I keep running into the same deployment problem every time I try to push my bot to Heroku. The main issue seems to be that Heroku automatically selects Python 2.7.13, but my dependencies need Python 3.4.2 or higher to work properly.
I have two different Python versions installed on my local machine. Should I remove the older version before attempting the deployment again?
Here’s the error I’m getting:
ERROR:
-----> Python app detected
! Warning: Your application is missing a Procfile. This file tells Heroku how to run your application.
! Learn more about Procfiles in Heroku documentation
-----> Installing python-2.7.13
-----> Installing pip
-----> Installing requirements with pip
Collecting discord.py[voice]~=0.12.0
Downloading discord.py-0.12.0.zip (440kB)
Collecting youtube_dl
Downloading youtube_dl-2017.4.26-py2.py3-none-any.whl (1.6MB)
Collecting aiohttp<1.1.0,>=1.0.0
Downloading aiohttp-1.0.5.tar.gz (499kB)
Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
File "/tmp/pip-build-4Ij98a/aiohttp/setup.py", line 60, in <module>
raise RuntimeError("aiohttp requires Python 3.4.2+")
RuntimeError: aiohttp requires Python 3.4.2+
! Push rejected, failed to compile Python app.
! Push failed
Had this exact error when I deployed my first Discord bot last year. The runtime.txt fix works, but double-check you’re using a Python version Heroku actually supports. I tried python-3.4.2 first since that’s aiohttp’s minimum requirement, but Heroku had already dropped support for it. Bumped up to python-3.6.15 and updated my requirements - worked fine after that. Also, discord.py 0.12.0 is pretty old now. You might want to upgrade since newer versions handle async better and don’t have as many compatibility headaches on cloud platforms.
Create a runtime.txt file in your project root and specify your Python version. Your local Python versions don’t matter to Heroku, so uninstalling them won’t fix anything. Just make a file called runtime.txt with one line like python-3.6.0 (or whatever you’re using locally). Double-check Heroku’s docs to make sure they support that version. You’re also missing a Procfile. Create one (no file extension) and tell it how to run your bot - usually worker: python bot.py or whatever your main file is called. Commit both files and your deployment should work fine with Python 3.x.
Your local Python setup doesn’t matter - Heroku builds everything fresh. You’re missing runtime.txt like others said, but there’s another issue. That aiohttp constraint in discord.py 0.12.0 will bite you even after fixing the Python version. I hit the same dependency mess with older discord.py versions. Update to discord.py 1.7+ instead - way cleaner async handling and fewer platform headaches. Migration’s not bad and you’ll dodge these version conflicts later. Just put python-3.8.10 in your runtime.txt since Heroku supports it well.
for sure! that runtime.txt is super important. just make it reflect the version your deps need. aiohttp demands 3.4.2+, so yeah, best to stick with python-3.7.x or above. heroku can be picky with these version things, ya know?
Been dealing with deployment headaches like this for years. The runtime.txt fix works, but here’s what nobody mentions - you’ll keep hitting Python version conflicts and dependency issues as your bot grows.
I automated my entire bot deployment using Latenode and never looked back. Instead of wrestling with Heroku’s Python version detection and writing Procfiles, I connect my GitHub repo to Latenode’s workflow. It handles the Python environment automatically and runs my Discord bot without manual configuration.
The real game changer comes when you add features later. Need to scrape data, send webhooks, or integrate APIs? Latenode lets me chain these actions visually instead of writing more code that might break during deployment.
Saved me countless hours debugging deployment issues. Check it out: https://latenode.com