## Overview

The Discord Social SDK provides client-side functionality for integrating Discord social features into your game. However, if you use a game backend, you should interact with Discord's HTTP APIs for server-side operations when possible.

### Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

- A Discord application created in the Developer Portal
- Access to your application's bot token
- Required OAuth2 scopes configured

***

## Authentication Types

### Bot Token Authentication

For server-to-server communication:

```bash
curl -X GET https://discord.com/api/v10/users/@me \
  -H "Authorization: Bot YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
```

:::callout{intent="info"}
Always prefix your bot token with `Bot ` in the Authorization header!
:::

### Bearer Token Authentication

For authenticated user actions:

```bash
curl -X GET https://discord.com/api/v10/users/@me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer USER_ACCESS_TOKEN"
```

## Common API Operations

### OAuth2 Token Exchange

Exchange an authorization code for an access token:

```python
# filepath: /your/backend/auth.py
import requests

def exchange_code(code, redirect_uri):
    data = {
        'client_id': 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID',
        'client_secret': 'YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET',
        'grant_type': 'authorization_code',
        'code': code,
        'redirect_uri': redirect_uri
    }
    
    response = requests.post('https://discord.com/api/v10/oauth2/token', data=data)
    return response.json()
```

### User Information

Get information about the authenticated user:

```python
def get_user_info(access_token):
    headers = {'Authorization': f'Bearer {access_token}'}
    response = requests.get('https://discord.com/api/v10/users/@me', headers=headers)
    return response.json()
```

***

## Using the OpenAPI Specification

You can use the [Discord OpenAPI Spec](https://github.com/discord/discord-api-spec) to generate a client in your preferred backend language to make it easier to call the various APIs. A good tool for that is https://openapi-generator.tech/.

In python for example, that might look like this:

```python
import openapi_client
import os
from pprint import pprint
 
configuration = openapi_client.Configuration(host = "https://discord.com/api/v10")
configuration.api_key['BotToken'] = 'Bot ' + os.environ["API_KEY"]
with openapi_client.ApiClient(configuration) as api_client:
    api_instance = openapi_client.DefaultApi(api_client)
 
    request = openapi_client.CreateLobbyRequest()
    request.metadata={'foo':'bar'}
    pprint(api_instance.create_lobby(request))
```

***

## Best Practices

1. Token Security
   - Never expose bot tokens in client-side code
   - Store tokens securely
2. Rate Limiting
   - Respect Discord's [rate limits](/guides/api-reference-topics-rate-limits)
   - Implement exponential backoff
   - Cache responses when appropriate
3. Error Handling
   - Handle HTTP errors gracefully
   - Implement retry logic for transient failures
   - Log API errors for debugging

***

## Next Steps

Now that you've set up Rich Presence, you might want to explore:

::::card-grid
:::card{title="Managing Game Invites" href="/guides/game-invites-managing-game-invites"}
Allow players to invite friends to join their game session or party.
:::

:::card{title="Managing Lobbies" href="/guides/lobbies-voice-development-guides-managing-lobbies"}
Bring players together in a shared lobby with invites, text chat, and voice comms.
:::

:::card{title="Design Guidelines for Rich Presence" href="/guides/rich-presence-user-status-design-guidelines-status-rich-presence"}
Best practices for Rich Presence UI/UX.
:::
::::

Need help? Join the [Discord Developers Server](https://discord.gg/discord-developers) and share questions in the `#social-sdk-dev-help` channel for support from the community.

If you encounter a bug while working with the Social SDK, please report it here:  https://dis.gd/social-sdk-bug-report

***

## Change Log

| Date           | Changes         |
| -------------- | --------------- |
| March 17, 2025 | Initial Release |

## Related pages

- [API Reference](./api-reference-index.md)
- [App Fundamentals](./app-fundamentals-index.md)
- [Best Practices](./best-practices-index.md)
- [Bots & Companion Apps](./bots-companion-apps-index.md)
- [Building Games](./building-games-index.md)
- [Building on Discord](./building-on-discord-index.md)
- [Change Log](./change-log-index.md)
- [Communities & Servers](./communities-servers-index.md)
- [Components](./components-index.md)
- [Core Concepts](./core-concepts-index.md)

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