Self-Hosting

This guide covers self-hosting Discord Forum API on your own servers.

Architecture Overview

Discord Forum API consists of two services:

Service	Purpose	Requirements
Bot	Connects to Discord, syncs content	Persistent connection (WebSocket)
API	Serves REST endpoints	HTTP server

Both services share the same database.

                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │   Discord   │
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           │ WebSocket
                    ┌──────▼──────┐
                    │     Bot     │
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           │ Write
                    ┌──────▼──────┐
                    │  Database   │◄──── Read ────┐
                    │  (SQLite/   │               │
                    │   Turso)    │        ┌──────┴──────┐
                    └─────────────┘        │     API     │
                                           └──────┬──────┘
                                                  │ HTTP
                                           ┌──────▼──────┐
                                           │   Clients   │
                                           └─────────────┘

Requirements

Component	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	512MB	1GB
Storage	1GB	5GB+
Node.js	20.x	20.x LTS
OS	Linux (any)	Ubuntu 22.04

Quick Deploy

Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/KevinTrinh1227/discord-forum-api.git
cd discord-forum-api
pnpm install
pnpm build

Configure environment

cp .env.example .env
nano .env  # Edit with your values

Initialize database
Terminal window
```
pnpm db:push
```

Start services

# Start both bot and API
node packages/bot/dist/index.js &
node packages/api/dist/index.js &

Production Setup with PM2

PM2 is recommended for production deployments.

Install PM2
Terminal window
```
npm install -g pm2
```

Create ecosystem file

Create ecosystem.config.js:

module.exports = {
  apps: [
    {
      name: 'forum-bot',
      script: 'packages/bot/dist/index.js',
      env: {
        NODE_ENV: 'production',
      },
      instances: 1,  // Bot must be single instance
      autorestart: true,
      max_restarts: 10,
      restart_delay: 5000,
    },
    {
      name: 'forum-api',
      script: 'packages/api/dist/index.js',
      env: {
        NODE_ENV: 'production',
      },
      instances: 'max',  // API can scale
      exec_mode: 'cluster',
      autorestart: true,
    },
  ],
};

Start with PM2
Terminal window
```
pm2 start ecosystem.config.js
```
Enable startup on boot
Terminal window
```
pm2 save
pm2 startup
```
Monitor processes
Terminal window
```
pm2 status
pm2 logs
pm2 monit
```

PM2 Commands

Command	Description
`pm2 status`	View process status
`pm2 logs`	View logs
`pm2 restart all`	Restart all processes
`pm2 reload forum-api`	Zero-downtime reload
`pm2 stop all`	Stop all processes

Reverse Proxy with Nginx

Set up Nginx as a reverse proxy for the API.

Install Nginx
Terminal window
```
sudo apt install nginx
```

Create configuration

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/forum-api:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

Enable the site

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/forum-api /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Add SSL with Certbot

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d api.yourdomain.com

systemd Service (Alternative to PM2)

If you prefer systemd over PM2:

Bot Service

Create /etc/systemd/system/forum-bot.service:

[Unit]
Description=Discord Forum Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/discord-forum-api
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node packages/bot/dist/index.js
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
Environment=NODE_ENV=production

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

API Service

Create /etc/systemd/system/forum-api.service:

[Unit]
Description=Discord Forum API
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/discord-forum-api
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node packages/api/dist/index.js
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
Environment=NODE_ENV=production

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable Services

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable forum-bot forum-api
sudo systemctl start forum-bot forum-api

Environment Variables

Production .env example:

# Discord
DISCORD_TOKEN=your_bot_token
DISCORD_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
DISCORD_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret

# Database (Turso recommended for production)
DATABASE_TYPE=turso
TURSO_DATABASE_URL=libsql://your-db.turso.io
TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN=your-token

# API
NODE_ENV=production
API_PORT=3000
CORS_ORIGIN=https://yourdomain.com

# Optional
LOG_LEVEL=info
SYNC_BOT_MESSAGES=true

Production Checklist

Security

Use HTTPS for all API traffic
Set restrictive CORS origins
Use a secrets manager for credentials
Regular security updates
Firewall configured (only expose port 443)
Bot token rotated regularly

Performance

Monitoring

Application logging configured
Error tracking (Sentry, etc.)
Uptime monitoring
Resource alerts (CPU, memory, disk)

Maintenance

Automated backups scheduled
Update strategy documented
Rollback plan ready
On-call rotation (if applicable)

Scaling

Horizontal Scaling

For high availability:

Component	Scaling Strategy
API	Multiple instances behind load balancer
Bot	Single instance only (Discord limitation)
Database	Use Turso for multi-region reads

Database Considerations

For multi-instance API:

SQLite: Not recommended (file locking issues)
Turso: Recommended (handles concurrent access)
PostgreSQL: Coming soon

Caching

The API includes built-in caching. For additional caching:

Use Redis for shared cache across instances
Configure CDN caching for public endpoints
Adjust cache TTLs based on your needs

Troubleshooting

High memory usage

# Check current memory
pm2 monit

# Increase Node.js heap size
NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=1024" pm2 restart forum-api

Bot disconnecting

Check network stability
Verify token is valid
Monitor Discord Status
Review rate limiting in logs

API slow responses

Enable caching if disabled
Check database query performance
Profile with NODE_DEBUG=http
Add indexes if needed

Next Steps

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