Create a Discord support bot with Nuxt and Redis

You can build a Discord support bot that answers questions with AI, sends interactive cards with buttons, and escalates to human agents on demand by combining Chat SDK, AI SDK, and Nuxt. Chat SDK handles the platform integration (Gateway connection, event parsing, and the Discord API), while AI SDK generates responses using Claude. A Redis state adapter tracks subscribed threads across serverless invocations so conversations stay in context.

This guide will walk you through scaffolding a Nuxt app, configuring a Discord application, wiring up Chat SDK with the Discord adapter, adding AI-powered responses and interactive cards, setting up the Gateway forwarder, and deploying to Vercel.

Copy link to headingPrerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Node.js 18+
• pnpm (or npm/yarn)
• A Discord server where you have admin access
• A Redis instance (local or hosted, such as Upstash)
• An Anthropic API key

Copy link to headingHow it works

Chat SDK is a unified TypeScript SDK for building chatbots across Discord, Slack, Teams, and other platforms. You register event handlers (like onNewMention and onSubscribedMessage), and the SDK routes incoming events to them. The Discord adapter handles Gateway connection, webhook verification, and the Discord API. The Redis state adapter tracks which threads your bot has subscribed to and manages distributed locking for concurrent message handling.

Discord doesn't push messages to HTTP webhooks like Slack does. Instead, messages arrive through Discord's Gateway WebSocket. The Discord adapter includes a built-in Gateway listener that connects to the WebSocket and forwards events to your webhook endpoint, so the rest of your bot logic looks the same as any other Chat SDK adapter.

When someone @mentions the bot, onNewMention fires and posts a support card. Calling thread.subscribe() tells the SDK to track that thread, so subsequent messages trigger onSubscribedMessage where AI SDK generates a response using Claude.

Copy link to headingSteps

Copy link to heading1. Scaffold the project and install dependencies

Create a new Nuxt app and add the Chat SDK, AI SDK, and adapter packages:

npx nuxi@latest init my-discord-bot
cd my-discord-bot
pnpm add chat @chat-adapter/discord @chat-adapter/state-redis ai @ai-sdk/anthropic

The chat package is the Chat SDK core. The @chat-adapter/discord and @chat-adapter/state-redis packages are the Discord platform adapter and Redis state adapter. The ai and @ai-sdk/anthropic packages are used to generate responses with Claude.

Copy link to heading2. Create a Discord app

1. Go to discord.com/developers/applications
2. Click New Application, give it a name, and click Create
3. Go to Bot in the sidebar and click Reset Token. Copy the token, you'll need this as DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN
4. Under Privileged Gateway Intents, enable Message Content Intent
5. Go to General Information and copy the Application ID and Public Key. You'll need these as DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID and DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY

Then set up the Interactions endpoint:

1. In General Information, set the Interactions Endpoint URL to https://your-domain.com/api/webhooks/discord
2. Discord will send a PING to verify the endpoint. You'll need to deploy first or use a tunnel

Then invite the bot to your server:

1. Go to OAuth2 in the sidebar
2. Under OAuth2 URL Generator, select the bot scope
3. Under Bot Permissions, select:
   • Send Messages
   • Create Public Threads
   • Send Messages in Threads
   • Read Message History
   • Add Reactions
   • Use Slash Commands
4. Copy the generated URL and open it in your browser to invite the bot

Copy link to heading3. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in your project root:

DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN=your_bot_token
DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY=your_public_key
DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID=your_application_id
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key

The Discord adapter reads DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN, DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY, and DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID automatically. The Redis state adapter reads REDIS_URL, and AI SDK's Anthropic provider reads ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.

Copy link to heading4. Create the bot

Create server/lib/bot.tsx with a Chat instance configured with the Discord adapter. This bot uses AI SDK to answer support questions:

import { Chat, Card, CardText as Text, Actions, Button, Divider } from "chat";
import { createDiscordAdapter } from "@chat-adapter/discord";
import { createRedisState } from "@chat-adapter/state-redis";
import { generateText } from "ai";
import { anthropic } from "@ai-sdk/anthropic";

export const bot = new Chat({
  userName: "support-bot",
  adapters: {
    discord: createDiscordAdapter(),
  },
  state: createRedisState(),
});

bot.onNewMention(async (thread) => {
  await thread.subscribe();
  await thread.post(
    <Card title="Support">
      <Text>Hey! I'm here to help. Ask your question in this thread and I'll do my best to answer it.</Text>
      <Divider />
      <Actions>
        <Button id="escalate" style="danger">Escalate to Human</Button>
      </Actions>
    </Card>
  );
});

bot.onSubscribedMessage(async (thread, message) => {
  await thread.startTyping();

  const { text } = await generateText({
    model: anthropic("claude-sonnet-4-5-20250514"),
    system: "You are a friendly support bot. Answer questions concisely. If you don't know the answer, say so and suggest the user click 'Escalate to Human'.",
    prompt: message.text,
  });

  await thread.post(text);
});

bot.onAction("escalate", async (event) => {
  await event.thread.post(
    `${event.user.fullName} requested human support. A team member will follow up shortly.`
  );
});

The file extension must be .tsx (not .ts) when using JSX components like Card and Button. Make sure your tsconfig.json has "jsx": "react-jsx" and "jsxImportSource": "chat".

onNewMention fires when a user @mentions the bot. Calling thread.subscribe() tells the SDK to track that thread, so subsequent messages trigger onSubscribedMessage where AI SDK generates a response.

Copy link to heading5. Create the webhook route

Create a server route that handles incoming Discord webhooks:

import { bot } from "../lib/bot";

type Platform = keyof typeof bot.webhooks;

export default defineEventHandler(async (event) => {
  const platform = getRouterParam(event, "platform") as Platform;

  const handler = bot.webhooks[platform];
  if (!handler) {
    throw createError({ statusCode: 404, message: `Unknown platform: ${platform}` });
  }

  const request = toWebRequest(event);

  return handler(request, {
    waitUntil: (task) => event.waitUntil(task),
  });
});

This creates a POST /api/webhooks/discord endpoint. The waitUntil option ensures message processing completes after the HTTP response is sent.

Copy link to heading6. Set up the Gateway forwarder

Discord doesn't push messages to webhooks like Slack does. Instead, messages arrive through the Gateway WebSocket. The Discord adapter includes a built-in Gateway listener that connects to the WebSocket and forwards events to your webhook endpoint.

Create a route that starts the Gateway listener:

import { bot } from "../../lib/bot";

export default defineEventHandler(async (event) => {
  await bot.initialize();

  const discord = bot.getAdapter("discord");
  if (!discord) {
    throw createError({ statusCode: 404, message: "Discord adapter not configured" });
  }

  const baseUrl = process.env.NUXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL || "http://localhost:3000";
  const webhookUrl = `${baseUrl}/api/webhooks/discord`;

  const durationMs = 10 * 60 * 1000; // 10 minutes

  return discord.startGatewayListener(
    { waitUntil: (task: Promise<unknown>) => event.waitUntil(task) },
    durationMs,
    undefined,
    webhookUrl,
  );
});

The Gateway listener connects to Discord's WebSocket, receives messages, and forwards them to your webhook endpoint for processing. In production, you'll want a cron job to restart it periodically.

Copy link to heading7. Test locally

1. Start your development server (pnpm dev)
2. Trigger the Gateway listener by visiting http://localhost:3000/api/discord/gateway in your browser
3. Expose your server with a tunnel (e.g. ngrok http 3000)
4. Update the Interactions Endpoint URL in your Discord app settings to your tunnel URL (e.g. https://abc123.ngrok.io/api/webhooks/discord)
5. @mention the bot in your Discord server. It should respond with a support card
6. Reply in the thread. AI SDK should generate a response
7. Click Escalate to Human. The bot should post an escalation message

Copy link to heading8. Add a cron job for production

The Gateway listener runs for a fixed duration. In production, set up a cron job to restart it automatically. If you're deploying to Vercel, add a vercel.json:

{
  "crons": [
    {
      "path": "/api/discord/gateway",
      "schedule": "*/9 * * * *"
    }
  ]
}

This restarts the Gateway listener every 9 minutes, ensuring continuous connectivity. Protect the endpoint with a CRON_SECRET environment variable in production.

Copy link to heading9. Deploy to Vercel

Deploy your bot to Vercel:

vercel deploy

After deployment, set your environment variables in the Vercel dashboard (DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN, DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY, DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID, REDIS_URL, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY). Update the Interactions Endpoint URL in your Discord app settings to your production URL.

Copy link to headingTroubleshooting

Copy link to headingBot doesn't respond to mentions

Check that Message Content Intent is enabled under Privileged Gateway Intents in your Discord app settings. Without it, the bot can't read message content and won't see @mentions. Also confirm the Gateway listener is running by visiting /api/discord/gateway or checking that the cron job is configured in production.

Copy link to headingInteractions endpoint verification fails

Discord sends a signed PING request to verify your endpoint. Confirm that DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY matches the value in your Discord app's General Information page. A mismatched or missing public key will cause the adapter to reject the verification request.

Copy link to headingGateway listener disconnects frequently

The listener runs for a fixed duration (10 minutes in this guide) and must be restarted. In production, use the cron job shown in step 8 to restart it every 9 minutes. If disconnections happen sooner, check your server logs for WebSocket errors and verify that DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN is valid.

Copy link to headingAI responses are slow or time out

generateText blocks until the full response is returned. For long answers, consider switching to streaming with streamText and passing the stream directly to thread.post(). See the Streaming docs for details.

Copy link to headingRedis connection errors

Verify that REDIS_URL is reachable from your deployment environment. The state adapter uses Redis for distributed locking, so the bot won't process messages without a working connection.

Copy link to headingBuild with a template or read more.