Have you ever wanted to keep your Discord bot running all the time without breaking the bank? In today’s guide, we’ll walk you through a straightforward process using Replit and Uptime Robot. These tools won’t cost you a dime and come with the added bonus of a neat dashboard to monitor things.

0x01 - Setting Up Your Discord Bot

First things first, you need a basic Discord bot. If you already have one, great! If not, don’t fret; there are many starter templates available online. Once you’ve got that, we’ll make it ready for 24/7 uptime.

0x01A - Basic Discord Bot Code

For newcomers, a basic bot code might look something like this:

import discord
from discord.ext import commands

bot = commands.Bot(command_prefix='!')

@bot.event
async def on_ready():
    print(f'Logged in as {bot.user.name}')

@bot.command()
async def hello(ctx):
    await ctx.send('Hello there!')

 bot.run('YOUR_TOKEN')

Note: Replace 'YOUR_TOKEN' with your bot token when you’re ready to run. Which you can get by heading over to Discord Developer Portal and creating a new application.

0x01B - Introducing Keep-Alive

Now, let’s ensure the bot remains active. We’ll use a small utility code, which essentially keeps the bot’s server running.

from flask import Flask
from threading import Thread

app = Flask('')

@app.route('/')
def home():
    return "<b>Hack The Planet</b>"

def run():
  app.run(host='0.0.0.0',port=8080)

def keep_alive():
    t = Thread(target=run)
    t.start()

Save the above code as keep_alive.py in the same directory as your bot.

0x01C - Combining Keep-Alive With The Bot

Modify your bot’s main code (likely named main.py or something similar) to use the keep_alive function. Here’s how you can achieve this:

import os
import discord
from discord.ext import commands
from keep_alive import keep_alive

bot = commands.Bot(command_prefix='!')

@bot.event
async def on_ready():
    print(f'Logged in as {bot.user.name}')

@bot.command()
async def hello(ctx):
    await ctx.send('Hello there!')

keep_alive()
bot.run(os.getenv("token"))

This setup ensures that the bot’s server remains active, allowing Uptime Robot to regularly check its status.

0x02 - Hosting The Bot On Replit

Replit is an online IDE that supports various programming languages, including Python. For our purposes, it’s a free platform where our bot can reside and run.

• Sign up or log in to Replit.
• Click on the + sign to create a new Repl and select Python.
• Copy-paste your bot code and the keep_alive code into the respective files on Replit.
• Click on the Run button at the top.

Now, your bot is running on Replit!

0x03 - Keeping Your Bot Awake With Uptime Robot

Uptime Robot is like a virtual guard. It will periodically check if your bot’s server (set up by keep_alive.py) is active. If it’s down, Uptime Robot will send a request to wake it up.

Steps:

• Head to Uptime Robot and create an account.
• Click on Add New Monitor.
• Choose HTTP(s) type.
• In the URL box, add your Repl’s URL (it should look like: https://<YourReplName>.repl.co).
• Set the monitoring interval to 5 minutes.
• Click Create Monitor, and you’re set.

Uptime Robot will now ping your bot every 5 minutes, ensuring it remains awake.

0x04 - Wrapping Up

Congratulations! You’ve now set up your Discord bot to run round the clock without any maintenance. It’s hosted for free, and you have a dashboard via Uptime Robot to monitor its uptime.

This setup is ideal for those who wish for a hassle-free experience, without diving deep into the intricacies of hosting platforms and maintenance.

Remember to always respect Discord’s Terms of Service when running bots, and happy coding!