All commands use your prefix, alert. by default — changeable with setprefix. Run commands in a channel the bot can read; most write a copy of the result to your log channel (see setlog).

First commands

After installation, in your admin channel:

Ownership: a fresh database has no administrator. The first person to run alert.setup becomes the owner. Afterwards, all admin/config commands are restricted to the owner and any additional IDs they register.

Access control

Two tiers exist:

• Everything except help is gated to the access list: the owner plus additional user/team IDs held in the bot's bot_id_list configuration. Read-only informational commands (servers, resource, guildroles, invite, botstatus, showgroup) are no exception — they are also restricted, just without making changes.
• Owner-only, even within the access list: setexpired, toggle, help-hidden, and reload (which additionally accepts the primary operator ID).
• help works for anyone in a channel the bot can read.

Broadcast groups

Groups are named bc0, bc1, bc2, … Each group holds source channels (what gets relayed) and destination channels (where it goes), with four relay modes selectable per group: ep (embed + role ping), enp (embed, no ping), np (plain text + ping), nnp (plain text, no ping).

Destinations

Add destination channels to a group; each can carry its own ping role. Channels can be mentioned or given by ID, and may live in any server the bot is in.

Subscriptions and expiry

White-label identity

Make the bot look like your own product. Discord rate-limits some of these (usernames can't change more than once every two hours).

Embed button: relayed embeds can carry a clickable button. Its text, link, and emoji are held in the bot's database (button_text, button_link, button_emoji) and set during onboarding or by direct database edit.

Command interface

Feature toggles

Auto-react, keyword colors, and signal routes

Three behaviors are stored in the bot's database rather than driven by chat commands. They are typically configured during onboarding (we help you set them), or by direct database edits:

• Auto-react rules — an emoji plus matching keywords; the bot reacts to destination messages containing a tracked word. Specific channels can be blocked from auto-react.
• Keyword embed colors — map keywords to hex colors; relayed embeds whose source message matches a keyword are sent in that color.
• Signal routes — additional point-to-point channel routes (source → destination) with their own log channel, separate from broadcast groups.

Help content and command aliases

The help text for the four destination commands (add, setrole, remove, show) is stored in the database (command_content) together with each command's alias. Defaults ship with the product; edit the database rows to customize wording or aliases.

Ops commands

Updating

1. Download the new release tarball from the distribution repository.
2. Extract and replace the binary in /opt/rector-bot-alert.
3. sudo systemctl restart alertbot

Database schema updates apply automatically on boot — no manual steps.

Backups

Two layers:

• Database: run pg_dump on a cron schedule. Example daily dump from the bot's directory:

  sudo docker compose exec -T postgres pg_dump -U alertbot alertbot | gzip > /var/backups/alertbot-$(date +%F).sql.gz
  

• Broadcast groups: the built-in backup <bcN> command exports one group's configuration as JSON — useful for sharing or archiving a single group.

Importing data from our hosted era

If you were previously hosted by us, we provide a database dump as part of your purchase. Restore it before (or any time after) first boot:

pg_restore -U alertbot -h 127.0.0.1 -p 5433 -d alertbot --clean --if-exists dumpfile.dump

Then restart the service. Your groups, destinations, and settings come across intact.

What is not configurable

• Relay-mode semantics (ep/enp/np/nnp behavior).
• The command set — what commands exist and what they do.
• The license binding to your Discord application ID.

Features change only through our releases (see Updating).