What are application commands?
For a quick overview of how to create a basic slash command, see the page under Getting Started.
If you've been around for a while, you know that the conventional way of interacting with Discord bots is through
messaging, either by pinging one or starting a message with a prefix like $ or !.
These days, setting up Application Commands ↗️ is now recommended for Discord bots. Instead of worrying about issues like prefix conflicts or argument parsing, Discord now provides a native interface to interact with your bot in the form of slash commands, message context commands, and user context commands.
If your bot isn't verified (a requirement to be in 100+ servers), then you aren't required to set up application commands and can still use legacy message commands. This has been a long change in the making that Discord addresses in their Message Content Privileged Intent FAQ ↗️. However, application commands generally provide a better user experience for most situations, and we recommend you take advantage of them.
Setting up application commands is more involved than message commands, but Sapphire will help register and manage application commands for your bot! Even though we handle most of the work, there are still things you should know starting with the Application Command Registry, the next section!