Development Workflow

Local development

Start the dev server with file watching:

pnpm dev

This watches src/ and reloads the bot on every save. Changes to command logic, services, or interaction handlers take effect immediately without a restart.

When to redeploy commands

pnpm dev handles runtime code changes, but Discord maintains its own cache of command metadata (names, descriptions, options). If you change any of those, you need to push the updated definitions:

pnpm deploy:commands:guild       # instant pushes to your test guild only

Note

You do not need to redeploy when changing code inside execute() or updating service logic.

See Command Deploy Modes for the full deployment strategy.