Bot or webhook — what is the difference?
Both connect your game server to Discord, but in different directions.
A webhook is one-way: your server reports into a channel (crash, backup finished, resources running low). It cannot receive anything. That has its own guide, “Set up a Discord webhook”.
The bot is two-way. It answers commands from your guild: /status, /players,
/uptime, /link — and whoever has the permission starts, stops or restarts the server
without opening the panel. You can use both at the same time; they do not interfere.
Linked in three steps
Everything you need lives in the mcfreehost server panel under “Discord & notifications”, in the card “Link Discord bot”.
1. Invite the bot
The “Invite bot” button in step 1 opens Discord’s own invite dialog. You need the “Manage Server” permission in that guild — on your own guild you have it already. Once the invite has landed, the line “Bot invited into …” appears underneath. If it says “No invite from your Discord account reported yet.” instead, connect your Discord account in your profile first — otherwise the panel cannot match the invite to an account.
2. Generate a code
“Generate code” creates a link code. It is valid for a few minutes and can be redeemed exactly once. “Copy code” deliberately copies only the code.
3. Run /connect in Discord
In a channel of your guild, type /connect, pick the command from the
suggestion popup, and paste the code into the code field.
The most common mistake: pasting the whole line. To Discord, pasted text is a plain message, not a command — nothing happens at all. The command has to be typed and picked from the suggestions.
If you have signed in once via “Log in with Discord” on the website, you can also
leave the code field empty: the bot then links your own server through the connected
customer account. With several servers of your own it asks rather than guesses.
Which commands exist
| Group in the panel | Commands | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Status & community | /status, /players, /uptime, /link, /pool, /credit, /invoices |
on |
| Server controls | /start, /stop, /restart, /console, /send, /maintenance, /embed |
off |
| Community management | /announce |
off |
On top of those are the moderation commands /kick, /ban, /unban and /whitelist;
they belong to “Server controls” and require the same server permission.
/credit and /invoices concern your whole account, not just this server — they
therefore answer the account owner only, regardless of the group’s release setting.
Who may do what — two gates, Discord first
Under “Commands and access”, “Allowed for” decides per group: “Everyone in the guild”, “Specific roles”, “Specific users” or “Collaborators only”.
That is the second gate. The first one is Discord itself: under “Server Settings → Integrations → Command Permissions” any guild can restrict individual slash commands to certain roles or channels. A command blocked there never reaches the panel — it appears in no log, because it never arrives. Whatever Discord lets through is checked a second time by the panel setting.
And independently of both: even when enabled, control commands require a linked
customer account with the matching server permission. /send and /maintenance remain
owner-only.
Feed and announcements
Under “Feed & announcements” you pick two channels. Joins, leaves, online, offline
and crashes go to the feed channel; /announce, maintenance windows and finished
backups go to the announcement channel. Without a pick, the bot posts nothing on its
own.
Optionally the channel name shows the current player count. Discord allows a rename at most every five minutes — so the name may lag a little.
Removing the link
Under “Linked Discord guilds” each guild has an “Unlink” button. After that the bot answers nothing for this server in that guild. The bot itself stays in the guild until you remove it there.