How to Build a Roblox Friend Discord Bot With FriendPath

What you'll need

• Node.js 18 or higher (node.js downloads)
• A Discord account and a server you can add bots to
• An arbastro Suite subscription with a FriendPath API key (50 free Scan calls/day included, $0.005/call beyond) — see how to get a key
• ~15 minutes

Step 0: Get your FriendPath API key

The FriendPath Scan API requires authentication. If you don't already have a key:

1. Sign up at arbastro.com/signup
2. Subscribe to arbastro Suite (30-day free trial)
3. Go to arbastro.com/account/api-keys → Create key
4. Copy the ak_live_... key — you only see it once, so store it somewhere safe

Step 1: Create the Discord bot application

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal
2. Click "New Application", name it something like "FriendPath Bot"
3. In the left sidebar, go to "Bot" → "Reset Token" → copy the token (you'll only see it once)
4. Under "Bot" → "Privileged Gateway Intents" — leave them all off, we don't need any
5. Under "OAuth2" → "URL Generator", check bot and applications.commands scopes, then under permissions check Send Messages and Use Slash Commands
6. Copy the generated URL, paste it into your browser, and add the bot to your server

Step 2: Set up the project

mkdir friendpath-bot
cd friendpath-bot
npm init -y
npm install discord.js dotenv

Create a .env file with your Discord token and application ID (the app ID is on the application's main page on the Developer Portal):

DISCORD_TOKEN=your_bot_token_here
APPLICATION_ID=your_application_id_here
FRIENDPATH_KEY=ak_live_YOUR_FRIENDPATH_API_KEY

Step 3: Register the slash command

Create register.js:

require('dotenv').config();
const { REST, Routes, SlashCommandBuilder } = require('discord.js');

const command = new SlashCommandBuilder()
  .setName('friendpath')
  .setDescription('Find the degrees of separation between two Roblox players')
  .addStringOption(o => o.setName('from').setDescription('First Roblox username').setRequired(true))
  .addStringOption(o => o.setName('to').setDescription('Second Roblox username').setRequired(true));

const rest = new REST({ version: '10' }).setToken(process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN);

(async () => {
  await rest.put(
    Routes.applicationCommands(process.env.APPLICATION_ID),
    { body: [command.toJSON()] }
  );
  console.log('Slash command registered.');
})();

Run it once: node register.js. After a few seconds you'll see the /friendpath command in your Discord server.

Step 4: The actual bot

Create bot.js:

require('dotenv').config();
const { Client, GatewayIntentBits, EmbedBuilder } = require('discord.js');

const client = new Client({ intents: [GatewayIntentBits.Guilds] });

client.on('ready', () => {
  console.log(`Logged in as ${client.user.tag}`);
});

client.on('interactionCreate', async (interaction) => {
  if (!interaction.isChatInputCommand()) return;
  if (interaction.commandName !== 'friendpath') return;

  const fromUser = interaction.options.getString('from');
  const toUser = interaction.options.getString('to');

  await interaction.deferReply();  // friendpath can take 30-60s

  try {
    const url = `https://arbastro.com/api/v1/friendpath/path?from=${encodeURIComponent(fromUser)}&to=${encodeURIComponent(toUser)}`;
    const resp = await fetch(url, {
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FRIENDPATH_KEY}` },
    });
    const data = await resp.json();

    if (!data.result) {
      await interaction.editReply(`No path found between **${fromUser}** and **${toUser}**. ${data.reason || ''}`);
      return;
    }

    const path = data.result.path.map(u => u.name).join(' → ');
    const embed = new EmbedBuilder()
      .setTitle(`${fromUser} ↔ ${toUser}`)
      .setDescription(`**${data.result.degrees} degrees of separation**\n\n\`${path}\``)
      .setFooter({ text: `Searched ${data.result.visited.toLocaleString()} accounts · friendpath.arbastro.com` })
      .setColor(0xC4956A);

    await interaction.editReply({ embeds: [embed] });
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(err);
    await interaction.editReply(`Error: ${err.message}`);
  }
});

client.login(process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN);

Run it: node bot.js. Type /friendpath builderman david.baszucki in your Discord server. You'll get an embed back with the path.

Step 5: Free hosting options

Running node bot.js works while your laptop is on, but you'll want to deploy somewhere 24/7. Options:

• Oracle Cloud Always Free — 4 ARM cores / 24 GB RAM, free forever. Most reliable free tier in 2026. (We host FriendPath itself on Oracle Always Free.)
• Fly.io — requires a credit card to verify, but offers a free hobby tier sufficient for one small bot
• Railway — $5 free monthly credit, more than enough for a Discord bot
• A spare Raspberry Pi at home running 24/7

Rate limits to be aware of

The FriendPath public API endpoint is rate-limited per-IP. For a Discord bot serving one community of friends, this is fine. If your bot starts serving multiple busy servers, you'll want to:

• Sign up for arbastro Suite — gives you 50 free FriendPath Scan API calls per day plus $0.005/call beyond that
• Or cache common results in your bot for an hour or so — most "what's my path to KreekCraft" answers don't change minute-to-minute

Ideas for v2

Once the basic bot works, easy extensions:

• Leaderboard command — /leaderboard target:david.baszucki ranks your server's members by who's closest
• Random famous target — /random-famous picks a random Roblox celebrity and finds your path to them (use the FriendPath famous-users endpoint)
• Daily challenge — schedule a daily message in the server with a random "find your path to X" challenge
• Mutual friends — show the overlap between two users' friend lists

What this is good for

Friend-path bots are great for content-creator servers, Roblox community Discords, friend groups that play together, and anyone running a "small world" challenge. The FriendPath API exposes everything the main website does, so anything you can do on friendpath.arbastro.com you can wrap in a slash command.

Full reference

Source code for this tutorial: github.com/arbastro/friendpath/examples (planned). Full API documentation: friendpath.arbastro.com/docs. The underlying algorithm explanation: How FriendPath Works: Bidirectional BFS Explained.