Bots are satisfying because the users are right there. Ship a command and people use it immediately, which makes the feedback loop faster than almost any other kind of project.

1. Start with one command

Not a framework of commands. One, that does something genuinely useful for the specific server you're in. Bots that do everything get muted; bots that do one thing well get used.

discord-bot.txt
Build a Discord bot with one slash command: /<name>, which <does what>.

- Token in an environment variable, never in the code.
- Register the slash command properly, with a description and typed
  options.
- Reply within 3 seconds or defer — Discord times out, and a deferred
  reply is what stops the "application did not respond" error.
- Handle the command failing: reply with a clear message, never fail
  silently.
- Ephemeral replies where the answer only concerns the person asking.

Tell me the minimum permissions and intents this needs. I don't want
to grant Administrator.

2. Ask for the smallest permissions

The lazy path is granting Administrator and moving on. Don't — server owners look, and a bot asking for full control to post a message doesn't get added. Request precisely what you use.

Message content is a privileged intent and you probably don't need it if you use slash commands. Prefer commands.

3. Handle the messy bits

Rate limits — the library handles most, but bulk operations need care. Long-running work must be deferred and updated afterwards. Someone will run your command in a channel where the bot can't post, and that must not crash it.

4. Hosting

It needs to run continuously, which rules out static hosting. A small VPS or a container host is a few pounds a month. Give it automatic restarts, because it will crash eventually and you don't want to be the restart mechanism.

Log to somewhere you can read later. When someone says "it didn't work an hour ago", logs are the only way to know what happened.

Add a /help that lists what the bot does. People forget within a day, and a bot nobody remembers how to use is a bot nobody uses.