Discord Bot Setup — OpenClaw Integration Guide

## Step 1: Create Your Discord Bot

1. Go to [Discord Developer Portal](https://discord.com/developers/applications)

2. Click New Application and name it

3. Go to Bot section → Click Add Bot

4. Copy the bot token (click Reset Token if needed)

Critical: Enable Privileged Intents:

- Scroll down to Privileged Gateway Intents

- Enable Message Content Intent ✅ (REQUIRED for reading messages)

- Enable Server Members Intent ✅ (recommended)

- Save changes

## Step 2: Generate Bot Invite URL

Go to OAuth2 → URL Generator:

- Scopes: Select bot and applications.commands

- Bot Permissions: Select at minimum:

- Send Messages

- Read Message History

- Use Slash Commands

- (Optional) Administrator for full access

- Copy the generated URL and open it to invite the bot to your server

## Step 3: Configure Discord in OpenClaw

// ~/.openclaw/config.json5{  channels: {    discord: {      enabled: true,      botToken: "YOUR_DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN",      dmPolicy: "pairing",      // or "allowlist", "open"      groupPolicy: "allowlist", // guilds must be explicitly allowed      guilds: {        "YOUR_GUILD_ID": {          users: ["YOUR_USER_ID"],  // authorized users          channels: {            "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID": { allow: true }          }        }      }    }  }}

How to get IDs:

1. Enable Developer Mode: Discord Settings → App Settings → Advanced → Developer Mode

2. Right-click server → Copy Server ID (Guild ID)

3. Right-click channel → Copy Channel ID

4. Right-click yourself → Copy User ID

## Step 4: Fix 'Not Authorized' Errors

The 'not authorized' message comes from OpenClaw, not Discord. Even with Discord admin permissions, you must be authorized in OpenClaw:

For DMs (using pairing):

# List pending Discord pairing requestsopenclaw pairing list discord# Approve your pairing codeopenclaw pairing approve discord <code>

For Server Channels (using allowlist):

channels: {  discord: {    groupPolicy: "allowlist",    guilds: {      "123456789012345678": {  // Your Guild ID        users: ["987654321098765432"],  // Your User ID        channels: {          "111222333444555666": { allow: true }  // Channel ID        }      }    }  }}

## Step 5: Fix 'Unknown Channel' Errors

If the bot receives messages but fails to reply with Unknown Channel:

1. Verify the channel ID is correct — Right-click channel → Copy ID

2. Check bot permissions in that channel — Bot needs Send Messages permission

3. Ensure the channel exists — Private channels or deleted channels cause this

4. Try recreating the bot — Sometimes the bot-channel binding gets corrupted

# Check what channels the bot can seeopenclaw logs --follow | grep -i channel

## Step 6: Fix Duplicate Messages

If you're seeing every message processed twice:

# Check for duplicate gateway instancesopenclaw status --deep# Look under 'Health' → 'Discord' → 'Agents active'# Should show only ONE agent, not duplicates# Also check for old processesps aux | grep -E '(clawdbot|moltbot|openclaw).*gateway'# Kill any old instancesclawdbot gateway stop 2>/dev/nullmoltbot gateway stop 2>/dev/null# Restart OpenClaw onlyopenclaw gateway restart

After migration (Clawdbot/Moltbot → OpenClaw):

# Stop ALL gateway servicessudo systemctl stop clawdbot-gateway 2>/dev/nullsudo systemctl stop moltbot-gateway 2>/dev/nullsudo systemctl disable clawdbot-gateway 2>/dev/nullsudo systemctl disable moltbot-gateway 2>/dev/null# Keep only openclaw-gatewayopenclaw gateway restart

## Step 7: Set Up Per-Channel System Prompts

Configure different prompts for different channels:

channels: {  discord: {    guilds: {      "YOUR_GUILD_ID": {        channels: {          "support-channel": {            allow: true,            systemPrompt: "You are a helpful support agent. Be concise and professional."          },          "creative-channel": {            allow: true,            systemPrompt: "You are a creative writing assistant. Be imaginative and expressive."          }        }      }    }  }}

Note: Channel keys can be the channel ID (preferred) or slug (lowercase, spaces as dashes).

## Step 8: Store Credentials for Reuse

Each Discord channel/thread is a separate session. Credentials typed in chat won't carry over.

For API tokens (GitHub, etc.) — Store on the gateway host:

# Add to ~/.openclaw/.envecho 'GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxx' >> ~/.openclaw/.envecho 'GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxx' >> ~/.openclaw/.env# Restart gateway to pick up env varsopenclaw gateway restart

For model credentials — Configure in config.json5, not in chat:

models: {  providers: {    anthropic: {      apiKey: "sk-ant-xxxxx"    },    openai: {      apiKey: "sk-xxxxx"    }  }}

## Step 9: Verify Everything is Working

# Full status checkopenclaw status --deep# Check Discord specificallyopenclaw channels status# Should show:# - Discord: enabled, configured, running# Test the connection# Send a message in your allowed channel: @YourBot hello# Watch logs for issuesopenclaw logs --follow

## Common Error Messages and Fixes

| Error | Cause | Fix |

|-------|-------|-----|

| The application did not respond | Gateway not running or bot misconfigured | Run openclaw gateway status, check logs |

| You are not authorized | User not in OpenClaw allowlist | Add user ID to guilds.users array |

| Unknown Channel | Channel ID wrong or bot lacks permissions | Verify channel ID, check bot permissions |

| Missing Access | Bot not in server or lacks permissions | Re-invite bot with proper scopes |

| Duplicate messages | Multiple gateway instances running | Stop old instances, keep only openclaw-gateway |