cordless

Build a production Discord bot without running a bot server. Discord sends a request, AWS Lambda wakes up, your handler runs, and it goes back to sleep. No process to keep alive, no idle cost.

import os
from cordless import Cordless

bot = Cordless(public_key=os.environ["DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY"])


@bot.command("ping", description="Say hello")
async def ping(ctx):
    await ctx.send("pong")


handler = bot.handler()

cordless deploy --register
# → https://abc123.lambda-url.us-east-1.on.aws/

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Why cordless?

Most Discord bots run as long-lived processes, a VPS or container that sits idle 99% of the time, waiting for someone to type a command. You pay for uptime whether your bot is busy or not.

cordless flips this. Your bot is a Lambda function: it only runs when Discord sends an interaction, takes milliseconds to respond, and costs essentially nothing to host. One command provisions everything on AWS: IAM role, Lambda function, public endpoint (a direct Function URL by default, or API Gateway if you want a custom domain) and registers your commands with Discord.

• No server: no EC2, no containers, no uptime monitoring, no SSH
• No idle cost: Lambda charges per invocation, not per hour
• One command to ship: cordless deploy handles all the AWS wiring
• Local dev: cordless dev runs your bot on localhost with a live public tunnel
• Slow commands: deferred interactions hand off to a worker Lambda so Discord's 3-second limit is never a problem
• Full REST API: every Discord endpoint, typed, reachable as bot.<verb>() or directly on the objects you already have (guild.create_channel(), message.reply())
• Raw HTTP routes: @bot.route("POST", "/stripe/webhook") handles third-party webhooks, OAuth callbacks and health checks on the same function, outside Discord's interaction flow

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Install

uv add cordless   # (we should ALL be using uv)

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Quickstart

Scaffold a new bot:

mkdir my-bot && cd my-bot
cordless init my-bot

This creates lambda_function.py, cordless.toml, and .env.example.

Configure your credentials in .env:

DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY=your_public_key
DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN=your_bot_token

Test locally: cordless dev runs your bot with hot reload. With cloudflared installed it opens a public tunnel so Discord can reach it directly.

cordless dev

Deploy to AWS and register your commands with Discord:

cordless deploy --register
# → https://abc123.lambda-url.us-east-1.on.aws/

Paste the URL into your Discord app's Interactions Endpoint URL and your bot is live.

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Documentation

Full docs at cordless.dev: commands, options, buttons, modals, deferred interactions, Components v2, scheduled handlers, the REST API, and the full deploy reference.

Please note that this is a work in progress, I have found genuine interest in serverless development and wanted an easy way to provision AWS.