Configuration files

tip

This page follows the official discordjs.guide .

Once you add your bot to a server , the next step is to start coding and get it online. Let's start by creating a config file for your client token and a main file for your bot application.

As explained in the "What is a token, anyway?" section, your token is essentially your bot's password and you should protect it as best as possible. This can be done through a config.js file or by using environment variables.

Open your application in the Discord Developer Portal and go to the Bot page to copy your token.

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Using config.js

Storing data in a config.js file is a common way of keeping your sensitive values safe. Create a config.js file in your project directory and paste in your token. You can access your token inside other files using require().

config.js

module.exports = {
    token: "[TOKEN]", // required
    prefix: "!", // optional
    nodes: [
        {
            host: "[IP_ADDRESS]", // required
            port: 9999, // optional but recommended! Defaults to 443
            password: "[PASSWORD]", // optional but recommended!
            useSSL: false, // optional
            maxRetryAttempts: 500, // optional
            retryDelayMs: 300000, // optional
            enableSessionResumeOption: true, // optional
            sessionTimeoutSeconds: 300, // optional
        },
    ],
};

Usage

const { token, prefix, nodes } = require('./config.js');

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Using dotenv

Another common approach is storing these values in a .env file. Each line should hold a KEY=value pair.

Install the dotenv package :

npm

npm install dotenv

pnpm

pnpm add dotenv

yarn

yarn add dotenv

bun

# dotenv is not needed with Bun — .env files are read automatically

warning

dotenv does not natively support arrays. Store your node config as a JSON string and parse it at runtime, as shown below.

.env

TOKEN=""
PREFIX=""
LAVALINK_NODES=[{"host":"","port":9999,"password":"","useSSL":false,"maxRetryAttempts":500,"retryDelayMs":300000,"enableSessionResumeOption":true,"sessionTimeoutSeconds":300}]

Usage

require("dotenv").config();

const { TOKEN, PREFIX, LAVALINK_NODES } = process.env;

const nodes = JSON.parse(LAVALINK_NODES || "[]");

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Resulting code

You can review the complete example on the GitHub repository here .