Want your AI assistant hanging out in your Discord server? OpenClaw Cloud connects to Discord as a bot, so you can chat with it in any channel, DM, or thread. It'll respond when mentioned, reply to threads, and work alongside your existing server setup.

This guide walks through the full process—from creating the bot on Discord's developer portal to seeing your first AI response in a channel. Takes about 5 minutes, though most of that is clicking through Discord's settings.

What You'll Need

An OpenClaw Cloud account (already provisioned and running)
A Discord account with a server you manage (or permissions to add bots)
About 5 minutes

Step 1: Create a Discord Application

1 Open the Discord Developer Portal

Go to discord.com/developers/applications and sign in with your Discord account. Click "New Application" in the top right.

🖥️ Screenshot: Discord Developer Portal with "New Application" button highlighted

2 Name your application

Give it a name like "My AI Assistant" or whatever you want. This is the application name (not the bot's display name—you can set that separately). Accept the terms and click Create.

Step 2: Create the Bot & Get the Token

3 Navigate to the Bot section

In the left sidebar, click Bot. You'll see the bot configuration page. You can set a username and avatar here if you want.

4 Reset and copy the token

Click "Reset Token" and confirm. Discord will show your bot token once—copy it immediately. It looks something like:

MTIzNDU2Nzg5MDEyMzQ1Njc4.GrW4Rw.abc123_something_long

Save this token somewhere safe. Discord only shows it once. If you lose it, you'll need to reset it again. Never share it publicly—anyone with this token can control your bot.

Step 3: Enable Required Intents

This is the step most people forget. Discord requires you to explicitly enable certain permissions ("intents") for your bot to work properly.

5 Turn on Privileged Gateway Intents

Still on the Bot page, scroll down to "Privileged Gateway Intents" and enable all three:

Presence Intent — Lets the bot see who's online (optional but useful)
Server Members Intent — Lets the bot see the member list
Message Content Intent — Required. Without this, the bot can't read messages. It will see that messages were sent but not what they say.

🖥️ Screenshot: Bot settings page with all three Privileged Gateway Intents toggled on

Message Content Intent is critical. If you skip this, your bot will connect but won't be able to read or respond to messages. This is the #1 reason new Discord bots appear "broken."

Click Save Changes at the bottom.

Step 4: Invite the Bot to Your Server

6 Generate an invite link

In the left sidebar, click OAuth2. Under "OAuth2 URL Generator," check the bot scope. Then under "Bot Permissions," select these permissions:

Send Messages
Send Messages in Threads
Read Message History
Add Reactions
Attach Files (if you want the bot to share images/files)
Use Slash Commands (optional)

Minimum permissions: At bare minimum, you need Send Messages and Read Message History. The bot can't do much without these. Add more as needed for your use case.

7 Open the invite URL

Scroll down and copy the generated URL. Open it in your browser, select the server you want to add the bot to, and click Authorize. Done—the bot is now in your server (but offline until we connect it).

🖥️ Screenshot: OAuth2 URL Generator with "bot" scope and permissions checked

Step 5: Paste the Token in OpenClaw Cloud

8 Open the Channels tab

9 Paste your token and save

Paste the bot token you copied earlier into the Discord Bot Token field and click Save. OpenClaw Cloud will connect to Discord, and your bot will come online in your server within a few seconds.

🖥️ Screenshot: Channels tab with Discord token field and Save button

Your bot should now be online. Check your Discord server—you'll see the bot appear in the member list with a green dot.

Step 6: Start Chatting

Your bot is live. Here's how to talk to it:

Mention it: Type @YourBot hey, what can you do? in any channel
DM it: Click on the bot in the member list and send a direct message
Reply to it: Once it's in a thread, reply to continue the conversation

🖥️ Screenshot: Discord channel showing a mention of the bot and its AI response

Permissions Cheat Sheet

Here's a quick reference for what each permission enables:

Must have:

Send Messages — Bot can respond
Read Message History — Bot can see conversation context
Message Content Intent — Bot can read what messages actually say

Nice to have:

Send Messages in Threads — Bot works in thread conversations
Add Reactions — Bot can react to messages with emoji
Attach Files — Bot can share images, documents, etc.
Manage Messages — Bot can pin or delete messages

Troubleshooting

Bot is online but not responding

Check Message Content Intent — This is almost always the issue. Go back to the Bot page in the Developer Portal and make sure it's enabled.
Check channel permissions — Make sure the bot has permission to send messages and read messages in the specific channel you're testing in.
Try a DM — If it works in DMs but not channels, it's a channel permission issue.

Bot appears offline

Verify the token is correct in your OpenClaw Cloud Channels tab
Check the Overview tab—if the instance isn't running, the bot can't connect
Try removing and re-pasting the token

"Missing Access" error

The bot doesn't have permission to access a channel. Check the channel's permission overrides in Discord server settings—the bot role needs at least "View Channel" and "Send Messages."

Want to restrict which channels the bot responds in?

Use Discord's built-in channel permissions. Remove the bot's "View Channel" permission from channels you don't want it in. Simple and effective.

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