RABot

The official RetroAchievements Discord bot.

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About

RABot is the official RetroAchievements Discord bot. It serves the RetroAchievements community with various utility commands, polls, and integration features.

RABot utilizes:

• The Bun runtime for high speed, low memory footprint, and native TS execution
• TypeScript for static type safety
• Discord.js for tight integration with Discord
• Drizzle ORM with SQLite for data persistence
• @retroachievements/api for web API calls

Requirements

• Bun 1.3.10+
• A Discord application ID, bot token, and RetroAchievements Web API key

Installation

Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/RetroAchievements/RABot-Next.git
cd RABot-Next
bun install

Configuration

Copy the example environment file and fill in your values:

cp .env.example .env

Then edit .env with your configuration:

• DISCORD_TOKEN - Your bot's token from Discord Developer Portal
• DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID - Your bot's application ID from Discord Developer Portal
• RA_WEB_API_KEY - Your RetroAchievements Web API key
• RA_CONNECT_API_KEY - RetroAchievements Connect API key required for /mem achievement ID/URL lookups and code notes
• RA_CONNECT_API_USER - RetroAchievements Connect API username (default: RABot)
• YOUTUBE_API_KEY - Your YouTube Data API v3 key (optional, for /gan longplay searches)
• MAIN_GUILD_ID - Discord guild ID for the main RetroAchievements server (optional, but recommended for production guild authorization)
• WORKSHOP_GUILD_ID - Discord guild ID for the RetroAchievements Workshop server (required for Workshop-only features)
• CHEAT_INVESTIGATION_CATEGORY_ID - Category ID required for RACheats /pingteam ping restrictions
• UWC_VOTING_TAG_ID - Forum tag ID for active UWC polls (optional)
• UWC_VOTE_CONCLUDED_TAG_ID - Forum tag ID for completed UWC polls (optional)
• UWC_FORUM_CHANNEL_ID - Forum channel ID for UWC auto-detection (optional)
• DEV_CHANNELS - Comma-separated channel IDs where /mem may show code notes (optional)
• AUTO_PUBLISH_CHANNEL_IDS - Comma-separated list of announcement channel IDs to auto-publish from (optional)
• NODE_ENV - Environment mode: development or production (default: development)
• LOG_LEVEL - Logging level: trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal (default: debug in dev, info in prod)

Database Setup

Initialize the database:

bun run db:generate  # Generate migration files
bun run db:migrate   # Apply migrations
bun run db:seed      # Seed default teams (optional)

Deploying Slash Commands

Deploy the application's global slash commands:

bun run deploy-commands

This needs to be run:

• When you first set up the bot
• Whenever you add or modify slash commands
• After major Discord.js updates

Running the Bot

Development

bun run dev  # Runs with auto-restart on file changes

Production

bun run start  # Standard run

For production deployments, the bot is automatically deployed via Forge when changes are merged to the main branch. The bot runs under a process supervisor on the production server.

Available Scripts

• bun run dev - Run in development mode with hot reload
• bun run start - Run in production mode
• bun run deploy-commands - Deploy slash commands to Discord
• bun run db:generate - Generate database migrations
• bun run db:migrate - Apply database migrations
• bun run db:seed - Seed default teams
• bun run format - Format code with oxfmt
• bun run format:check - Check formatting without writing
• bun run lint - Run oxlint
• bun run lint:fix - Run oxlint with auto-fix
• bun run tsc - Run TypeScript type checking (via tsgo)
• bun run test - Run all tests
• bun run test:watch - Run tests in watch mode
• bun run verify - Format, lint-fix, type check, and test locally
• bun run ci - Run CI-safe format check, lint, type checking, and tests

Commands

RABot is slash-command only. The legacy ! prefix commands were removed because Discord revoked the bot's Message Content privileged intent, which made reading prefixed messages impossible.

Slash Commands

• /topic - Display the current channel topic
• /contact - Show contact information for various RA teams
• /status - Display bot status and statistics
• /poll - Create a simple poll (up to 10 options)
• /tpoll - Create a timed poll that automatically closes
• /gan <game-id> - Generate achievement news template
• /gan2 <game-id> - Generate pretty achievement news template with colors
• /pingteam - Team management system (Workshop server only)
  • /pingteam ping <team> - Ping all members of a team
  • /pingteam add <team> <user> - Add user to team
  • /pingteam remove <team> <user> - Remove user from team
  • /pingteam create <name> - Create a new team
• /uwc - Create an Unwelcome Concept poll (Workshop server only, requires UWC role or admin, auto-manages forum tags)
  • Auto-detection: When a new UWC thread is created in the configured forum channel with format 12345: Achievement Title (Game Name), the bot automatically posts links to previous discussions for that achievement
• /dadjoke - Get a random dad joke
• /frames <input> - Convert between time and frames at different frame rates
• /rules [rule] - Display the server rules, a single rule, or the Code of Conduct link
• /mem <input> - Parse a MemAddr string and show achievement logic (accepts an achievement ID, URL, or raw MemAddr)

Project Structure

src/
├── slash-commands/  # Modern slash commands (*.command.ts files)
├── config/          # Configuration and constants
├── database/        # Database setup and schemas
├── handlers/        # Event handlers
├── models/          # TypeScript interfaces and types
├── services/        # Business logic services
├── test/            # Shared test database and mocks
└── utils/           # Utility functions and logging

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see our Contributing Guide for detailed information on:

• Setting up your development environment
• Development workflow and standards
• Submitting pull requests
• Code style and project structure

For quick questions, feel free to open an issue or ask in our Discord server!