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Troubleshooting

PM2 process not found​

If you get "process not found" when running pm2 commands, you are likely running as a different user from the one that started PM2. Prefix commands with sudo -u <user>:

sudo -u bot pm2 status
sudo -u bot pm2 restart all

Slash commands not appearing in Discord​

  • Confirm pnpm deploy:commands completed without errors.
  • Guild commands (when DISCORD_GUILD_ID is set) appear immediately.
  • Global commands (no DISCORD_GUILD_ID) can take up to 60 minutes to propagate. Set DISCORD_GUILD_ID during development.

Dashboard login fails​

  1. Verify DISCORD_REDIRECT_URI in .env exactly matches the redirect registered in the Discord Developer Portal (including protocol and path).
  2. Check that the API is running and healthy: 
    curl http://localhost:4000/health
  3. Check the API logs for errors: 
    pm2 logs api

Database connection errors​

  • Confirm PostgreSQL is running: sudo systemctl status postgresql
  • Test the connection string directly: 
    psql "postgresql://arkenbot:password@localhost:5432/arkenbot" -c "SELECT 1;"
  • Make sure DATABASE_URL in .env does not have surrounding quotes.

.next build permission errors​

The .next directory is created by the Next.js build process. If you switch between running builds as different users, ownership conflicts can occur. Fix with:

sudo chown -R <build-user>:<group> packages/web/.next

Redis connection errors​

  • Confirm Redis is running: sudo systemctl status redis-server
  • Test: redis-cli ping — should return PONG.
  • If your Redis instance has a password, set REDIS_PASSWORD in .env.

Music commands not working​

  • Confirm both binaries are installed and on PATH for the user PM2 runs as: yt-dlp --version and ffmpeg -version. There's no separate server to check — playback runs directly through these two.
  • Check the bot logs for the actual error: pm2 logs bot | grep -i yt-dlp
  • If you see YouTube 403s or "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" errors, your server's IP is likely blocked — set up YTDLP_PROXY or YOUTUBE_COOKIES_FILE (see Deployment → Music Support).
  • If it used to work and suddenly stopped, re-download the latest yt-dlp release — YouTube changes break older versions frequently.

Bot joins but can't assign roles​

The bot's role in the server role list must be above any roles it needs to assign. Go to Server Settings → Roles and drag the ArkenBot role above your managed roles.

API returns 500 on login after a restart​

Discord's OAuth2 token endpoint occasionally returns 500 during high-traffic periods or immediately after a service restart. Wait a few seconds and try again. If the error persists, check pm2 logs api for the underlying error.