How to run for development/testing

1. Setup: Required Files & Tools

📦 Dependencies

Ensure these are installed:

npm install express body-parser dotenv discord.js xml2js node-fetch
npm install --save-dev typescript ts-node @types/node @types/express

📄 Required Files

• bot.ts (or index.ts) — your main TypeScript file (from above)
• .env — for secrets and config
• subs.json — optional, starts as an empty array: []

2. Update .env for Local Testing

DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN=your_discord_bot_token
DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID=your_discord_app_id
YOUTUBE_API_KEY=your_youtube_api_key
PUBLIC_BASE_URL=https://your-tunnel.ngrok-free.app  # explained below

You must use a public URL for PUBLIC_BASE_URL (YouTube requires it to send WebSub POSTs).

3. Start a Local Webhook Tunnel (with ngrok)

Install ngrok (if not already installed)

npm install -g ngrok

Start tunnel (on port 3000)

ngrok http 3000

Copy the HTTPS URL it gives you, like: (https://your-tunnel.ngrok-free.app)

Paste that into .env as PUBLIC_BASE_URL.

4. Compile & Run Locally with ts-node

If using bot.ts, run:

npx ts-node bot.ts

Or if using index.ts:

npx ts-node index.ts

You should see logs like:

🚀 Express WebSub server running on port 3000
✅ Discord bot logged in as DiveAlert#1234
🔗 Invite the bot to your server:
https://discord.com/oauth2/authorize?client_id=...&permissions=3072&scope=bot

5. Test it

Invite the bot to your test server using the printed invite link

In a Discord channel, run:

!yt subscribe UC1m5LdKP0m64n8nY3NhK6Zg

YouTube will send a WebSub verification request to your local server (via ngrok) When that channel goes live, the bot will post the stream link to your Discord channel 🎉

🧪 Tip: Auto-Restart with ts-node-dev For dev convenience:

npm install -D ts-node-dev

Add to package.json:

"scripts": {
  "dev": "ts-node-dev --respawn bot.ts"
}

Then run with:

npm run dev