Every Indian teen study group has the same problem. Someone always messages at 11 PM asking "bhai exam date kya hai?" Or "which chapters are coming?" Or "aaj class hai kya?" And then three people answer differently and nobody's sure anymore. I got so tired of being the person who answered that I decided to make something that would answer instead of me.

That thing is a Discord bot. It took me two weeks to build the first real version — one that actually did something useful, not just printed "Hello World" and made me feel nothing. Here's the exact plan that gets you there, starting from zero.

From Discord user to Discord creator — the gap is smaller than it looks.

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Before Day 1: The Setup (30 Minutes, Free)

You need three things and none of them cost money. First, a Discord account — which you already have. Second, Replit (replit.com) — a browser-based coding environment that runs on any laptop, Chromebook, or even a decent phone. No downloads, no setup, no "my laptop doesn't have Python installed" problems. Third, a Discord Developer account, which you get by going to discord.com/developers/applications and clicking New Application.

Create your application. Give it a name — this becomes your bot's name. Go to the Bot section, click Add Bot, and copy the token it gives you. This token is your bot's password. Don't share it with anyone, don't post it on GitHub, don't screenshot it. Treat it like your school locker combination.

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Week 1 (Days 1–7): Make It Do One Thing

The biggest mistake new bot builders make is trying to add ten features before the bot can reliably do one thing. Week 1 has one goal: a bot that responds when someone types a command in your server. Not a smart bot. Not an AI bot. Just one that says something back when you say something first.

Open Replit, create a new Python project, and in the shell type: pip install discord.py. Then paste this into your main.py file and replace the token placeholder with your bot's actual token:

Days 3 and 4 are about adding your first real commands. Think about what your study group actually needs. A !schedule command that posts your weekly class timetable. A !motivate command that sends a random quote from a list you write. A !exam command that shows upcoming test dates. Write the list of commands first — on paper, not in code. The code is just the execution of a clear idea.

Days 5 through 7 are for testing. Add your bot to your own private Discord server (there's a URL to generate in the Developer Portal under OAuth2). Type every command you've built. Break things on purpose — what happens if someone types the command wrong? What should the bot say? Handle the error in your code. A bot that gives a friendly error message feels intentional. A bot that crashes feels abandoned.

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Week 2 (Days 8–14): Make It Actually Useful

Week 1 taught you the basics. Week 2 is where your bot earns its place in the server. Pick one of these features to build over Days 8 through 11 — the one that solves a real problem your friend group has:

Option A — The Study Timer: Someone types !pomodoro and the bot sends a message saying "Study session started — 25 minutes. I'll ping you when it's done." Then it waits 25 minutes using Python's asyncio library and sends a follow-up. Simple. Genuinely useful at 10 PM before a Physics paper.

Option B — The Polls Bot: Someone types !poll "Should we study Chapter 5 or Chapter 6 tomorrow?" and the bot creates a message with ✅ and ❌ reactions that everyone can click. Discord polls exist now, but building your own means you control exactly how it works.

Option C — The Daily Quote: At 7 AM every morning, the bot automatically posts a motivational quote to a specific channel. No command needed — it just runs on a schedule using the tasks feature of discord.py.

Days 12 through 14 are deployment. Right now your bot only runs when your Replit tab is open. Railway.app has a free tier that hosts Python projects 24/7 — connect your Replit code to GitHub (also free), then connect GitHub to Railway. Follow Railway's Python deployment guide. It takes about an hour the first time. After that, your bot runs forever whether your laptop is on or not.