Setup Guide

Setup Guide

How to set up the Project 1999 Discord bot for local development or production deployment.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• npm (comes with Node.js)
• PostgreSQL 14+ with an existing database and schema
• Discord bot token with the Guilds intent enabled
• (Optional) A local MediaWiki instance for item/spell lookups

Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the values:

cp .env.example .env

Variable	Description
DISCORD_TOKEN	Bot token from the Discord Developer Portal
BOT_SELF	Bot’s application (client) ID
GUILD_ID	ID of the Discord server (guild) to register commands in
PGHOST	PostgreSQL hostname
PGPORT	PostgreSQL port (default: 5432)
PGUSER	Database username
PGPASSWORD	Database password
POSTGRES_DB	Database name

Database Setup

1. Create a PostgreSQL database.
2. Run the schema from schema.sql to create all tables and views.
3. Populate reference tables (class_definitions, races, raids, etc.) with EverQuest data.

The bot uses synchronize: false in TypeORM, so it will not create or modify tables automatically.

Local Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Compile TypeScript
npm run build

# Register slash commands with your guild (run once, or after adding new commands)
npx esrun register_guild_commands.ts

# Start the bot
npm start

Generating Documentation Locally

# Install docs dependencies (first time only)
cd docs && npm install && cd ..

# Development server with hot reload
npm run docs:dev

# Production build
npm run docs:build

Discord Bot Setup

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal.
2. Create a new application (or use an existing one).
3. Under Bot, enable the Guilds intent.
4. Copy the bot token to your .env file.
5. Under OAuth2 > URL Generator, select the bot and applications.commands scopes.
6. Select permissions: Manage Roles, Send Messages, Use Slash Commands, Embed Links.
7. Use the generated URL to invite the bot to your server.

Production Deployment (Railway)

The bot is deployed on Railway:

1. Connect your GitHub repository to a Railway project.
2. Set all environment variables in the Railway dashboard.
3. Railway will build with npm run build and run with npm start.
4. Slash commands are registered separately — run register_guild_commands.ts from a local machine or a Railway one-off command.

Documentation Deployment (GitHub Pages)

Documentation is automatically built and deployed via GitHub Actions on every push to main:

1. Enable GitHub Pages in your repository settings.
2. Set the source to GitHub Actions.
3. The .github/workflows/docs.yml workflow handles building and deploying.