Environment variables & secrets

DANGER

Never commit your bot token to GitHub. A leaked token lets anyone control your bot. If it leaks, reset it in the Discord Developer Portal immediately.

Option A — panel variables (recommended)

Panel → Startup → Variables → Add variable:

DISCORD_TOKEN = your-token-here

Read it in code:

// Node.js
const token = process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN;

# Python
import os
token = os.environ["DISCORD_TOKEN"]

Option B — a .env file

If your code uses dotenv, create .env via the file manager:

DISCORD_TOKEN=your-token

Make the project private and the file readable only by the server user. Panel variables are safer because they survive reinstalls.

Rotate a leaked secret

1. Discord Developer Portal → your app → Bot → Reset Token.
2. Update the variable in the panel.
3. Restart the bot.

Common variables

Name	Purpose
DISCORD_TOKEN	Bot login token
CLIENT_ID	Application ID (slash command registration)
GUILD_ID	Test guild for instant command sync
MONGO_URI	Database connection string
NODE_ENV	production