Introduction

Guide

On this page

DiscordLua documentation

Build Discord bots with Lua.

DiscordLua is a standalone Lua 5.4 runtime, Discord module, CLI, and Windows installer. One download is enough to write, run, and update a bot.

Get started API reference

Runtime 1.0.0Module 1.2.4Discord API v10

What is DiscordLua?

A native runtime that embeds official Lua 5.4 and talks to Discord over REST and Gateway. Bot scripts use require("discord"). HTTP, TLS, WebSocket, JSON, timers, and voice I/O are implemented in C++ — not a third-party Lua event loop.

What you can build

Prefix and slash-command bots
Moderation, logging, and role tools using guild, channel, and overwrite helpers
Component UIs: buttons, select menus, modals
Voice connections that play Opus packets
Sharded processes with ShardingManager

How do I install it?

Download DiscordLua-Setup.exe or run dislua update if a previous version is already on PATH. After setup, dislua and discordlua are available in a new terminal.

Download DiscordLua-Setup.exe Download dislua.exe

How do I create my first bot?

Create an application in the Discord developer portal, copy the bot token into DISCORD_TOKEN, then run dislua init and dislua run bot.lua. The walkthrough is on Your First Bot.

lua

local discord = require("discord")
local client = discord.Client({
    intents = { "Guilds", "GuildMessages", "MessageContent" }
})
client:on("ready", function()
    print("Bot is ready!")
end)
client:login(os.getenv("DISCORD_TOKEN"))

How do I access the API?

Open the API reference. Start with Client, then managers such as GuildManager and builders such as EmbedBuilder. Search with Ctrl K.

What you do not install

Python, Node.js, Luvit, LuaJIT, and LuaSocket are not required. DiscordLua ships its own runtime.