RouteKit vs discord.js SDK

The Discord way

• Register a bot application in the Discord Developer Portal and configure gateway intents.
• Manage a persistent WebSocket connection to Discord's gateway (reconnection, heartbeats, session resumption).
• Request the right combination of intents: Guilds, GuildMessages, MessageContent (privileged intent requiring approval).
• Parse Discord-specific message objects (embeds, components, interactions vs. messages).
• Handle slash command registration separately from message events.

import { Client, GatewayIntentBits } from "discord.js";

const client = new Client({
  intents: [
    GatewayIntentBits.Guilds,
    GatewayIntentBits.GuildMessages,
    GatewayIntentBits.MessageContent,
  ],
});

client.on("messageCreate", async (message) => {
  if (message.author.bot) return;
  const reply = await yourAgent(message.content);
  await message.reply(reply);
});

client.login(process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN);

import discord

intents = discord.Intents.default()
intents.message_content = True
client = discord.Client(intents=intents)

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.author.bot:
        return
    reply = await your_agent(message.content)
    await message.reply(reply)

client.run(os.environ["DISCORD_TOKEN"])

The RouteKit way

Configure Discord as a channel in the RouteKit dashboard. Your agent code is the same whether messages come from Discord or any other channel.

import { RouteKit } from "routekit";

const routeKit = new RouteKit();

routeKit.on("message", async (msg) => {
  const reply = await yourAgent(msg.text);
  await msg.reply(reply);
});

What you skip

No discord.js or discord.py dependency. No Discord-specific auth flow or message parsing. If you later add other channels, your code does not change.