ctrl doc

Discord bot

Search and read your ctrl alt doc site from Discord with ctrlaltbot.

ctrlaltbot is the Discord companion for ctrl alt doc. It lets people search and read your documentation without leaving Discord:

text 
/ask how do I add a callout

The bot replies with the best-matching page or section, the text of that section, and a link that opens the page at the right heading. A menu under the reply lists the other matches.

What it can do #

  • Answer questions in plain language with /ask. See Search and ask .
  • Open a specific page or section with /docs page. See Open a page .
  • Suggest pages while you type, using your site's own titles and headings.
  • Match your server's style with a per-server embed colour. See Server settings .

How it works #

ctrlaltbot is a Cloudflare Worker that receives Discord's slash-command interactions over HTTP. It is not a Gateway bot: it never logs in, doesn't appear online in the member list, and has no process to keep running.

text 
Discord → ctrlaltbot (Cloudflare Worker) → your docs site's /api → ctrlaltbot → Discord

Your docs site does the searching. The bot sends each query to the site's integration API and formats the answer for Discord, so search results in Discord match search on your site.

What you need #

  • A Discord application for your bot, from the Discord Developer Portal .
  • A Cloudflare account. The bot runs on Workers, and the free plan is enough for most servers.
  • A GitHub or GitLab account, if you use the one-click setup. It creates a repository that keeps your bot up to date.
  • A ctrl alt doc site the bot can reach over HTTPS. Version 1.0.7 or later gives the best results. See Preparing your docs site .

Ready to start? Follow Set up the bot .

Privacy #

The bot only receives the slash commands people send it. It doesn't read server messages and doesn't need the privileged Message Content intent.

It keeps no user profiles, search history, analytics, or telemetry, and has no AI integration. Each query is sent to your docs site to answer that request and isn't stored by the bot. The only data the bot stores is each server's chosen embed colour.

Cloudflare and your docs site may keep normal request logs, according to their own settings.

In this section #

Configuration reference

Every setting the bot reads, where it lives, and what it does.

Preparing your docs site

What the bot needs from your ctrl alt doc site, and how to write docs that search well.

Open a page

Open a specific documentation page, or one section of it, with /docs page.

Search and ask

Find answers in your documentation with /ask and /docs search.

Server settings

Set the colour of the bot's replies for your server.

Set up the bot

Create a Discord application and deploy ctrlaltbot to your Cloudflare account.

Troubleshooting

Fix common problems with the Discord bot.

Updates and upgrading

How the bot stays up to date, and how to move an older deployment onto the current setup.