news Version 0.8.3.0 Released (23rd May 2026) - Focused community bug-fix release — every newly reported user issue from t…
How to Set Up the Discord Bot | ARK Ascended Server Manager v0.8.3

Setting Up the Discord Bot

Three-step in-app setup (ASM v0.8.3)

ASM v0.8.3 ships with a fully-integrated Discord Bot — no separate download, no manager-registration step. The new Discord Bot dialog walks you through the three things you actually need to do: create a bot, paste the token, run /setup wizard in Discord. Everything else (server status cards, voice channel indicators, admin commands, player join/leave logs, cross-chat bridge) is configured from inside Discord itself with slash commands.

You need a Discord account with Manage Server permission in the server you want to add the bot to. The whole flow takes about 10 minutes.

Open the Discord Bot Dialog

In the ASM header toolbar (top-right area, next to the License pill and refresh icon), find the Discord Bot icon — it's the Discord logo with a small badge.

The Discord Bot icon (third icon from the left of the header):

Discord Bot icon close-up in the ASM header

Click it. The Discord Bot dialog opens with three tabs (Setup, Features, Issues) and a Not Configured badge in the top-right until you complete the setup.

ASM with the Discord Bot dialog open showing Setup tab

Create the Bot and Paste the Token

The Setup tab's first section (1. Create a Discord Bot Application) walks you through making a new bot in Discord's developer portal. Follow these sub-steps on Discord's side:

1 Click Open Discord Developer Portal in the dialog (or visit discord.com/developers/applications).
2 Click New Application, give it a name (anything you like — this becomes your bot's display name), accept the ToS.
3 In the new application's left sidebar, click Bot.
4 Click Reset Token and copy the token Discord generates — you'll only see it once.
5 Scroll down to Privileged Gateway Intents and turn on MESSAGE CONTENT INTENT. This is required for the bot to read messages for cross-chat and admin commands.
6 Click Save Changes at the bottom of the Discord page.

Back in ASM, paste the token into the Bot Token field and click SAVE.

Discord Bot dialog Setup tab showing step 1 with the Bot Token field

Keep the token private. Anyone with it can post as your bot. If it leaks, click Reset Token again on the Discord side and re-paste the new value.

Enable, Invite, and Run /setup wizard

With the token saved, the dialog's Step 2 — Enable & Invite the Bot activates. Toggle the switch from Disabled to Enabled, then click the invite button that appears. Discord opens in your browser asking which server to add the bot to — pick yours, leave the pre-checked permissions as-is, click Authorize.

The invite link includes all the permissions the bot needs (Manage Channels, Send Messages, Embed Links, and so on). If you've invited a previous version of this bot and it now misbehaves, kick it from your Discord server first and re-invite using the fresh link.

Once the bot appears in your Discord server, go to Step 3 — Configure Features in Discord. The fastest path is the new in-Discord setup wizard:

Run /setup wizard in any text channel

The wizard walks you through every feature (status cards, voice indicators, admin commands, cross-chat, join/leave logs) one at a time, asking which channels to use. If you'd rather configure individually, the dialog lists each available command and what it does:

Discord Bot dialog Setup tab showing Step 2 (Enable & Invite) and Step 3 (Configure Features in Discord) with the slash command list

What Each Feature Does

The Features tab inside the dialog is a complete reference for every Discord-side capability. Each feature is independently configurable and can be disabled later with /setup disable. The most common ones:

Server Status Cards

/setup server-info — Live image cards in a text channel showing server name, map, mode, version, player count, uptime, online status. Auto-updates whenever server state changes.

Voice Status Channels

/setup status-voices — Creates a voice channel category where each server gets its own channel, named to show status + player count (e.g. MyServer - 15/70). Users can't join — it's read-only signage.

Admin Control Panel

/setup control-panel — Posts server cards with Start, Stop, Restart, Update buttons. Buttons auto-enable/disable based on server state.

Cross-Chat Bridge

/setup chat-bridge — Configure the cross-chat bridge. Pair this with Cross-Server Chat set up on the ASM side first.

Player Join/Leave Logs

/setup join-leave — Posts a message every time a player joins or leaves any server. Configurable per-server or for all servers in one channel.

Admin Role

/setup admin — Configure which Discord role can run admin commands (Start/Stop/Restart, RCON, kick). Only users with Manage Server permission can run /setup itself.

The full Features tab reference inside the Discord Bot dialog:

Discord Bot dialog Features tab listing all available features and their slash commands

What It Looks Like in Discord

Once configured, this is the kind of thing your Discord server gets:

Example server status card posted by the bot in Discord

Server status card — auto-updates on state changes.

Example admin control panel posted by the bot in Discord with Start/Stop/Restart buttons

Admin control panel — one-click server actions from Discord.

Example voice channel showing live player count

Voice channel showing live player count.

Discord voice-channel rate limit: voice channel names can only be updated twice every 10 minutes (Discord's API limit, not ASM's). The bot batches updates so you may see the player count lag for up to 5 minutes.

Troubleshooting

If something doesn't work, open the dialog and check the Issues tab — ASM surfaces connection errors, missing intents, and permission problems there with a numbered badge on the tab.

! Bot says it's online but slash commands don't appear — Discord caches slash commands per-guild for up to 1 hour on first invite. Refresh Discord (Ctrl+R) or wait. If still missing, kick the bot and re-invite using the link in the dialog.
! "Missing Access" or "Missing Permissions" when running /setup — the bot needs the permissions the invite link granted. Re-invite using the link in the dialog rather than a manually-built one.
! Cross-chat messages don't appear — verify MESSAGE CONTENT INTENT is on in the Developer Portal (it's the most-forgotten step). Cross-chat also requires Cross-Server Chat set up on the ASM side.
! Admin commands rejected for non-admin users — intentional. Only Discord users with the role you configured via /setup admin can run server-control commands. The /setup commands themselves require Discord's built-in Manage Server permission.

Discord Bot Configured!

Your ARK servers are now visible, controllable, and chatting through Discord. The bot keeps running as long as ASM is open — if you close the app, the bot goes offline too.

Related Guides

Cross-Server Chat

Bridge in-game chat to Discord

View Guide
Automated Backups

Schedule + monitor from Discord

View Guide
Firewall Setup

Open the required ports

View Guide