How to Set Up an OpenClaw Discord Bot

What Is an OpenClaw Discord Bot?

An OpenClaw Discord bot is an AI agent that lives in your Discord server. It's powered by leading AI models like Claude, GPT-5.2, Gemini, or DeepSeek — and extended with 5,700+ skills from ClawHub. Unlike basic Discord bots that respond with scripted commands, an OpenClaw bot understands natural language, holds multi-turn conversations, browses the web, manages files, and can perform real-world actions.

You can use it for server moderation assistance, answering questions, summarizing links, writing content, coding help, or anything else a conversational AI agent can do.

Step 1: Create a Discord Bot on the Developer Portal

Before deploying with OpenClaw, you need a Discord bot token. Here's how to get one:

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal.
2. Click New Application. Give it a name (e.g., "My AI Bot") and accept the terms.
3. Go to the Bot tab in the left sidebar.
4. Click Reset Token to generate a new bot token. Copy it — you'll need it in the next step.
5. Under Privileged Gateway Intents, enable Message Content Intent. This lets your bot read message content in servers.

Step 2: Set Bot Permissions

Your Discord bot needs certain permissions to function. In the Developer Portal, go to the OAuth2 tab and select these scopes:

• bot — Required for all bot functionality
• applications.commands — Enables slash commands

Under Bot Permissions, select:

• Send Messages — Reply in channels
• Read Message History — See conversation context
• Use Slash Commands — Register slash commands
• Embed Links — Send rich embeds
• Attach Files — Share files and images

Copy the generated invite URL at the bottom of the OAuth2 page — you'll use it to add the bot to your server.

Step 3: Deploy with OpenClaw Launch

Now that you have a bot token, deploying with OpenClaw Launch takes 30 seconds:

1. Go to openclawlaunch.com and open the configurator.
2. Select "Discord" as your chat platform, then paste your bot token.
3. Pick your AI model — Claude Sonnet 4.6 is recommended for the best balance of speed and intelligence. You can switch models later without redeploying.
4. Click Deploy. Your OpenClaw Discord bot launches in under 30 seconds. Docker, SSL, networking, and config files are handled automatically.

Step 4: Add the Bot to Your Server

Use the invite URL from Step 2 to add the bot to your Discord server. Open the URL in your browser, select the server, and authorize the permissions.

Step 5: Pair via DM

OpenClaw uses DM pairing for security. Once your bot is running:

1. DM your bot on Discord with any message.
2. The bot replies with a pairing code — a short alphanumeric string.
3. Go to your Dashboard page on OpenClaw Launch and paste the code in the DM Pairing section.
4. Click Approve. The bot now responds to your messages in DMs and channels where it's mentioned.

Each user who wants to chat must pair separately. This prevents unauthorized access — only approved users can interact with the bot.

What Your Discord Bot Can Do

Once deployed, your OpenClaw Discord bot has all the capabilities of an OpenClaw AI agent:

• Answer questions and hold multi-turn conversations
• Browse the web and summarize links
• Write and review code
• Draft emails, documents, and creative content
• Use 5,700+ ClawHub skills (web search, file management, and more)
• Switch AI models on the fly with the /model command

See the OpenClaw Manual for a full list of chat commands.

Self-Hosting vs. OpenClaw Launch

You can also self-host an OpenClaw Discord bot with Docker, but it requires a VPS, manual config files, SSL setup, and ongoing maintenance. See our install guide for a full comparison. OpenClaw Launch skips all of that — configure visually and deploy in seconds.