RukaBot

RukaBot is an open-source Discord bot with music player coded in Java using JDA. Feel free to add a star ⭐ to the repository to promote the project.

🚧 Prerequisites

• JDK 25+
• Maven
• yt-dlp — needed for YouTube playback (see below)

📝 Building bot

git clone https://github.com/cmclient/RukaBot
cd RukaBot
mvn clean install

▶️ Running bot

java -jar target/rukabot-2.0.1-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar

The first run creates rukabot.cfg next to the jar and then exits so you can fill it in. Add your bot token, start the bot again, and it will print an invite link to the console.

⚙️ Configuration

Everything lives in rukabot.cfg. Only token is required to start.

Option	What it does
token	Your Discord bot token from the Developer Portal.
botName	Name shown in the startup log.
databaseName	SQLite file used for per-server settings.
youtubeApiKey	YouTube Data API key. Needed for /play <artist - title> search; links work without it.
spotifyClientID / spotifyClientSecret	Spotify app credentials, so Spotify track links can be played.
ytDlpPath	Path to the yt-dlp executable. Leave empty to find it on PATH automatically.
ytDlpCookiesPath	Optional cookies file, only useful when hosting on a VPS (see below).
ytDlpJsRuntimes	Optional JS runtime for yt-dlp, e.g. deno or node.
youtubeOAuthToken	Optional, only used by the youtube-source fallback.
youtubePoToken / youtubeVisitorData	Optional, only used by the youtube-source fallback.

You can also set the token with a DISCORD_TOKEN environment variable, which overrides the config file.

🎵 A note on YouTube playback

Install yt-dlp and YouTube playback just works. If ytDlpPath is empty, RukaBot looks for yt-dlp on your PATH, so a normal install needs no configuration at all. You should see this on startup:

Using yt-dlp source manager (/usr/local/bin/yt-dlp)

If yt-dlp is missing, RukaBot falls back to the built-in youtube-source library and warns you. That fallback currently cannot play YouTube — YouTube broke it, and the fix has to come from upstream, so every track will fail with All clients failed to load the item. Keeping yt-dlp installed and reasonably up to date is the fix:

yt-dlp -U

Hosting on a VPS or other datacenter IP? YouTube is stricter with those, so you may also need to point ytDlpCookiesPath at a cookies file exported from a logged-in browser. On a home connection this is not needed.

Two things to know: YouTube playlist links play only the first video, and Spotify playlist links are not supported — single tracks only. SoundCloud and direct audio links work regardless of yt-dlp.

💬 Usage

Invite the bot, join a voice channel, and use /play. Run /help to see all commands.

Want to try the bot without hosting it by yourself?

• Invite Link