making-your-first-command.md

First Command

So now that we've set up a command group and registered our command folder, we're ready to make our first command file! First, you're going to need to, of course, create a new file for the command. Hop over to your commands folder, and then your group1 folder, and make a new file called reply.js. This is going to be a simple command that only replies with a message when used. We'll go into arguments and all that later.

Once you have your file, let's get started!

Creating Your Command Class

Before you do anything, at the start of your file, you're going to need to require commando again.

const { Command } = require('discord.js-commando');

This will allow our command to... Well, exist.

Now, commands are classes exported with module.exports. So let's create the class and set module.exports to it.

module.exports = class ReplyCommand extends Command {
    constructor(client) {
        super(client, {
            name: 'reply',
            group: 'group1',
            memberName: 'reply',
            description: 'Replies with a Message.',
            examples: ['reply']
        });
    }

Don't let this scare you, it's actually very simple.

name is the name of the command.
group is the command group it is a part of.
memberName is the name of the command within the group.
description is the help text displayed when the help command is used.
examples is an array of examples on how to use the command.

There are many more properties, but more on those later on. For now, these are the ones we're going to focus on.

Creating Your Run Method

The next thing we're going to need is a run method. This should go right below the constructor for the command. Inside, let's return a message:

    run(msg) {
        return msg.say('Hi, I\'m awake!');
    }
};

That also closed off our command class' brackets, so yay!

Anyway, as you can see, the run method is simply the code you want the bot to run when the command is used. This can be anything you can do in normal discord.js, as commando is simply an extension.

You may have also noticed that I used message.say instead of message.channel.send. This is commando's magic. Instead of send, use say. Instead of sendEmbed, use embed. Instead of sendCode, use code, you get the idea. The only real exception I can think of is files, which are still message.channel.sendFile.

So when all that is done, your file should look like this:

const { Command } = require('discord.js-commando');

module.exports = class ReplyCommand extends Command {
    constructor(client) {
        super(client, {
            name: 'reply',
            group: 'group1',
            memberName: 'reply',
            description: 'Replies with a Message.',
            examples: ['reply']
        });
    }

    run(msg) {
        return msg.say('Hi, I\'m awake!');
    }
};

Now, fire up the bot as normal and use your command! It should automatically be <prefix>reply to use it.

In the next tutorial we'll dive into how to use arguments in your commands! See you then!