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Cleverbot Integration

{% hint style="danger" %} Cleverbot NO LONGER offers a free trial; this guide page will NOT be updated to use any other module. {% endhint %}

I've had this request since I started my Idiot's Guide, in fact it was one of the very first requests I had, but I had a feeling it would be a disappointing short episode, maybe a 5 minute long episode. But for a written guide it'd be perfect!

So to get started, let's grab the example from getting started and shove it in a file.

const Discord = require("discord.js");
const client = new Discord.Client();
 
client.on("ready", () => {
  console.log("I am ready!");
});
 
client.on("message", (message) => {
  if (message.content.startsWith("ping")) {
    message.channel.send("pong!");
  }
});
 
client.login("superSecretBotTokenHere");

Once you've got that, we should go check out cleverbot-node on npmjs.com and grab their example code

var Cleverbot = require("cleverbot-node");
cleverbot = new Cleverbot;
cleverbot.configure({botapi: "IAMKEY"});
cleverbot.write(cleverMessage, function (response) {
   console.log(response.output);
});

Alright, we've got both parts we need, now before we continue we should get the module installed, just run npm i cleverbot-node with the --save flag if you have a package.json file (and you should!).

Installed? Good! Now, let's get to the final step... the code.

We have both our example codes, now we need to combine them for a working bot.

NOTE: A lot of the naive developers would just shove the cleverbot example straight in their message event and wonder why it wasn't working. It would create a new instance of Cleverbot and would eventually cause a memory leak.

Right, we need to take the first two lines of the cleverbot example...

var Cleverbot = require("cleverbot-node");
cleverbot = new Cleverbot;

...and put them with our discord definitions.

const Discord = require("discord.js");
const Cleverbot = require("cleverbot-node");
const client = new Discord.Client();
const clbot = new Cleverbot;
clbot.configure({botapi: "IAMKEY"});

I renamed cleverbot to clbot to reduce any possible confusion between the variable names as JavaScript is case sensitive.

Then we take the rest of the code and place that inside our message event handler, but for this example I only want the bot to talk to me in DM's, so we"ll check the channel type with the following code, you can make it respond on mentions or even in channels (I would honestly advise against that.)

if (message.channel.type === "dm") {
  // Cleverbot code goes here.
}

Your code should look something like this...

const Discord = require("discord.js");
const Cleverbot = require("cleverbot-node");
const client = new Discord.Client();
const clbot = new Cleverbot;
 
client.on("message", message => {
  if (message.channel.type === "dm") {
    clbot.write(message.content, (response) => {
      message.channel.startTyping();
      setTimeout(() => {
        message.channel.send(response.output).catch(console.error);
        message.channel.stopTyping();
      }, Math.random() * (1 - 3) + 1 * 1000);
    });
  }
});
 
client.on("ready", () => {
  console.log("I am ready!");
});
 
client.login("superSecretBotTokenHere");

If everything is as above, then just send your bot a DM and watch the magic unfold!

Success!