Connecting your Minecraft server to Discord

Most Minecraft groups already live in a Discord server. Connecting the two means people can see who is online without opening the game, get told when the server starts or crashes, and even chat across the two. There are three levels, from a two-minute setup to a full chat bridge.

Level 1: notifications with a webhook

A Discord webhook is a URL that posts messages into one channel. It needs no bot and no permissions beyond creating it.

1. In Discord, open the channel’s settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook.
2. Name it, choose the channel, and Copy Webhook URL.
3. Give that URL to your server panel or plugin.

On Cobbly, the server page has a Webhooks tab: paste the URL, choose Discord, and pick which events to post — players joining and leaving, the server starting, stopping, going to sleep, crashing or queuing, and backups being made or failing. Because these are sent by Cobbly rather than by the Minecraft server, they work even while the server is asleep, and you get told about a crash even if nobody is watching the console.

Treat a webhook URL like a password: anyone who has it can post into your channel. If it leaks, delete the webhook in Discord and create a new one.

Level 2: two-way chat with DiscordSRV

For in-game chat to appear in Discord and Discord messages to appear in game, you need a bot. On Paper, the standard plugin is DiscordSRV. On Fabric, Forge and NeoForge, the Discord Integration mod does the same.

Create the bot:

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal and create a New Application.
2. Open Bot, and press Reset Token to reveal the bot’s token. Copy it somewhere private — it is shown once.
3. On the same page, turn on Server Members Intent and Message Content Intent. Without them, the bot cannot read messages to relay them.
4. Open OAuth2 → URL Generator, tick the bot and applications.commands scopes, then the permissions View Channels, Send Messages, Read Message History, Embed Links and Manage Webhooks. Open the generated link and add the bot to your Discord server.

Configure DiscordSRV:

1. Install the plugin and start the server once so it creates plugins/DiscordSRV/config.yml.
2. Paste the token into BotToken.
3. In Discord, turn on Developer Mode (User Settings → Advanced), right-click your chat channel and Copy Channel ID. Put it in Channels, as the value for global.
4. Restart. Messages now flow both ways.

Optional extras: DiscordConsoleChannelId mirrors the console into a channel and lets anyone who can type there run commands — only use it on a channel just you can see. /discord link lets players link their Discord and Minecraft accounts, which DiscordSRV can use to sync roles.

The bot token is the real secret here. Anyone with it controls your bot. Never paste it into a screenshot, a public config or a support chat; if it leaks, reset it in the Developer Portal.

Sleeping servers and chat bridges

A chat bridge runs inside the Minecraft server, so it is only online while the server is. On a host that sleeps idle servers — Cobbly does — the bot goes offline when the server sleeps and messages sent from Discord in the meantime are not delivered to the game. Webhook notifications (level 1) are not affected, and are a better fit if your server spends much of the day asleep. See How sleeping servers work.

Level 3: the community around it

The integration is the easy part. What keeps a server alive is the Discord around it:

• A #server-info channel with the address, the Minecraft version, and the mods or plugins players need.
• A #rules channel — see Writing rules for a small Minecraft server.
• A #builds or #screenshots channel. Players showing off is free advertising for your server among their friends.
• An announcements channel for restarts, resets and events, so nobody is surprised by a new world.

For a whitelisted server, Discord also makes a natural front door: people join the Discord, read the rules, and ask to be added.