# Create your Discord application

Set your bot's application up in Discord's developer portal before you write any code. Covers the token, the intents you turn on, the public key an http bot verifies requests with, and adding the bot to a server.

Your bot needs an application on Discord's side before any code runs. Every step on this page happens in the [Discord Developer Portal](https://discord.com/developers/applications). Start with **New Application**, top right.

## Get the token

Open **Bot** in the sidebar. Discord shows a token once. **Reset Token** gives you a new one and invalidates the old.

![The Token block on the Bot page, with a Reset Token button](/portal-token.webp)

Keep it somewhere safe. You paste it in when you set up the project.

> **Warning**
>
> The **Client Secret** on the **OAuth2** page is a different
> credential. Don't paste it where the token goes.

## Turn on the intents you need

> **Gateway only**
>
> An http bot holds no gateway connection and declares no intents.

The same page has **Privileged Gateway Intents** further down. Turn on the ones your bot needs. Discord only reviews these once your app reaches more than 10,000 users.

Discord closes the connection when your code asks for one of these without the switch turned on here, and discord.js reports it as `Used disallowed intents`.

{/* prettier-ignore-start */}

| Switch                 | What it covers                                    |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Presence Intent        | who is online and what they are playing           |
| Server Members Intent  | member joins, leaves, nickname and role changes   |
| Message Content Intent | the text of messages that do not mention your bot |

{/* prettier-ignore-end */}

![The three privileged gateway intent switches on the Bot page](/portal-intents.webp)

## Copy the public key

> **Http only**
>
> A gateway bot needs no public key.

**General Information** carries your **Public Key**. Discord signs every request it posts to you, and your bot checks the signature against this key. Get the key wrong and every interaction fails that check, so Discord never accepts your endpoint URL in the first place.

The same page has an **Interactions Endpoint URL** field. Leave it empty. The dev server sets it for you later.

## Add the bot to a server

Open **Installation**.

Under **Installation Contexts**, tick **Guild Install**. That's the one that puts your bot in a server. **User Install** puts it on a person's account.

![Installation Contexts with Guild Install ticked](/portal-install-contexts.webp)

Under **Default Install Settings**, pick the permissions your bot needs. `applications.commands` and `bot` are already in the scopes, and `applications.commands` can't be removed.

Copy the URL under **Install Link** and open it. Pick your server and confirm.

![The install link and the default scopes and permissions](/portal-install-link.webp)

> **Warning**
>
> Adding a bot to a server needs the **Manage Server** permission
> in that server.