Building a Discord To-Do List Bot That Fits My Workflow

Why build instead of install

Existing to-do bots were either unmaintained, overcomplicated, or mismatched with how I organize tasks. Building a custom bot gave me clear control over behavior, command naming, and data structure.

Core product goals

• Slash commands only for discoverable usage.
• Multiple named lists per server.
• Durable storage that survives restarts.
• Fast bulk task input for planning sessions.

Technology choices

• Runtime: Python
• Library: discord.py with app_commands
• Persistence: JSON file (todo_data.json)
• Secrets: environment variable in .env

JSON was selected intentionally for simplicity. For this scope, it is enough and keeps the project easy to move across environments.

Data model

Data is scoped by Discord guild ID so each server has isolation by default.

{
  "guild_id": {
    "current_list": "default",
    "lists": {
      "default": []
    }
  }
}

Command design

All functionality is grouped under /todo to keep command discovery clean.

• /todo add and /todo add-bulk for input flow.
• /todo list for indexed output.
• /todo check and /todo uncheck for status updates.
• /todo create-list, /todo switch, and /todo delete-list for context control.

Deployment path

The bot can run locally in seconds and can be deployed to Railway, Render, Heroku, or a VPS depending on uptime and budget needs. Setup remains simple:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python todo_bot.py

Outcome and lesson

The final bot solved the original workflow problem with fewer dependencies and better predictability than off-the-shelf options.

Good tooling is not always feature-rich. It is often just opinionated enough to match real usage patterns.