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Getting Started

In this article, you'll learn about the basics of nestcord, and how it integrates with NestJS!

tip

Many of the concepts seen with nestcord are designed to be used like other components in a NestJS project.
We recommend you to be familiar with the NestJS documentation, especially its overview section, before getting started.

The very first step is to install nestcord and its dependency, Discord.js

npm install @globalart/nestcord discord.js
tip

You need to install Node.js v16.0.0 or newer to use NestCord and Discord.js.

Module​

NestCord is a module like any others, and can be imported as such within your Nest application.

NestJS modules

Not sure what modules are? Catch up by reading about them in NestJS!

src/discord.module.ts
import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { AppService } from './app.service';
import { IntentsBitField } from 'discord.js';

@Module({
    imports: [
        NestCordModule.forRoot({
            token: process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN,
            intents: [IntentsBitField.Flags.Guilds],
            development: [process.env.DISCORD_DEVELOPMENT_GUILD_ID]
        })
    ],
    providers: [AppService]
})
export class DiscordModule {}
info

Make sure to setup the correct intents required by your application!

The module arguments are an extension of discord.js ClientOptions, in addition to 3 nestcord options: token, prefix and development.

export interface NestCordModuleOptions extends DiscordClientOptions {
    token: string;
    prefix?: string | (message: Message) => string | Promise<string>;
    development?: Snowflake[] | false;
    skipRegistration?: boolean;
    skipGetCommandInfoFromDiscord?: boolean;
}
PropertyTypeDescription
tokenstringYour Discord token
prefixstring or (message: Message) => stringThe prefix for your bot
developmentSnowflake[] or falseThe development guilds for your bot
skipRegistrationbooleanSkip automatic registration of application commands
skipGetCommandInfoFromDiscordbooleanSkip automic fetch command info from DiscordAPI, DiscordResponse will be null in CommandDiscovery
Warning

If you have commands using the guilds property, the global development argument will not overwrite it.

Slash Commands​

The best way to interact with your users is to use Slash commands! Slash commands allow you to create commands with precise arguments and choices, giving users the best experience.

To create a command with NestCord, you can use the SlashCommand decorator.

src/app.service.ts
import { Injectable } from '@nestjs/common';
import { Context, SlashCommand, SlashCommandContext } from '@globalart/nestcord';

@Injectable()
export class AppService {
    @SlashCommand({
        name: 'ping',
        description: 'Ping command!'
    })
    public async onPing(@Context() [interaction]: SlashCommandContext) {
        return interaction.reply({ content: 'Pong!' });
    }
}
tip

When the client logs in, it will automatically register all of the commands. Global commands are cached for up to an hour, therefore to avoid the global commands cache, you should use the development argument on the NestCord module. This will restrict the command to a single guild, preventing it from getting caught by the cache.

Running the application​

You can run the following command at your OS command prompt to start the application listening Discord API events:

$ npm run start