your server, none of which talk to each other.

OpenClaw replaces that entire stack with one agent that does all of it:

• Natural language, not slash commands. Ask questions in plain English. No memorizing /command syntax. The bot understands context, follow-up questions, and ambiguous phrasing. (Native slash commands are supported too, enabled by default.)
• Persistent memory. OpenClaw remembers previous conversations per channel and per user. Ask it something on Monday, reference it on Friday — it knows what you are talking about.
• Interactive UI with Components v2. Send buttons, dropdown menus, and modal forms directly in Discord. Build approval workflows, feedback forms, and structured inputs — not just text chat.
• Role-based agent routing. Route premium members to Claude Opus while free members get Haiku. Different roles, different AI models, different capabilities — all automatic.
• 5,700+ skills on ClawHub. Need web search? Image generation? GitHub integration? Install a skill with one command and your bot gains new abilities instantly.
• Voice messages. The bot can send Discord voice messages with waveform previews, just like a human would. Needs ffmpeg on your gateway host.
• Runs on your hardware. Your conversations stay on your server. No third-party data processing. No rate limits imposed by someone else's API.

OpenClaw Discord Bot Setup: Step by Step

Before you start, you need two things:

1. A running OpenClaw Gateway. If you have not installed OpenClaw yet, follow the step-by-step install guide. You need Node 22+, an AI API key (Anthropic recommended), and about 5 minutes.
2. A Discord server where you have admin permissions. You need the "Manage Server" permission to invite bots.

No Python, no JavaScript, no Docker (unless you want it). Just OpenClaw and a Discord server.

openclaw channels add --channel discord --token "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"

export DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN="YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
openclaw gateway restart

What Your Discord AI Bot Can Do

Here are specific things you can set up today — no coding required:

1. Answer questions from your docs. Add your FAQ or documentation to the system prompt. Members ask "What's the rule about self-promotion?" and get an accurate answer.
2. Summarize long threads. "Summarize the last 100 messages" — the bot reads history and produces a structured summary with key decisions and action items.
3. Moderate intelligently. Timeout, kick, or ban based on rules you define in plain English. "If someone posts more than 5 messages in 10 seconds, timeout them for 5 minutes."
4. Send interactive forms. Bug report forms, feedback surveys, approval workflows — all using Discord's native buttons and modals.
5. Route premium members to better AI. Members with a "Premium" role get Claude Opus; everyone else gets Haiku. Automatic, based on Discord roles.
6. Monitor for bugs and issues. Connect a Sentry or GitHub skill and the bot posts alerts, proposes fixes, and creates PRs — all in Discord.
7. Generate images. "@Bot generate a logo for our hackathon, cyberpunk style with neon colors" — image posted right in the channel.
8. Send voice messages. The bot can respond with Discord voice messages, complete with waveform previews.
9. Draft announcements. "@Bot write an announcement for Friday game night" — polished, formatted, ready to post.
10. Translate in real time. "@Bot translate this to Japanese: Welcome to our server!" — instant translation with pronunciation guide.
11. Schedule content. Set up a content pipeline: scan trends, draft posts, schedule publishing — all coordinated through Discord.
12. Onboard new members. Automatically greet new users, explain server rules, and answer their first questions in DMs.
13. Run research. "@Bot what are the best React state management libraries in 2026?" — live web search with current comparisons.
14. Review pull requests. The bot reads diffs, flags missing tests, risky changes, and security issues — posts reviews directly in your dev channel.

Discord AI Bot No Code: Components v2 — Buttons, Forms, and Menus

This is the feature most people don't know about. OpenClaw supports Discord's components v2, which means your bot can send rich interactive messages — not just text.

Buttons and Select Menus

Your bot can send messages with action buttons (approve/decline, priority selection) and dropdown menus. When a user clicks a button or selects an option, the interaction is routed back to the agent as a normal message.

{
  "channel": "discord",
  "action": "send",
  "target": "channel:123456789012345678",
  "components": {
    "text": "New support ticket from @user",
    "blocks": [
      {
        "type": "actions",
        "buttons": [
          { "label": "Approve", "style": "success" },
          { "label": "Decline", "style": "danger" }
        ]
      },
      {
        "type": "actions",
        "select": {
          "type": "string",
          "placeholder": "Assign priority",
          "options": [
            { "label": "Low", "value": "low" },
            { "label": "Medium", "value": "medium" },
            { "label": "High", "value": "high" }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Supported select types include string, user, role, mentionable, and channel — so you can build menus that let users pick team members, roles, or channels natively.

I walk through my full bot setup and the automations I actually use in a free guide.

Modal Forms

Need structured input? Modal forms pop up as Discord dialogs with up to 5 fields. OpenClaw adds a trigger button automatically.

{
  "components": {
    "text": "Submit a bug report",
    "modal": {
      "title": "Bug Report",
      "triggerLabel": "Report Bug",
      "fields": [
        { "type": "text", "label": "What happened?" },
        { "type": "text", "label": "Steps to reproduce" },
        {
          "type": "select",
          "label": "Severity",
          "options": [
            { "label": "Minor", "value": "minor" },
            { "label": "Major", "value": "major" },
            { "label": "Critical", "value": "critical" }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Field types include text, checkbox, radio, select, role-select, and user-select. This turns your Discord bot into a full application — feedback forms, onboarding surveys, feature requests, all with native Discord UI.

Voice Messages

OpenClaw can send Discord voice messages with the native waveform preview, just like a human sending a voice note. This is useful for announcements, TTS responses, or accessibility.

Requirements:

• ffmpeg and ffprobe installed on the gateway host
• A local audio file path (URLs are rejected)
• No text content in the same message (Discord limitation)

Any audio format is accepted — OpenClaw converts to OGG/Opus automatically and generates the waveform.

message(action="send", channel="discord", target="channel:123",
       path="/path/to/audio.mp3", asVoice=true)

Combine this with a TTS skill and your bot can speak its responses as voice messages instead of (or in addition to) text.

Configuring Personality and System Prompt

The system prompt tells the bot who it is, how to behave, and what it knows. You write it in plain English. Here is an example for a developer community server:

You are DevHelper, the AI assistant for the Acme Dev Community Discord server.

Your role:
- Answer programming questions clearly and concisely
- Help debug code when members paste error messages
- Summarize long discussions when asked
- Review code snippets for bugs and best practices
- Use buttons for approval workflows (approve/reject PRs)
- Use forms for bug reports and feature requests

Rules:
- Never share or generate API keys, passwords, or credentials
- If you don't know the answer, say so honestly
- Keep responses under 2000 characters (Discord's message limit)
- Use code blocks for any code snippets
- Use components v2 (buttons/forms) when structured input is needed

To set this, edit the system prompt in your ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json config file or use the OpenClaw dashboard at http://127.0.0.1:18789.

OpenClaw Discord Moderation

OpenClaw supports Discord moderation actions natively: timeout, kick, and ban. These are disabled by default for safety. To enable them:

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "actions": {
        "moderation": "enabled"
      }
    }
  }
}

Once enabled, you can tell the bot things like "timeout @spammer for 10 minutes, they're posting links in every channel" and it will execute the action. You can also define automatic moderation rules in the system prompt.

Available action gates (all configurable under channels.discord.actions.*):

Advanced: Guild Configuration and Access Control

This is where OpenClaw's Discord integration gets seriously powerful. You have fine-grained control over who can talk to the bot, in which channels, and what model they get.

Guild Allowlist Configuration

Here is a complete guild setup with channel allowlists, role restrictions, and mention requirements:

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "groupPolicy": "allowlist",
      "guilds": {
        "123456789012345678": {
          "requireMention": true,
          "users": ["987654321098765432"],
          "roles": ["111111111111111111"],
          "channels": {
            "general": { "allow": true, "requireMention": true },
            "support": { "allow": true, "requireMention": false },
            "admin": { "allow": true }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

In this example:

• #general — bot responds only when @mentioned
• #support — bot responds to every message (great for a help desk)
• #admin — bot responds when @mentioned, inheriting the guild default
• Only users matching the users or roles lists can interact with the bot
• Channels not listed are denied

If you only set DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN and don't create a channels.discord block, the fallback is groupPolicy="open" (with a warning in logs).

Role-Based Agent Routing

Route different Discord roles to different AI agents with different models, system prompts, and capabilities. This is the killer feature for communities with paid tiers:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "agentId": "opus-agent",
      "match": {
        "channel": "discord",
        "guildId": "123456789012345678",
        "roles": ["PREMIUM_ROLE_ID"]
      }
    },
    {
      "agentId": "sonnet-agent",
      "match": {
        "channel": "discord",
        "guildId": "123456789012345678"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Members with the "Premium" role get routed to Claude Opus (smarter, more capable). Everyone else gets Sonnet or Haiku (faster, cheaper). The routing is automatic — members just talk normally and get the right model. You could even route your mod team to an agent with moderation actions enabled while keeping those disabled for everyone else.

DM Access Control

Control who can DM the bot directly with channels.discord.dmPolicy:

• pairing (default) — unknown users get a pairing prompt before they can chat
• allowlist — only pre-approved users can DM
• open — anyone can DM (requires allowFrom: "*")
• disabled — no DMs at all

By default, DMs share the main agent session (agent:main:main). Group DMs are ignored by default but can be enabled with dm.groupEnabled and allowlisted via dm.groupChannels.

Native Slash Commands

Slash commands are enabled by default (commands.native = "auto"). OpenClaw registers them automatically with Discord's API. Each slash command runs in an isolated session but carries the conversation context. Slash command auth uses the same allowlists and policies as regular messages — commands may be visible in Discord UI for unauthorized users, but execution will return "not authorized."

To disable slash commands: set commands.native = false. This also clears any previously registered commands.

Adding Skills: Search, Images, and More

Skills are what turn your Discord bot from a chatbot into a capable assistant. ClawHub has over 5,700 skills you can install with a single command:

# Web search — answer questions with live internet data
openclaw skills install web-search

# Image generation — create images from text descriptions
openclaw skills install image-gen

# GitHub integration — manage issues, PRs, repos from Discord
openclaw skills install github

Each skill you install gives your bot a new capability immediately. No restart needed. Skills have proper YAML frontmatter (name + description) — if they're missing, OpenClaw won't load them. Verify with openclaw skills list --json.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Bot appears offline

• Check that OpenClaw is running: openclaw gateway status
• Verify the Discord channel is connected: openclaw channels status --probe
• Make sure your bot token is correct and has not been regenerated on the Developer Portal

Bot is online but not responding

• Most common cause: Message Content Intent is not enabled on the Developer Portal. Go to Bot settings and toggle it on.
• Check if requireMention is true for the channel. Try @mentioning the bot directly.
• Verify your AI API key has credits: openclaw status
• Check logs for errors: openclaw logs --tail 50

Bot responds in some channels but not others

• If groupPolicy is set to allowlist, only channels listed in your guilds.*.channels config are active
• Check that the bot has "View Channel" and "Send Messages" permissions in the target channel
• If the channel is a thread, ensure the bot has the right to participate in threads

Slash commands not appearing

• OpenClaw registers native slash commands automatically when commands.native is set to "auto" (the default)
• Discord caches commands. Wait up to an hour, or try restarting the gateway: openclaw gateway restart
• To force re-registration, restart the gateway and check with openclaw channels status --probe

Moderation actions not working

• Moderation is disabled by default. Set channels.discord.actions.moderation to "enabled" in your config
• Make sure the bot's role is higher in the role hierarchy than the users it is trying to moderate
• Verify the bot has the required permissions (Moderate Members, Kick Members, etc.) in the server

Voice messages not working

• Install ffmpeg and ffprobe on the gateway host
• Voice messages require a local file path — URLs are rejected
• You cannot send text and a voice message in the same payload

FAQ

Can OpenClaw run as a Discord bot?

Yes. OpenClaw connects to Discord via the official Bot API. You create a bot on the Discord Developer Portal, copy the token, and run one command to connect it. OpenClaw then responds to messages in DMs and guild channels with full AI capabilities including tool use, memory, skills, interactive buttons, forms, and voice messages.

Is the OpenClaw Discord bot free?

OpenClaw itself is 100% free and open source (MIT license, 180,000+ GitHub stars). You need an AI API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Groq) which typically costs $0.50–3.00 per day for moderate Discord server usage. You can also run it for free using Ollama with local models, or use budget providers like MiniMax for around $10/month.

How do I add AI to my Discord server?

Install OpenClaw (requires Node 22+), create a bot on the Discord Developer Portal, enable Message Content Intent, invite the bot to your server, then run openclaw channels add --channel discord --token YOUR_TOKEN. The entire process takes under 10 minutes and requires no coding.

Can the bot moderate my server?

Yes. OpenClaw supports Discord moderation actions including timeout, kick, and ban. These are disabled by default for safety. Enable them in your config under channels.discord.actions.moderation. The bot can then moderate based on rules you define in plain English in its system prompt.

Does it support slash commands?

Yes. Native Discord slash commands are enabled by default (commands.native = "auto"). OpenClaw registers them automatically with the Discord API. Slash commands run in isolated sessions and respect the same access control policies as regular messages.

Can the OpenClaw bot work in multiple Discord channels at once?

Yes. Each Discord channel gets its own isolated session, so conversations do not bleed between channels. You can configure which channels the bot responds in, whether it requires @mentions, and even route different channels or roles to different AI agents with different models and capabilities.

Related Guides

• How to Install OpenClaw — get OpenClaw running before connecting Discord
• OpenClaw System Prompt Guide — craft the perfect personality for your bot
• Best OpenClaw Skills to Install — extend your bot with moderation, search, image gen, and more
• OpenClaw WhatsApp & Telegram Setup — connect the same agent to other messaging platforms
• OpenClaw Use Cases — 15 things your AI agent can do beyond Discord
• OpenClaw Skills & ClawHub Guide — deep dive into the skill marketplace