Discord Companion Bot: Running It in Production

June 5, 2026

The Discord integration is bidirectional. WordPress → Discord works on its own once you’ve entered your bot token and channel. The other direction — Discord replies reaching your visitors — needs the small companion Node.js bot (bot/discord-bot.js) running on a server. This guide covers deploying, updating, and maintaining it.

For the initial Discord connection (bot token, channel ID, permissions), see the Discord Integration Setup guide. This guide picks up at “now keep the relay bot running.”

What the bot does

It logs into Discord, watches the threads under your configured channel, and when a (non-bot) human posts a reply it POSTs that message to your site’s /wp-json/ssc/v1/discord/incoming endpoint, authenticated with a shared secret. WordPress maps the thread back to the conversation and inserts the reply as an admin message, which the visitor sees on their next poll.

Requirements

  • Node.js 18+ on a machine that can reach your WordPress site over HTTPS.
  • The bot/ folder from the plugin (discord-bot.js, package.json, .env.example).
  • Your bot token, channel ID, site endpoint URL, and webhook secret (all shown on the Discord settings tab under “Bot Connection Info”).

Setup

cp -r wp-content/plugins/super-speedy-chat/bot /opt/ssc-bot
cd /opt/ssc-bot
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env with your values

.env keys:

DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN=...     # the bot token
DISCORD_CHANNEL_ID=...    # the channel whose threads to watch
WP_ENDPOINT_URL=https://example.com/wp-json/ssc/v1/discord/incoming
WP_WEBHOOK_SECRET=...     # the secret shown on the Discord settings tab

The bot refuses to start if any value is missing or still contains a your_… placeholder.

Keeping it running

Run it under a process manager so it restarts on crash/reboot.

PM2

npm install -g pm2
pm2 start discord-bot.js --name ssc-discord-bot
pm2 save
pm2 startup        # follow the printed instruction to enable on boot

Logs: pm2 logs ssc-discord-bot.

systemd

# /etc/systemd/system/ssc-discord-bot.service
[Unit]
Description=Super Speedy Chat Discord relay bot
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/ssc-bot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node discord-bot.js
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
User=www-data

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now ssc-discord-bot
journalctl -u ssc-discord-bot -f   # logs

Updating the bot

When you update the plugin, the bot files may change. Re-copy discord-bot.js (your .env is separate and untouched), reinstall deps if package.json changed, and restart:

cp wp-content/plugins/super-speedy-chat/bot/discord-bot.js /opt/ssc-bot/
cd /opt/ssc-bot && npm install
pm2 restart ssc-discord-bot   # or: systemctl restart ssc-discord-bot

Rotating the webhook secret

The shared secret authenticates the bot to WordPress. If it’s ever exposed:

  1. Change/regenerate it on the WordPress side (the Discord settings tab shows the current secret).
  2. Update WP_WEBHOOK_SECRET in the bot’s .env.
  3. Restart the bot.

Until both sides match, inbound relays return 401 and Discord replies won’t reach visitors.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause
Bot logs WordPress returned 401 Secret mismatch — re-sync .env with the settings tab.
Bot logs WordPress returned 404 The Discord thread isn’t mapped to a conversation (e.g. a thread not created by the integration).
Replies in Discord do nothing Bot not running, watching the wrong DISCORD_CHANNEL_ID, or Message Content Intent not enabled on the bot.
Bot won’t start A missing/placeholder value in .env, or an invalid token.
Visitor → Discord works but not the reverse That’s expected without the bot — the bot powers only the Discord → WordPress direction.

Security notes

  • Treat .env as a secret — it holds your bot token and webhook secret. Lock down file permissions and keep it out of version control.
  • Run the bot over HTTPS to your site so the secret isn’t sent in clear text.
  • The bot needs no inbound ports; it makes outbound connections only (to Discord and to your site).
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