# Sync examples and details

What I've been recommending to people, is to maintain a sync command as a Message Command (`@bot.command()`) or some sort of message invoke.
Bots without the message content intent will still receive content of messages that mention them or are in DMs.

~~It's not like you can use a slash command to sync... when that command isn't synced.~~

## Syncing gotchas

There is a ratelimit on syncing global commands which add commands.
Updating commands (currently) has no ratelimit.

It is still recommended to sync your commands to a test guild before syncing them globally. Discord.py has added a helper method to do just that:
[`CommandTree.copy_global_to`](https://discordpy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/interactions/api.html#discord.app_commands.CommandTree.copy_global_to)

This util is used as follows:

```python
# you have a defined Bot, with a tree and have commands added to it that are global.

guild = ctx.guild or discord.Object(id=...)  # you can use a full discord.Guild as the method accepts a Snowflake
Bot.tree.copy_global_to(guild=guild)
```
All this method does is copy your defined global commands (so ones without a `guild` or `guilds` kwarg, or without the `@app_commands.guilds()` decorator)
to the specified guild within the CommandTree.
When you use this method you **must** sync afterward still, you can refer to `when_to_sync.md` for details there.

## Sync command example
<details>
<br>

```python
from typing import Literal, Optional
from discord.ext import commands
from discord.ext.commands import Greedy, Context # or a subclass of yours

@bot.command()
@commands.guild_only()
@commands.is_owner()
async def sync(
  ctx: Context, guilds: Greedy[discord.Object], spec: Optional[Literal["~", "*", "^"]] = None) -> None:
    if not guilds:
        if spec == "~":
            synced = await ctx.bot.tree.sync(guild=ctx.guild)
        elif spec == "*":
            ctx.bot.tree.copy_global_to(guild=ctx.guild)
            synced = await ctx.bot.tree.sync(guild=ctx.guild)
        elif spec == "^":
            ctx.bot.tree.clear_commands(guild=ctx.guild)
            await ctx.bot.tree.sync(guild=ctx.guild)
            synced = []
        else:
            synced = await ctx.bot.tree.sync()

        await ctx.send(
            f"Synced {len(synced)} commands {'globally' if spec is None else 'to the current guild.'}"
        )
        return

    ret = 0
    for guild in guilds:
        try:
            await ctx.bot.tree.sync(guild=guild)
        except discord.HTTPException:
            pass
        else:
            ret += 1

    await ctx.send(f"Synced the tree to {ret}/{len(guilds)}.")
```

</details>