> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://chameleon.voidlogger.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Events and middleware

> Use discriminated union events and the middleware pipeline to shape bot behavior early.

## Event handlers

You subscribe with `client.on(...)` and receive typed event payloads:

```ts theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
client.on('MESSAGE_DELETE', (event) => {
  console.log(event.messageId)
  console.log(event.message?.content)
})
```

## Middleware

`client.use(...)` lets you intercept events before downstream handlers:

```ts theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
client.use((event, next) => {
  if (event.type === 'MESSAGE_CREATE' && event.message.author.bot) return
  next()
})
```

## Why this matters

Middleware is a good fit for:

* dropping bot messages
* guild allowlists
* rate limiting or coarse feature gates
* logging and metrics

## Event typing

The event system is one of Chameleon’s best DX wins:

* the event name narrows the payload shape
* `event.type` supports further narrowing in shared flows
* you avoid a lot of nullable probing that is common in untyped gateway payload handling