Serve Events

When running discli serve, events are emitted as JSONL (one JSON object per line) on stdout. Every event includes an "event" field identifying the event type.

ready

Emitted once when the bot connects to the Discord gateway. This fires before slash commands are synced.

{
  "event": "ready",
  "bot_id": "123456789",
  "bot_name": "MyBot#1234"
}

Field	Type	Description
`bot_id`	string	Bot’s user snowflake ID
`bot_name`	string	Bot’s username and discriminator

slash_commands_synced

Emitted after slash commands have been registered with Discord (only if --slash-commands was provided).

{
  "event": "slash_commands_synced",
  "count": 3,
  "guilds": 2
}

Field	Type	Description
`count`	integer	Number of slash commands registered
`guilds`	integer	Number of guilds commands were synced to

message

Emitted when a message is sent in a visible channel. Bot messages from other bots are excluded; the bot’s own messages are included by default (controlled by --include-self / --no-include-self).

{
  "event": "message",
  "server": "My Server",
  "server_id": "123456",
  "channel": "general",
  "channel_id": "789012",
  "author": "alice",
  "author_id": "111222",
  "is_bot": false,
  "content": "Hello everyone!",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T12:30:00+00:00",
  "message_id": "333444",
  "mentions_bot": false,
  "is_dm": false,
  "attachments": [],
  "reply_to": null
}

Field	Type	Description
`server`	string \| null	Server name, or `null` for DMs
`server_id`	string \| null	Server snowflake ID, or `null` for DMs
`channel`	string	Channel name, or `"DM"` for direct messages
`channel_id`	string	Channel snowflake ID
`author`	string	Message author’s username
`author_id`	string	Author’s user snowflake ID
`is_bot`	boolean	Whether the author is a bot
`content`	string	Message text content
`timestamp`	string	ISO 8601 timestamp
`message_id`	string	Message snowflake ID
`mentions_bot`	boolean	Whether the message @-mentions the bot
`is_dm`	boolean	Whether this is a direct message
`attachments`	array	List of `{"filename", "url", "size"}` objects
`reply_to`	string \| null	Message ID this is a reply to, or `null`

slash_command

Emitted when a user invokes a registered slash command. The interaction is automatically deferred (shows “thinking…”). You must respond using interaction_followup or stream_start with the interaction_token.

{
  "event": "slash_command",
  "command": "ask",
  "args": {"question": "What is discli?"},
  "channel_id": "789012",
  "user": "alice",
  "user_id": "111222",
  "guild_id": "123456",
  "interaction_token": "uuid-string",
  "is_admin": false
}

Field	Type	Description
`command`	string	Slash command name
`args`	object	Key-value map of command arguments (all values are strings)
`channel_id`	string	Channel where the command was invoked
`user`	string	Username of the invoking user
`user_id`	string	User snowflake ID
`guild_id`	string \| null	Server ID, or `null` for DM slash commands
`interaction_token`	string	Token for responding via `interaction_followup` or `stream_start`
`is_admin`	boolean	Whether the user has administrator permission in the guild

message_edit

Emitted when a non-bot user edits a message.

{
  "event": "message_edit",
  "server": "My Server",
  "server_id": "123456",
  "channel": "general",
  "channel_id": "789012",
  "author": "alice",
  "author_id": "111222",
  "message_id": "333444",
  "old_content": "Hello",
  "new_content": "Hello everyone!",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T12:35:00+00:00"
}

Field	Type	Description
`server`	string \| null	Server name
`server_id`	string \| null	Server snowflake ID
`channel`	string	Channel name
`channel_id`	string	Channel snowflake ID
`author`	string	Author username
`author_id`	string	Author user snowflake ID
`message_id`	string	Edited message snowflake ID
`old_content`	string \| null	Previous message content (may be null if uncached)
`new_content`	string	New message content
`timestamp`	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of the edit

message_delete

Emitted when a message is deleted.

{
  "event": "message_delete",
  "server": "My Server",
  "server_id": "123456",
  "channel": "general",
  "channel_id": "789012",
  "author": "alice",
  "author_id": "111222",
  "message_id": "333444",
  "content": "Hello everyone!"
}

Field	Type	Description
`server`	string \| null	Server name
`server_id`	string \| null	Server snowflake ID
`channel`	string	Channel name
`channel_id`	string	Channel snowflake ID
`author`	string \| null	Author username (null if uncached)
`author_id`	string \| null	Author user snowflake ID (null if uncached)
`message_id`	string	Deleted message snowflake ID
`content`	string \| null	Message content (null if uncached)

reaction_add

Emitted when a user adds a reaction to a message.

{
  "event": "reaction_add",
  "server": "My Server",
  "channel": "general",
  "channel_id": "789012",
  "message_id": "333444",
  "emoji": "thumbsup",
  "user": "alice",
  "user_id": "111222"
}

Field	Type	Description
`server`	string \| null	Server name
`channel`	string	Channel name
`channel_id`	string	Channel snowflake ID
`message_id`	string	Message snowflake ID
`emoji`	string	Emoji name or unicode character
`user`	string	Username of the user who reacted
`user_id`	string	User snowflake ID

reaction_remove

Emitted when a user removes a reaction from a message.

{
  "event": "reaction_remove",
  "server": "My Server",
  "channel": "general",
  "channel_id": "789012",
  "message_id": "333444",
  "emoji": "thumbsup",
  "user": "alice",
  "user_id": "111222"
}

Field	Type	Description
`server`	string \| null	Server name
`channel`	string	Channel name
`channel_id`	string	Channel snowflake ID
`message_id`	string	Message snowflake ID
`emoji`	string	Emoji name or unicode character
`user`	string	Username of the user
`user_id`	string	User snowflake ID

member_join

Emitted when a new member joins a server.

{
  "event": "member_join",
  "server": "My Server",
  "server_id": "123456",
  "member": "alice",
  "member_id": "111222"
}

Field	Type	Description
`server`	string	Server name
`server_id`	string	Server snowflake ID
`member`	string	New member’s username
`member_id`	string	Member’s user snowflake ID

member_remove

Emitted when a member leaves or is removed from a server.

{
  "event": "member_remove",
  "server": "My Server",
  "server_id": "123456",
  "member": "alice",
  "member_id": "111222"
}

Field	Type	Description
`server`	string	Server name
`server_id`	string	Server snowflake ID
`member`	string	Member’s username
`member_id`	string	Member’s user snowflake ID

response

Emitted as the reply to every stdin action. Contains "ok": true on success or an "error" string on failure. If the original action included a req_id, it is echoed back.

{"event": "response", "ok": true, "message_id": "789", "req_id": "1"}

{"event": "response", "error": "Channel not found: 999", "req_id": "2"}

Field	Type	Description
`ok`	boolean	Present and `true` on success
`error`	string	Present on failure with an error description
`req_id`	string	Echoed from the original action, if provided
(varies)		Additional fields depend on the action (see Serve Actions)

error

Emitted when an internal error occurs (e.g., invalid JSON on stdin, slash command sync failure).

{"event": "error", "message": "Invalid JSON: {bad input"}

Field	Type	Description
`message`	string	Error description

shutdown

Emitted when the bot process is shutting down (e.g., Ctrl+C).

{"event": "shutdown"}

No additional fields.

Event Filtering

Use the --events option to limit which events are emitted. Pass a comma-separated list of event categories:

Category	Events included
`messages`	`message`
`edits`	`message_edit`
`deletes`	`message_delete`
`reactions`	`reaction_add`, `reaction_remove`
`members`	`member_join`, `member_remove`

The ready, slash_command, slash_commands_synced, response, error, and shutdown events are always emitted regardless of the filter.

Example:

discli serve --events messages,reactions

Last updated: March 17, 2026

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