Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

First Steps

This guide walks you through launching Rustmail and verifying your setup.

Starting the Bot

Direct Execution

From your installation directory:

./rustmail

On Windows:

rustmail.exe

Expected Output

On successful startup, you will see:

[INFO] Database connection pool established
[INFO] Database connected!
[INFO] Starting rustmail...
[INFO] listening on 0.0.0.0:3002
[INFO] Configuration successfully validated!!
[INFO] Mode: Mono server (ID: 711880297272311856)
[INFO] Rustmail is online !
[INFO] All pending reminders have been scheduled.
[INFO] Updated 0 ticket statuses

If there are configuration errors, the bot will display specific messages indicating what needs to be fixed.

Verifying the Setup

1. Check Bot Status

In Discord, verify the bot appears online in your server’s member list. Its status should display the text you configured in bot.status.

2. Test Slash Commands

In any channel where the bot has access:

  1. Type /help and press Enter
  2. The bot should respond with a list of available commands

If slash commands don’t appear:

  • Wait a few minutes (Discord caches command registrations)
  • Verify the bot has the applications.commands scope
  • Check that the bot has permissions in the channel

3. Test Ticket Creation

  1. Send a direct message to the bot
  2. The bot should:
    • Reply with your configured welcome_message
    • Create a new channel in your inbox category
  3. Staff can now respond using /reply or !reply in the ticket channel

4. Access the Panel (if enabled)

Open your browser and navigate to:

  • Local: http://localhost:3002
  • With reverse proxy: https://your-panel-domain.com

Click Login to authenticate with Discord.

Common Startup Issues

Configuration Parse Error

Failed to parse config.toml: ...

Check your config.toml for:

  • Missing required fields
  • Incorrect TOML syntax (missing quotes, brackets)
  • Invalid color hex codes (should be 6 characters without #)

Invalid Server ID

Main server not found: ...

Verify:

  • The guild IDs in your configuration are correct
  • The bot has been invited to all configured servers
  • You’re using the server ID, not a channel or user ID

Logs/Features Channel Required

'logs_channel_id' field is required if 'enable_logs' is true

Either:

  • Set enable_logs = false to disable logging
  • Or provide a valid logs_channel_id

The same applies to enable_features and features_channel_id.

OAuth2 Errors

If the panel login fails:

  • Verify client_id and client_secret match your Discord application
  • Ensure redirect_url exactly matches what’s configured in Discord Developer Portal
  • Check that your application has the OAuth2 redirect URI added

Running as a Service

For production, run Rustmail as a background service.

Systemd (Linux)

Create /etc/systemd/system/rustmail.service:

[Unit]
Description=Rustmail Discord Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=rustmail
WorkingDirectory=/opt/rustmail
ExecStart=/opt/rustmail/rustmail
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable rustmail
sudo systemctl start rustmail

View logs:

sudo journalctl -u rustmail -f

Docker

See Docker Deployment for containerized operation.

Next Steps

Your bot is now running. Learn more about: