I want to create a Discord bot command that shows a warning message when users try to use it too quickly. My command has a 3 second waiting period between uses and I need it to tell users they have to wait if they try using it again too soon.
Here’s what I have so far:
@bot.command()
@commands.cooldown(1, 3, commands.BucketType.user)
async def ping(ctx):
await ctx.send('Pong!')
Right now it just ignores the command when someone uses it during the cooldown period. I want it to actually respond and let them know they need to wait. What’s the best way to handle this situation?
you can also skip error handlers and manualy check cooldowns in your command with get_cooldown_retry_after(). takes more work but u control exactly when to show messages vs run the actual command.
You can also use a local error handler directly on your command instead of a global one. This gives you way more control over individual responses:
@bot.command()
@commands.cooldown(1, 3, commands.BucketType.user)
async def ping(ctx):
await ctx.send('Pong!')
@ping.error
async def ping_error(ctx, error):
if isinstance(error, commands.CommandOnCooldown):
remaining = round(error.retry_after, 1)
await ctx.send(f"Slow down! Wait {remaining} more seconds before using this command again.")
I use this method in my bots because you can customize error messages for different commands. Some commands need different warning styles or extra info in their cooldown messages.
You need a cooldown error handler to catch rate limit hits. The cooldown decorator throws a CommandOnCooldown exception you can catch and handle. Add this to your bot:
@bot.event
async def on_command_error(ctx, error):
if isinstance(error, commands.CommandOnCooldown):
await ctx.send(f"You're on cooldown! Try again in {error.retry_after:.2f} seconds.")
This catches all cooldown errors globally. If you only want it for specific commands, use the @ping.error decorator on individual commands instead.