Placeholders
How {curly} placeholders work, which ones exist where, and what happens when one cannot be resolved.
A placeholder is a name in curly braces that Arclo replaces with a real value when it sends the message. Welcome {user} to {server}! becomes Welcome @newcomer to Nebula Collective!.
Where they work
- Every text field in every message editor — title, description, fields, footer, button labels, and the plain-message body.
- Banner text layers, which have their own shorter list (a banner is drawn, so a mention has nowhere to go).
- Channel name templates in Statistics Channels.
- Custom command responses and automation actions.
The list is per field, and the editor knows it
Type { in any field to open a menu of exactly the placeholders that field supports. There is no single global list, because {case} means nothing in a welcome message and {inviter} means nothing in a moderation DM.
The ones that appear almost everywhere
| Placeholder | Becomes |
|---|---|
{user} | A mention of the member the message is about |
{username} | Their username, without the mention |
{display_name} | Their per-server display name |
{user_id} | Their Discord id |
{avatar} | The URL of their avatar — for image and icon fields |
{server} | The server's name |
{server_icon} | The URL of the server icon |
{member_count} | The server's member count |
{channel} | A mention of the relevant channel |
System-specific sets
Each system adds what only it knows about. A few examples, all listed in full on the system's own page:
| System | Adds |
|---|---|
| Welcome | {member_count_ordinal}, {account_age}, {joined_at}, and — with Invite Tracking on — {inviter}, {inviter_invites}, {invite_code} |
| Moderation | {target}, {moderator}, {action}, {reason}, {duration}, {expires}, {case} |
| Levels | {level}, {xp}, {rank}, {next_level}, the reward role |
| Giveaways | {prize}, {winners}, {entries}, {ends}, {host} |
| Tickets | {ticket_id}, {panel}, {claimed_by}, the form answers |
| Social Alerts | {title}, {url}, {author}, {game}, {viewers}, {thumbnail} |
Behaviour
- An unknown placeholder is left alone.
{not_a_real_token}is sent verbatim rather than blanked, so a typo is visible instead of silently eating your sentence. - A known placeholder with no value becomes empty.
{inviter}with Invite Tracking switched off produces nothing, not the word undefined. - Optional trailing lines exist for exactly this. Several systems expose a
{..._note}or{details}placeholder that renders a whole line, or nothing at all — so a permanent ban does not print an empty Duration: row. - Mentions only ping in a plain message. A mention inside an embed renders as a link and notifies nobody. That is Discord's behaviour, and it is why sticky messages and tags default to plain messages.
Case and spacing matter
Placeholders are lowercase with underscores and no spaces inside the braces. {Member_Count} and { member_count } are not recognised.
The complete cross-system list is on the placeholder reference.
Still stuck? Ask in the support server — somebody there has almost certainly configured this before.