Beacon

Install • Features • Comparison • Quick Start • Report Bug

Beacon is an Unopinionated Framework for discord.py which allows you to initialise a production-ready Discord bot in just 4 lines of code. It is designed to streamline the development of scalable Discord applications by automating the process of registering commands and simplify the process of creating them, diagnosing the bot, and various other utilities such as a paginator helper and "Private View" helpers which let only the user who initiated the interaction to interact with the components like buttons.

A Dopamine Studios product.

---

Installing

Use Python 3.12 or higher:

# Linux/MacOS
python3 -m pip install -U discord-beacon

# Windows
py -3 -m pip install -U discord-beacon

Features

1. Smart Command Syncing

The framework includes a Command Registry that compares local command states with remote Discord API states. This ensures that global and guild-specific slash commands are only synced when changes are detected, preventing unnecessary API overhead and rate-limit triggers.

2. Beacon Commands decorator with Preconditions

The @beacon_commands.command decorator replaces the standard discord.py version, allowing you to define permissions and cooldowns in a single line.

• Simplified Syntax: Define name, description, permissions, and cooldowns within one decorator.
• Implicit Global Cooldown: Every command is protected by the bot's global rate limit by default.
• Group Support: Use beacon_commands.Group to apply permissions or cooldowns to an entire category of subcommands at once.

from beacon import beacon_commands

@beacon_commands.command(
    name="ban",
    permissions_preset="moderator",
    global_cooldown=True
)
async def ban_member(interaction: discord.Interaction, member: discord.Member):
    await member.ban()
    await interaction.response.send_message(f"{member.display_name} has been banned.")

3. Precondition Decorators

If you prefer using standard app_commands, you can use the standalone @preconditions decorators to enforce rules dynamically.

• Permission Presets: Use pre-defined roles like "admin", "moderator", or "support" instead of manual permission bitfields.
• Advanced Logic: Includes has_permissions_any (pass if user has one of many) and has_permissions (must have all).
• Smart Rate Limiting: Easily implement command-specific or bot-wide global cooldowns to prevent spam.

Preset	Required Permissions
"bot_owner"	Restricts usage to the bot owner/team owners.
moderator	Manage Messages, Kick Members, Ban Members
admin	Administrator
giveaways	Manage Guild, Manage Messages
automation	Manage Guild, Manage Messages, Manage Channels
manager	Manage Guild, Manage Roles, Manage Channels
support	Manage Messages, Read Message History
security	View Audit Log, Moderate Members
community	Manage Expressions, Manage Threads, Create Public Threads
technical	Manage Webhooks, Manage Guild

4. In-Discord Owner Dashboard

No need for terminal access/SSH. This simple to use and feature-rich dashboard for bot owners allows you to unload/reload cogs on the fly, restart the bot, or check logs, accessed using /od. This allows bot owner(s) to manage, diagnose the bot right within Discord itself. This dashboard allows the bot to run idefinitely without restarts:

• Cog Management: Dynamic loading, unloading, and uploading/replacing of cogs.
• Power State: Remote shutdown and process-level restarts.
• Logs: Real-time retrieval of log files via the Discord UI.
• Manual Command Syncs: Sync commands manually globally or within only the current guild.

5. Diagnostics

The built-in Diagnostics "cog" (module) provides real-time monitoring of the bot's health, including:

• Latency: High precision API, Heartbeat, and Round-trip latency monitoring.
• Resource Utilization: CPU and RAM usage tracking via psutil.
• Graphs: Generate graphs for the bot's latency for visual performance auditing.
• Host Device Metrics: Integration with system sensors to report host location and battery status, if available.

6. Built-in Logging Backend

• A robust Logging Manager utilizing aiosqlite that can be plugged into any feature of your bot to implement a logging system, such as for mod logs, action logs, etc.

---

Comparison (with Sapphire Framework and standard discord.py)

Feature	Beacon	Sapphire (js/ts)	discord.py
Easy Setup	✅ (minimal boilerplate)	❌ (Lots of boilerplate)	❌
Preconditions Support	✅	✅	❌
Presets for Permission Checks in Preconditions	✅	❌	❌
No tantrums over different structure	✅	❌	✅
Python's ease of use	✅	❌	✅
Smart Commands Sync	✅ (Built-in)	✅ (Through plugins)	❌ (not included/standard)
In-Discord Dashboard	✅ (Built-in)	❌	❌
Latency Graphs	✅ (Built-in)	❌	❌
Scalability*	✅	✅	✅
Fast Iteration	✅	❌	❌
Strict TypeScript Rules	❌	✅	❌
Built-in Resource Monitoring	✅	❌	❌
Is it JS, tho?	❌	✅	❌
Wins Imaginary Benchmarks	❌	✅	❌

^{*Scalability refers to ability to run without problems when the bot is in tens of thousands of servers or more. While it's a common myth that "Python is bloated", that's not true in the context of Discord bots. The real bottleneck in popular Discord bots always comes down to network, not code execution time or memory usage.}

---

Implementation Example

To initialize a bot using the Beacon, follow the following example:

import discord
from beacon import Bot

bot = Bot(command_prefix="?", cogs_path="your cogs/modules folder path here*", logging_path="path to .sqlite, .db, or .db3 file; only define if you want to use this logging backend.", default_diagnostics=True, intents=discord.Intents.default()) # If no cogs folder is defined, it will default to "cogs". If no logging path, logging will be disabled.

bot.run("YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE")

_{*Note: All .py files will be attempted to be loaded in the folder. It's recommended to only use the defined path for cogs/extensions/modules.}

---

Requirements

• discord.py
• aiosqlite
• psutil
• Pillow
• geocoder

---

License & Attribution

Beacon is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

How to Credit

While you are free to use this framework for private or commercial bots, I require explicit credit. Please include a link to this repository or a mention of "Beacon" in:

1. Your project's README or documentation.
2. Your bot's info/credits command (for example /about or /help).

Example: "Built with Beacon"