Logging

Logging is the system every other system reports into, and the first thing worth setting up. It has no master switch: a server with no log channel is already logging nothing, so a switch would be a second way of saying the same thing.

1Setting it up

1. 1

   Open General → Logging

   The page has 4 tabs: Event Logs, System Logs, Settings, Commands.

2. 2

   Set a default log channel

   On Settings, in the Log channels card, pick a Default log channel: where any log type posts when neither it nor its category has a channel. One private staff channel is a fine start.

3. 3

   Or let Arclo build the channels for you

   On Settings, Create N log channels makes a private arclo logs category with one channel for each log category that has none yet, and points each category at its own. Once every category has one, the button says so. It saves at once, switches those categories on, and makes the first new channel the default if you had none. Arclo needs Manage Channels for it. For anybody but the server owner and administrators it leaves Messages out, as the count on the button shows, and sets no default that message logs would follow.

4. 4

   Check the categories

   Every category starts switched on, with Arclo's recommended log types inside (89 of 118; the chatty ones start off). Each category has a switch on its card, and each log type inside has its own. Both must be on for a line to be delivered.

5. 5

   Save

   Press Save in the bar at the bottom of the page. Nothing on Logging saves itself except the channels Create N log channels makes. The bot picks a change up within about 20 seconds.

2Event Logs

What happens in Discord, whoever did it: the gateway events, the lines only the audit log has, and the Arclo category (commands, dashboard changes, permission problems). Arclo's own actions are skipped by default, because each system already logs them on System Logs.

• Every category is a card showing how many of its log types are live, where it posts and its switch. Open one and its log types are listed inside, each with its switch and the channel it posts to. The dot before a line says what kind of line it is: green made something, red removed something, yellow changed something or simply reports it. Each open card also has All on, All off and Restore defaults. In Discord the embeds use the same colors, with light blue for the lines that only report something.
• A shield on a line means it needs the audit log to say who did it: Arclo names the person only with View Audit Log and Say who did it (Settings, on by default). Without them the line still posts, saying what happened but not who.
• A flame means High volume: it fires a lot even on a quiet server, and every one starts off for that reason.
• A key names a permission Arclo needs for that line at all: View Audit Log for kicks, prunes, pins, voice disconnects and moves, webhooks and bots, and Manage Server for invite uses. Without it those lines never post.

Routing

Arclo resolves a destination most-specific-first, and the same resolver answers the “where does this go?” chip on the dashboard, so the page can never promise a channel the bot would not use.

the event's own channel  →  its category's channel  →  the default channel

3System Logs

The other half: what Arclo did. Every system has one logger (Social Alerts and the Information Channel aside), with its own switch, its own channel and a switch per action. “Ticket claimed”, “Reward role failed”, “Sticky message couldn't be posted”.

• The structure mirrors Event Logs: system is to action what category is to event. The routing is one step shorter: an action's own channel, else its system's. System logs never fall back to the default log channel, so a logger with no channel posts nothing.
• There is one logger per system, not one per configuration. Four verification panels share one verification logger.
• The same controls appear on each system's own page, in its Logging section, and every logger's channel is also on Settings under Log channels → Systems. Editing from any of them edits the same record.
• Loggers start switched off. On a system's own page a switched-off logger hides its channel and its action list; on System Logs its card says it is off and keeps every action's setting for when it comes back. A system that is itself switched off logs nothing, whatever its logger says, and its card links to its settings.

4Settings

The Settings tab has four cards: Log channels, Start from a preset, Ignore and Log messages.

Default log channel

The fallback for any log type with no channel of its own and none on its category. Without it, those post nothing. Each category's channel and each system logger's channel sit under it, one list at a time behind Categories and Systems.

Start from a preset

Recommended, Everything, Moderation only, Nothing. Replaces every log type's on/off switch in one go; channels, ignore lists and the rest of this tab are kept.

Channels & categories

Nothing that happens in these is logged. Picking a category ignores every channel and thread under it. Up to 50.

Roles

Anyone holding one of these never appears in the logs. A muted role, a bot role. Up to 25.

Members

Individual accounts to leave out, usually another bot you have already made noisy. Up to 50.

Message prefixes

Messages starting with one of these are skipped. The standard way to keep another bot's commands out of your message log. Up to 10, 8 characters each.

Ignore bots / Ignore Arclo's own actions

Two switches, because “do not log other bots” and “do not log yourself” are different wishes. Ignoring bots (bot accounts and webhooks) starts off; Arclo's own actions start ignored, because every system already logs itself on System Logs.

Post through webhooks

On by default. Webhooks have their own rate limit, so a raid's worth of lines keeps up, and they carry their own Webhook name (Arclo Logs unless you change it) and Webhook avatar (a direct image link, or Arclo's). Needs Manage Webhooks in the log channel; without it Arclo posts as itself.

Say who did it

On by default. Reads the audit log to name who acted. Needs View Audit Log.

Show IDs

On by default. Adds the raw user and channel IDs to each line. Turn it off if your log channel is public.

Add jump links

On by default. A Jump to message link wherever there is still a message to jump to.

Keep deleted attachments

Off by default. Re-uploads the files of a deleted message into the log, up to 4 per message and 8 MB each, because Discord's links die with the message.

Message content length

How much of a deleted or edited message a line quotes: 1,000 characters by default, up to 1,900. 0 leaves content out entirely.

Behavior

• Lines are batched. They buffer for just over a second and send up to ten at a time, so a raid or a purge does not put your log channel minutes behind.
• A kick and a ban both arrive as a member leaving. Arclo waits a moment for the audit-log entry that explains which it was, so a ban logs once and a kick logs at all.
• Timestamps render in the reader's own time zone: they are Discord timestamps, not baked text, so there is no log time zone to set.
• A deleted webhook is replaced. The line is posted by Arclo itself and a new webhook is made next time. A channel Arclo cannot post in at all is skipped and tried again five minutes later, because the fix happens in Discord where the bot never hears about it.
• Arclo reports its own permission problems. “Why did the welcome message stop sending?” gets an answer in your log channel (the Arclo category's Arclo is missing a permission line, on by default), at most once an hour per permission.

Commands