When we talk, we say it all the time: "that thing, you know, that!"
We can see it clearly in our heads. The color, the shape, the mood — it's all right there. But the word that points to it just won't come out. The other person doesn't get what "that" is, and it's frustrating. We seemed to hit that moment constantly.
What if we could just get that "that" out, right there in the flow of the conversation? Open another tool, set it up, generate, come back — by the time you've made that round trip, the conversation has already moved on. We didn't want to leave the chat. We wanted to show "that" without leaving.
So we made a Discord bot called Areya.
What it does
Areya is an AI image-generation bot that turns prompts into images.
The nice part is that you don't have to switch to another tool. Right in the channel where you're talking, you can throw it a prompt — "I want an image like this." Wait a moment, and an image comes back. And then you get to say it:
"That! That's the one!"
The "that" in your head appears in front of you. Without stopping the flow of the conversation, you can share what you were pointing at. That's the whole point of it.
There are three features, kept simple.
- image_gen — give it a prompt and it generates an image of that
- cat — returns a random cat image
- neko — meows ("nyaan")
To be honest, cat and neko are just for fun. But having a cat pop up between messages, or a little meow — that kind of slack makes a chat more enjoyable.
By the way, we're also working on video support. If we can get a still "that" out, we want to get a moving "that" out too. We're still experimenting, but eventually.
Command list
Areya's commands are called with the /areya prefix.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/areya help |
Shows the command list and how to use them |
/areya neko |
Meows ("nyaan") |
/areya cat |
Returns a random cat image |
/areya image_gen |
Generates an image from a prompt |
/areya credit |
Checks your current credit balance |
/areya pay |
Buys credits |
/areya claim |
Claims free credits |
How credits work
Areya gives each server 5 free credits to start. Pick them up with /areya claim.
Generating an image costs 1 credit per image. Calling a cat or making it meow doesn't use any credits.
Credits are a pool shared across the server. They don't belong to any one person — it's a common balance that everyone on the server draws from. So:
- a server admin can buy a batch of credits, and
- any member can also top the pool up themselves via
/areya pay.
Whoever wants to get a "that" out can add to the pool themselves. Something everyone uses, supported by everyone. That's the shape we went with.
How to add it
To invite Areya to your server, open the invite link below.
Opening the link brings up Discord's standard "add an app" screen. Pick the server you want to add it to, authorize, and you're done. After that, just try it out with /areya help.
The permissions it asks for on setup are two: bot, so it can run as a bot, and applications.commands, so it can use slash commands.
For anyone who's been stuck because the "that" in their head won't turn into words. Without leaving the chat, you get to say "that's the one!" right on the spot. That's the kind of bot this is. If you like, give it an invite.
