Overview

Motiv is a supportive Discord bot that listens for messages expressing sadness and responds with uplifting, AI-generated encouragement. There are no commands to remember: if the bot has permission to read a channel, it can notice a difficult message and offer a kind response.

The project was created as a small experiment and later updated. It is intentionally small, focused on one interaction: detect a low mood, respond warmly and otherwise stay quiet.

How it works

Each message in a channel the bot can access goes through three steps.

1. Mood detection. The message is sent to the DeepSeek model through OpenRouter to determine whether the sentiment is sad or down.
2. Response generation. If sadness is detected, a second call generates a unique, comforting message.
3. Delivery. The bot sends the response and mentions the original author so the encouragement feels personal.

If the message is not detected as sad, the bot does nothing. That restraint matters: the goal is to be supportive, not to comment on every conversation.

Running the bot

Motiv is containerised with Docker Compose. You need a Discord bot token and an OpenRouter API key.

DISCORD_TOKEN=your_discord_bot_token_here
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_openrouter_api_key_here

The bot needs Send Messages, Read Message History and View Channels permissions and the Message Content intent must be enabled in the Discord Developer Portal.

docker-compose up --build

A note on care

Motiv is intended for supportive purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Server owners should monitor and moderate AI-powered bots as they would any other member-facing automation.