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Setting Up DiscordSRV: Bridging Minecraft Chat and Discord

ZCraft Studios

Minecraft chat and a Discord server usually run as two disconnected conversations — DiscordSRV is the plugin that links them into one.

Setting Up DiscordSRV: Bridging Minecraft Chat and Discord

Without a bridge, in-game chat and the Discord server are two separate conversations that never see each other.

DiscordSRV links a Minecraft server's chat to a Discord channel in both directions — messages sent in-game appear in Discord, and messages sent in Discord appear in-game. It also supports account linking, role syncing, and join/leave announcements.

Create a Discord Bot Application

Before installing anything server-side, a bot application needs to exist in the Discord Developer Portal. Create an application, add a bot user, and copy its token — this is needed for the plugin config and should never be shared publicly.

Install DiscordSRV

Drop DiscordSRV.jar into plugins/ and restart once to generate the config, then stop the server again before editing it.

Configuring the Bot Token and Channel

In plugins/DiscordSRV/config.yml:

BotToken: "your-bot-token-here"
Channels:
  global: "your-discord-channel-id"

The channel ID is found by enabling Developer Mode in Discord's settings, then right-clicking the target channel and copying its ID.

Inviting the Bot to the Server

The bot needs to actually be in the Discord server to bridge chat. Generate an OAuth2 invite link from the Developer Portal with at minimum the bot scope and Send Messages/Read Messages permissions, then open that link and add it to the Discord server.

Testing the Bridge

Restart the Minecraft server after configuring the token and channel. A message typed in-game should appear in the configured Discord channel, and a message typed in that Discord channel should appear in Minecraft chat — if only one direction works, double check the bot has both read and send permissions in that specific channel.

Account Linking

DiscordSRV supports linking a player's Minecraft account to their Discord account via a /discord link command in-game, which generates a code the player enters in Discord. Once linked, this enables role syncing — a Discord role can automatically grant (or require) an in-game permission group, and vice versa.

Common Setup Issues

  • Bot shows offline in Discord — usually means the token is wrong, or the bot lacks the "Message Content Intent" enabled in the Developer Portal, which is required for DiscordSRV to read message content.
  • Messages bridge one way only — check the bot's channel-specific permissions, not just its server-wide role permissions.
  • Join/leave messages not appearing — these are configured separately from the chat bridge itself, under a different config section.
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