The CLI

Create a project, run it while you work, build and register it for production, and scaffold its parts.

meocord is the command a MeoCord project runs through. It creates the project, runs the bot while you work, builds it for production, registers its commands with Discord, and writes the files for a new controller or service. This page shows how the commands fit together; the CLI reference lists every flag.

When to use it

• While you work: start --dev rebuilds and restarts the bot on every change.
• On the server: build --prod, then start --prod, or run the build with node dist/main.js, as Deployment does in a container.
• When registering is its own step: register sends the commands to Discord without starting the bot, from CI for instance.
• For a new part: generate writes a controller, service, guard, interceptor, filter, pipe or observer, with a spec beside it.

Example

npx meocord start --dev          # build, start, and rebuild and restart on every change
npx meocord g co slash Greeting  # a /greeting command: its controller, spec and builder
npx meocord build --prod         # a production build in dist/
npx meocord start --prod         # start that build

bunx meocord start --dev          # build, start, and rebuild and restart on every change
bunx meocord g co slash Greeting  # a /greeting command: its controller, spec and builder
bunx meocord build --prod         # a production build in dist/
bunx meocord start --prod         # start that build

pnpm exec meocord start --dev          # build, start, and rebuild and restart on every change
pnpm exec meocord g co slash Greeting  # a /greeting command: its controller, spec and builder
pnpm exec meocord build --prod         # a production build in dist/
pnpm exec meocord start --prod         # start that build

yarn meocord start --dev          # build, start, and rebuild and restart on every change
yarn meocord g co slash Greeting  # a /greeting command: its controller, spec and builder
yarn meocord build --prod         # a production build in dist/
yarn meocord start --prod         # start that build

Inside a project, npx meocord runs the version the project installed. Keep start --dev running while you work, and add a part with generate beside it: the bot rebuilds and restarts once something imports the new files, as adding a controller to src/app.ts does.

How it works

build, start --dev and any command given --build read meocord.config.ts first; start --prod and register read the config the last build compiled into dist/, and meocord.config.ts only when there is none:

• a file that fails to load stops them with its file and line;
• an option of the wrong type stops them with a list of every problem;
• an option MeoCord doesn't know is reported as a warning.

start and register then check for the token, and stop at once when discordToken is empty. Every failure exits with code 1, so a script or a CI job stops too.

build and start build for development unless they're given -p, --prod, which wins when both -d and -p are given. register works the other way round: it registers as production does, unless it's given -d, --dev.

The bot runs on the runtime you launched the CLI with. In an app created with npm, yarn or pnpm, bun run start:prod runs it under Bun and npm run start:prod under Node; an app created with bun has bun --bun in its scripts, so they run it under Bun however they're started. Which runtime the bot runs on covers pinning one.

Creating a project

npx meocord create my-bot

bunx meocord create my-bot

pnpm dlx meocord create my-bot

yarn dlx meocord create my-bot

create writes a project into a new folder named after the app, in kebab case, and installs it. It asks which package manager to use; --use-npm, --use-yarn, --use-pnpm or --use-bun answers for it, and fails when that package manager isn't installed. It's the one command run outside a project, so the command above names the version this guide documents. Getting started walks through it.

After the install, create makes the folder a git repository and commits it, lockfile included. When git can't make that commit, on a machine with no user.email for instance, or with no git at all, the project stays as it is, and create prints the commands that finish the commit. Inside an existing repository, it makes no new one and leaves the files to that repository.

Development and production

start --dev builds the bot as it starts, then watches the project: a change rebuilds it and restarts the bot, and meocord.config.ts and tsconfig.json are watched too. A change to .env, .env.local, .env.development or .env.development.local restarts the bot without a rebuild, since the bot reads them as it starts, as development whatever NODE_ENV the shell holds. It registers the commands to commands.developmentGuild, or where production would without one, and only when they changed since the last development start; --force-register sends them anyway.

A restart stops the running bot as Ctrl+C does, so its onShutdown hooks run before the new one starts, on every platform, Windows included. One save makes one restart, even when it makes two builds of the same output.

A bot that can't log in, or exits on its own, leaves watch mode running: the next change starts it again. So does a rebuild that can't start, as when a saved meocord.config.ts has an rsbuild hook that throws: the bot keeps running its last build, watch mode says why, and saving again retries. When watch mode itself can't start, start --dev stops the bot it started and exits with code 1, as build does. In a terminal, it clears the screen as it starts and keeps your scrollback; build and start --prod never clear it, and write no escape codes into piped output such as a CI log or docker logs.

For production, build once and start the build:

npx meocord build --prod
npx meocord start --prod

bunx meocord build --prod
bunx meocord start --prod

pnpm exec meocord build --prod
pnpm exec meocord start --prod

yarn meocord build --prod
yarn meocord start --prod

start --prod runs the build in dist/ as it is, so start it after every build. start --build --prod does both in one command. --build matters only with --prod, since start --dev always builds.

Registering commands

A production start registers every command as the bot logs in, and Discord applies an unchanged set without harm. register does the same without starting the bot:

npx meocord register --build           # build, then register every command
npx meocord register --guild 123456789  # every command, to this server only
npx meocord register --dev             # to commands.developmentGuild, as development does

bunx meocord register --build           # build, then register every command
bunx meocord register --guild 123456789  # every command, to this server only
bunx meocord register --dev             # to commands.developmentGuild, as development does

pnpm exec meocord register --build           # build, then register every command
pnpm exec meocord register --guild 123456789  # every command, to this server only
pnpm exec meocord register --dev             # to commands.developmentGuild, as development does

yarn meocord register --build           # build, then register every command
yarn meocord register --guild 123456789  # every command, to this server only
yarn meocord register --dev             # to commands.developmentGuild, as development does

Set commands.register to false to keep registering out of startup, and run register once per deploy instead. Registering commands covers the scopes.

Scaffolding

generate, or g, writes a part and its spec:

It prints where to wire the part up: a controller goes in @MeoCord({ controllers }), and a service is bound the first time something injects it.

Once the files are written, generate formats them with the project's own ESLint, in one run, and says "Formatting with your project's ESLint..." while it waits. When it can't run, or reports problems it can't fix, generate says "Could not format the generated files:" and why, and still exits 0. Either way, the files are kept, with whatever ESLint fixed. A project without ESLint skips the step.

Controllers

npx meocord g co <type> <name>

bunx meocord g co <type> <name>

pnpm exec meocord g co <type> <name>

yarn meocord g co <type> <name>

<type> is one of button, modal-submit, select-menu, user-select-menu, role-select-menu, mentionable-select-menu, channel-select-menu, reaction, message, slash, autocomplete, context-menu and primary-entry-point. Each lands in a folder named after its type:

src/controllers/<type>/
├── <name>.<type>.controller.ts
├── <name>.<type>.controller.spec.ts
└── builders/<name>.builder.ts     # slash, context-menu and primary-entry-point only

• A builder comes only with the three types Discord registers by name. npx meocord g co slash Greeting registers /greeting. The builder receives that name from @Command, so the two can't drift apart. The other types are reached by custom ID, or, for autocomplete, by the command they complete.
• The spec invokes the handler through the testing module, with the input Discord would send it, and checks its answer: a command's reply, a button's update, the choices an autocomplete offers.
• An autocomplete controller completes the query option of the command it's named after, which already exists with its own builder. generate leaves that builder alone and prints the option to add to it, with setAutocomplete(true); until the command declares it, Discord never asks the handler.
• A message context menu is npx meocord g co context-menu Report --message; without --message, it's a user context menu.
• A name with / nests the files: npx meocord g co slash admin/ban writes into src/controllers/slash/admin/ and registers /admin-ban, since a command's name is global to the application.

Where a controller sits is only a convention: @MeoCord({ controllers }) is what wires it up.

Gotchas

• generate never overwrites. When a file it would write exists, it names the files and writes nothing.
• generate runs from the project's root, beside package.json; in a folder without a package.json, it refuses rather than scatter files. A name can't leave its folder: .., a leading / and a drive letter are refused.
• start --prod runs the last build. After changing code, build again, or use start --build --prod.
• --message is for context menus only. On any other type, generate refuses it.

Next steps

• Self-contained builds: ship dist/ with no node_modules beside it.
• Deployment: run the build on a server, in Docker or under systemd, and stop it cleanly.
• The CLI reference: every command, argument and flag, with an example of each.