Discord Multicast Bot

A small, single-server Discord bot that sends one saved message to any number of saved channels. It supports recurring schedules, manual broadcasts, persistent configuration, and role-restricted management commands.

What it does

• Broadcasts one message to every configured text or announcement channel.
• Automatically includes current and future text/announcement channels under saved categories.
• Restores channel/category destinations, message, schedule, and authorized roles after restarts.
• Supports standard five-field cron schedules and IANA timezones.
• Allows only Administrator, Manage Server, or explicitly authorized roles to use commands.
• Allows only Administrator or Manage Server to change the authorized roles.
• Disables mentions by default to prevent accidental mass pings.

1. Create the Discord application

1. Open the Discord Developer Portal and select New Application.
2. Open Bot, create the bot user, and copy/reset its token. Never share or commit this token.
3. Open OAuth2 → URL Generator.
4. Select the bot and applications.commands scopes.
5. Select these bot permissions:
   • View Channels
   • Send Messages
   • Embed Links
6. Open the generated URL and invite the bot to your server.

No privileged gateway intents are required.

2. Configure and run it

Install Node.js 20 or newer, then run:

cp .env.example .env
npm install
npm start

Fill in .env before starting:

• DISCORD_TOKEN: token from the Developer Portal's Bot page.
• DISCORD_CLIENT_ID: Application ID from General Information.
• DISCORD_GUILD_ID: your Discord server ID. Enable Discord Developer Mode and right-click the server to copy it.
• DATA_FILE: location of the persistent configuration file.
• ALLOW_MENTIONS: keep false unless the bot should produce real pings.
• SILENT_BROADCASTS: defaults to true, preventing broadcast copies from producing push or desktop notifications. Set it to false to restore notifications.

The bot registers its guild slash commands on startup. Guild commands normally appear immediately.

3. Configure it from Discord

An Administrator or someone with Manage Server should run these commands once:

/access add-role role:@AnnouncementsTeam
/channel add channel:#announcements
/channel add channel:#events
/channel add channel:#general
/category add category:Community Channels

Categories are resolved again before every broadcast. A new text or announcement channel placed under a saved category is therefore included automatically; moving it out excludes it. Manually added and category-derived destinations are deduplicated.

The bot must have View Channel and Send Messages in every destination. For a category, open Edit Category → Permissions, add the bot's role, allow both permissions, and synchronize the child channels if Discord offers that option. A child-channel override can still deny access even when the category allows it.

Save the message and schedule it for 09:00 every weekday in Stockholm time:

/schedule set cron:0 9 * * 1-5 timezone:Europe/Stockholm message:Your message here

The channel list is saved. Future broadcasts go to all of those channels without selecting them again.

Useful commands:

/broadcast
/broadcast message:A one-off message that is not saved
/schedule message text:Replace the saved recurring message
/schedule status
/schedule pause
/schedule resume
/channel list
/channel remove channel:#general
/category add category:Event Channels
/category list
/category remove category:Event Channels
/access list
/access remove-role role:@AnnouncementsTeam

Cron examples

Desired schedule	Cron expression
Every day at 09:00	0 9 * * *
Weekdays at 09:00	0 9 * * 1-5
Every Monday at 10:30	30 10 * * 1
Every six hours	0 */6 * * *
Every 30 minutes	*/30 * * * *

Cron uses the timezone saved with /schedule set, including daylight-saving changes.

Keep it online

The process must be running when a message is due. On a VPS or home server, use Docker:

docker build -t discord-multicast-bot .
docker run -d \
  --name discord-multicast-bot \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --env-file .env \
  -v "$(pwd)/data:/app/data" \
  discord-multicast-bot

The mounted data directory keeps the configuration across container replacements.

Security notes

• Never paste the bot token into Discord or commit .env.
• If the token is exposed, reset it immediately in the Developer Portal.
• Keep ALLOW_MENTIONS=false unless role or mass mentions are intentional.
• Keep SILENT_BROADCASTS=true to show broadcasts without triggering notification sounds.
• Give the bot only View Channel and Send Messages access in channels it should use.
• This project targets one Discord server. Its commands are registered only to DISCORD_GUILD_ID.

Test it

npm test