Get started with JoBot in five minutes

JoBot runs entirely inside Docker, so you don’t need to install .NET or any other runtime. You will need a machine that can run Docker, three API credentials, and about five minutes to get your first AI response in Discord.

Go to the Discord Developer Portal and click New Application.
Give it a name (e.g. “JoBot”), then navigate to the Bot tab.
Click Reset Token and copy the token — this is your DISCORD_TOKEN.
Under Privileged Gateway Intents, enable Message Content Intent.
Navigate to OAuth2 → URL Generator. Select the bot scope, then grant these bot permissions:
- Read Messages / View Channels
- Send Messages
- Connect (voice)
- Speak (voice)
Copy the generated URL, open it in your browser, and invite the bot to your server.

Pull the Docker image

Pull the latest JoBot image from the GitHub Container Registry:

docker pull ghcr.io/jeppevinkel/jobot:latest

Create docker-compose.yml

Create a docker-compose.yml file in a new directory. JoBot requires a Lavalink sidecar for audio routing — the snippet below sets both up:

docker-compose.yml

services:
  JoBot:
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: ghcr.io/jeppevinkel/jobot:latest
    depends_on:
      - lavalink
    environment:
      # Required
      - Anthropic__Token=${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
      - Discord__Token=${DISCORD_TOKEN}
      - Lavalink__Passphrase=${LAVALINK_PASSPHRASE}
      - Subsonic__BaseUrl=${SUBSONIC_BASE_URL}
      - Subsonic__Username=${SUBSONIC_USERNAME}
      - Subsonic__Password=${SUBSONIC_PASSWORD}
      - ConnectionStrings__JoBot=Data Source=/app/config/jobot.db

      # Optional — Lavalink (defaults shown)
      - Lavalink__BaseAddress=http://lavalink:2333

      # Optional — AI tuning (defaults shown)
      - Ai__Model=claude-sonnet-4-6
      - Ai__MaxTokens=4096
      - Ai__Temperature=0.7
      - Ai__MaxToolIterations=50
      - Ai__MaxHistoryMessages=40

      # Optional — per-guild defaults (defaults shown)
      - GuildDefaults__MaxHistoryMessages=20
      - GuildDefaults__AiTemperature=0.7
      - GuildDefaults__MusicVolume=0.5

  lavalink:
    image: ghcr.io/lavalink-devs/lavalink:4
    environment:
      - LAVALINK_SERVER_PASSWORD=${LAVALINK_PASSPHRASE}

Create .env with required variables

In the same directory as your docker-compose.yml, create a .env file. Docker Compose reads this file automatically and substitutes the values into the service environment.

.env

# Required
DISCORD_TOKEN=your-discord-bot-token
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-anthropic-api-key
LAVALINK_PASSPHRASE=choose-any-secure-passphrase

# Optional — remove if you don't have a Subsonic server
SUBSONIC_BASE_URL=https://music.example.com
SUBSONIC_USERNAME=your-subsonic-username
SUBSONIC_PASSWORD=your-subsonic-password

DISCORD_TOKEN and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY are always required. LAVALINK_PASSPHRASE can be any string you choose — it only needs to match between the two containers. The Subsonic variables are optional; remove or leave them blank if you don’t have a Subsonic server.

Start the bot

From the directory containing your docker-compose.yml, run:

docker compose up -d

Both the JoBot and Lavalink containers will start in the background. Check the logs if something doesn’t come up:

docker compose logs -f JoBot

First interaction

Once the bot is online in your server, @mention it in any text channel to start a conversation:

@JoBot what can you help me with?

JoBot replies to direct @mentions and to replies on its own messages. It does not respond to messages that don’t mention it. If you’d like it to join a voice channel and play music, ask it directly:

@JoBot join my voice channel and play something from YouTube

The environment variables above cover the essentials. For a full reference of every configuration option — including ElevenLabs TTS, AI model tuning, and per-guild defaults — see Environment variables.

Get Started

Features

Configuration

Commands

Help

Get started with JoBot in five minutes

First interaction

​First interaction

First interaction