Running the Bot

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Starting the bot

With your virtual environment active and .env configured:

python -m bot.main

On a successful start you should see console output like:

Logged in as Verbal Warning Logger#1234 (ID: 123456789012345678)

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First-run behavior

On the very first run, the bot automatically:

• Creates warnings.db — SQLite database for verbal warnings

• Creates staffpolls.db — SQLite database for polls and templates

• Initializes all table schemas

• Syncs slash commands globally with Discord

Global command sync can take up to an hour to propagate to all servers. Commands will appear in your server once Discord's cache updates.

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Faster command sync during development

To make slash commands appear immediately in a single server (useful while testing), edit bot/main.py and replace the sync line in setup_hook:

# Replace this:
await self.tree.sync()

# With this (substituting your server's ID):
await self.tree.sync(guild=discord.Object(id=YOUR_GUILD_ID))

Commands will appear in that guild within seconds. Remember to revert this change before deploying to production if you want the bot to work in multiple servers.

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Keeping the bot running

For a production deployment you should run the bot as a background service so it survives terminal disconnects and server reboots.

systemd (Linux)

Create /etc/systemd/system/verbal-warning-logger.service:

[Unit]
Description=Verbal Warning Logger Discord Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=your_user
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/verbal-warning-logger
ExecStart=/path/to/verbal-warning-logger/.venv/bin/python -m bot.main
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then enable and start it:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable verbal-warning-logger
sudo systemctl start verbal-warning-logger

Check logs with:

sudo journalctl -u verbal-warning-logger -f

pm2 (any platform)

pm2 start "python -m bot.main" --name verbal-warning-logger --interpreter python3
pm2 save
pm2 startup

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Stopping the bot

Send Ctrl+C in the terminal, or if running as a service:

sudo systemctl stop verbal-warning-logger
# or
pm2 stop verbal-warning-logger

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Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
KeyError: DISCORD_TOKEN	.env file is missing or not in the project root
Commands not appearing	Global sync is still propagating — wait up to 1 hour, or use guild sync
/auttaja commands missing	SUPABASE_URL / SUPABASE_KEY are not set
discord.errors.Forbidden	Bot is missing required permissions in the channel or server
Permission errors on /verbal	The user's highest role is below STAFF_ROLE_ID in the role list