LN Release Discord Bot

A Discord bot that automatically posts daily alerts for licensed light novel digital releases. The bot scrapes data from various official sources (publishers, stores) and notifies your Discord server when new volumes are released.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Discord Bot Token (Create one here)

Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/AlpinDale/lnrelease-discord-bot
   cd lnrelease-discord-bot

2. Create environment file

   Create a .env file in the project root:

   DISCORD_TOKEN=your_discord_bot_token_here
   BOT_TIMEZONE_DEFAULT=UTC

3. Start the bot

   docker-compose up -d

4. View logs

   docker-compose logs -f bot

Discord Setup

1. Create a Discord Bot

   • Go to https://discord.com/developers/applications
   • Create a new application
   • Go to "Bot" tab and create a bot
   • Copy the token and add it to your .env file

2. Invite Bot to Your Server

   Option A: Simple URL (recommended)

   https://discord.com/api/oauth2/authorize?client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&permissions=19464&scope=bot%20applications.commands
   

   Option B: If you need guilds.join scope (some setups require it)

   First, add a redirect URI in Developer Portal:

   • Go to OAuth2 → General
   • Add redirect URI: http://localhost
   • Save

   Then use this URL:

   https://discord.com/api/oauth2/authorize?client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&permissions=19464&scope=bot%20applications.commands%20guilds.join&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost
   

   Option C: Use URL Generator (easiest)

   • Go to OAuth2 → URL Generator
   • Select scopes: bot, applications.commands (and guilds.join if needed)
   • Select permissions: View Channels, Send Messages, Embed Links, Use Application Commands
   • Copy the generated URL

   This grants the bot:

   • View Channels
   • Send Messages
   • Embed Links
   • Use Application Commands

3. Configure in Discord

   In your Discord server, run:

   /set_channel #your-channel
   

Commands

Command	Description	Permissions
/set_channel #channel	Set the channel for release notifications	Manage Server
/uncollected [date]	Show uncollected releases (ephemeral)	None
/get_releases start_date:YYYY-MM-DD [end_date:YYYY-MM-DD]	Show all releases for a date or date range	None
/resync_today	Manually trigger today's releases	Administrator

Usage Examples

Set notification channel:

/set_channel #releases

View all uncollected releases:

/uncollected

View uncollected for specific date:

/uncollected date:2024-12-25

View all releases for a specific date:

/get_releases start_date:2024-12-25

View all releases for a date range:

/get_releases start_date:2024-12-20 end_date:2024-12-25

Manually trigger today's posts:

/resync_today

How It Works

1. Every 8 hours, the bot:

   • Scrapes release data from official sources (publishers, stores)
   • Parses and normalizes the data
   • Generates a list of today's digital releases

2. For each configured server, the bot:

   • Filters releases to "digital-only" (no physical books or audiobooks)
   • Posts new releases that haven't been sent yet
   • Tracks sent releases in a SQLite database

3. Users can:

   • Click "Done" to mark releases as collected
   • Use /uncollected to see what they haven't collected yet
   • Only see releases the bot has actually sent to their server

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
DISCORD_TOKEN	(required)	Your Discord bot token
BOT_DB_PATH	./data/bot.sqlite	Path to SQLite database file
BOT_TIMEZONE_DEFAULT	UTC	Default timezone for date calculations
BOT_SCRAPE_INTERVAL_HOURS	8	Hours between scrape cycles (can be decimal, e.g., 0.5 for 30 minutes)

Timezone Options

Common timezone values:

• America/New_York - Eastern Time
• America/Chicago - Central Time
• America/Denver - Mountain Time
• America/Los_Angeles - Pacific Time
• UTC - Coordinated Universal Time
• Europe/London - British Time
• Asia/Tokyo - Japan Time

See full list

Data Sources

The bot scrapes from official sources including:

Publishers:

• Cross Infinite World
• Hanashi Media
• J-Novel Club
• Kodansha
• One Peace Books
• Seven Seas Entertainment
• Square Enix
• TOKYOPOP
• VIZ Media
• Yen Press

Stores:

• BOOK☆WALKER
• Crunchyroll
• Apple Books
• Barnes & Noble
• Google Play Books
• Kobo
• And more...

Development

Running Locally (without Docker)

1. Install dependencies

   pip install .

   Or for development with test dependencies:

   pip install -e ".[dev]"

2. Set environment variables

   export DISCORD_TOKEN="your_token_here"
   export BOT_TIMEZONE_DEFAULT="UTC"
   export BOT_SCRAPE_INTERVAL_HOURS="8"

3. Run the bot

   python -m lnrelease.bot

Modifying Update Interval

Set the BOT_SCRAPE_INTERVAL_HOURS environment variable:

export BOT_SCRAPE_INTERVAL_HOURS="12"  # Scrape every 12 hours

Or in your .env file:

BOT_SCRAPE_INTERVAL_HOURS=4

Troubleshooting

Bot invite URL not working / "Opening Discord App" stuck

1. Open the URL in a web browser (not the Discord desktop app)

   • Copy the invite URL
   • Open it in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge
   • Make sure you're logged into Discord in the browser

2. Check Discord Developer Portal settings:

   • Go to https://discord.com/developers/applications
   • Select your application
   • Go to "OAuth2" → "General"
   • Redirect URIs: For bot invites, you don't need any redirect URIs. If the portal requires at least one, add http://localhost (it won't be used for bot invites)
   • Go to "Bot" tab and ensure:
     • Bot is enabled (toggle at top)
     • "Public Bot" can be disabled for personal use
     • "Requires OAuth2 Code Grant" should be OFF

3. Try alternative URL formats:

   https://discord.com/oauth2/authorize?client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&permissions=19464&scope=bot%20applications.commands
   

4. Manual invite via Developer Portal:

   • Go to OAuth2 → URL Generator
   • Select scopes: bot, applications.commands
   • Select permissions: View Channels, Send Messages, Embed Links, Use Application Commands
   • Copy the generated URL

Bot not responding to commands

• Verify the bot is online (green status in Discord)
• Check bot has necessary permissions in your server
• View logs: docker-compose logs bot
• Ensure slash commands are synced (restart bot if needed)

No releases being posted

• The bot only posts digital releases for the current day in your timezone
• Check if there are actually releases today
• Try /resync_today to manually trigger
• Check logs for scraping errors

Database issues

• Ensure data/ directory exists and is writable
• Check: ls -la data/ should show bot.sqlite
• If corrupted, stop bot, backup/delete data/bot.sqlite, restart

"No uncollected releases" but I haven't marked anything

• /uncollected only shows releases the bot has sent to your server
• If you just set up the bot, it will only track new releases going forward
• Old releases aren't retroactively tracked

Docker Commands

Start bot:

docker-compose up -d

Stop bot:

docker-compose down

View logs:

docker-compose logs -f bot

Restart bot:

docker-compose restart bot

Rebuild after code changes:

docker-compose up -d --build

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Credits

Built on top of the lnrelease project's scraping infrastructure.