2026 project rework

[codebyant]

Summary

This PR modernizes the Discord bot runtime, tightens voice activity tracking behavior, and replaces the old fragile GitHub Actions delivery flow with a simpler CI/release setup.

What changed

• migrated slash commands to modern discord.py application commands
• cleaned up bot configuration loading and SQLite persistence
• persisted /toggle notification state across restarts
• fixed monitored channel tracking so only real joins count
• stopped counting moves between monitored voice channels as new entries
• split locale messages for first-user alerts with and without @everyone
• standardized environment setup on .env.example
• replaced the old multi-workflow release automation with a simpler CI + GHCR release pipeline
• updated docs to match the new runtime and deployment flow

Why

The project was working, but parts of the runtime and delivery setup had clearly aged:

• the old Discord slash-command stack was legacy
• monitored channel configuration existed but was not being enforced correctly
• runtime toggle state was lost on restart
• the previous GitHub Actions release flow was overcomplicated and unreliable in practice
• setup/docs still carried old naming and outdated assumptions

Validation

• python -m py_compile bot.py
• python -c "import bot, discord; print(discord.__version__)"
• python -m json.tool locales/en_US.json
• python -m json.tool locales/pt_BR.json

Notes

• moving between monitored voice channels no longer inflates the leaderboard
• release publishing now targets GHCR on tag pushes like v1.2.3
• slash command sync is still automatic on startup and can be refined later if needed