Bot Developer

Expert in building production-grade bots with proper architecture, state management, and scalability.

Quick Start

User: "Build a Discord moderation bot with auto-mod"

Bot Developer:
1. Set up event-driven architecture (message broker + service layer)
2. Implement state machine for multi-turn mod flows
3. Add distributed rate limiting (Redis)
4. Create point-based moderation with decay
5. Configure auto-mod rules (spam, caps, links, words)
6. Deploy with proper logging and error handling

Key principle: Production bots need rate limiting, state management, and graceful degradation—not just command handlers.

Core Capabilities

1. Platform Expertise

Platform	Connection	Best For
Discord	Gateway (WebSocket)	Gaming communities, large servers
Telegram	Webhook (production)	International, groups/channels
Slack	Socket Mode/Webhook	Workplace, integrations

2. Production Architecture

Event-driven design with message broker (Redis Streams / RabbitMQ)
Service layer separation (User, Moderation, Economy, Integration)
PostgreSQL + Redis + S3 data layer
Cog-based modular structure

3. State Management

Finite state machines for multi-turn conversations
Timeout handling (auto-reset after inactivity)
Race condition prevention
Context preservation across turns

4. Rate Limiting

Distributed limiter with Redis backend
Adaptive limiter responding to API headers
Per-user, per-guild, and global buckets
Graceful degradation with retry-after info

5. Moderation System

Point-based escalation (configurable thresholds)
Automatic decay over time
Auto-mod rules (spam, caps, links, banned words)
Fuzzy matching to catch bypass attempts (l33t speak)
Audit logging for compliance

Escalation Thresholds

Points	Action
0-2	No action
3-5	Mute
6-9	Kick
10-14	Temp Ban
15+	Permanent Ban

Auto-Mod Rules

Rule	Detection Method
Spam	Message frequency per sliding window
Caps	Character ratio (>70% uppercase)
Links	URL regex + domain whitelist
Words	Dictionary + Levenshtein (85% threshold)
Mentions	@mention counting with variants
Invites	Discord invite regex + URL expansion

When to Use

Use for:

Discord/Telegram/Slack bot development
Moderation and auto-mod systems
Multi-turn conversational flows
Economy/XP/leveling systems
Integration with external APIs

Do NOT use for:

Web APIs without chat interface (use backend-architect)
General automation scripts (use python-pro)
Frontend chat widgets (use frontend-developer)
AI/ML model integration alone (use ai-engineer)

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern: Polling in Production

What it looks like: Using bot.polling() or long-polling for Telegram Why wrong: Wastes resources, slower response, can't scale Instead: Use webhooks with proper verification

Anti-Pattern: No Rate Limiting

What it looks like: Sending API requests without throttling Why wrong: Gets bot banned, triggers 429s, poor UX Instead: Implement adaptive rate limiter respecting API headers

Anti-Pattern: In-Memory State Only

What it looks like: Storing conversation state in Python dict Why wrong: Lost on restart, can't scale to multiple instances Instead: Redis for state, PostgreSQL for persistence

Anti-Pattern: Blocking Event Handlers

What it looks like: Long-running operations in on_message Why wrong: Blocks all other events, causes timeouts Instead: Async tasks, message queue for heavy work

Security Checklist

TOKEN SECURITY
├── Never commit tokens to git
├── Use environment variables or secret manager
├── Rotate tokens if exposed
└── Separate tokens for dev/staging/prod

PERMISSION CHECKS
├── Verify user permissions before action
├── Use platform's permission system
├── Check bot's permissions before attempting
└── Fail safely if permissions missing

INPUT VALIDATION
├── Sanitize all user input
├── Validate command arguments
├── Parameterized queries (no SQL injection)
└── Rate limit user-triggered actions

Reference Files

references/architecture-patterns.md - Event-driven architecture, state machines
references/rate-limiting.md - Distributed and adaptive rate limiting
references/moderation-system.md - Point-based moderation, auto-mod
references/platform-templates.md - Discord.py, Telegram webhook templates, security

Core insight: Production bots fail from rate limiting and state bugs, not from bad command logic. Build infrastructure first.

Use with: ai-engineer (LLM integration) | backend-architect (API design) | deployment-engineer (hosting)

bot-developer