Permissions Arclo needs
Which Discord permissions and gateway intents Arclo uses, what breaks without each one, and how to diagnose a permission problem.
On this page
The invite asks for Administrator and, alongside it, every individual permission Arclo uses. Administrator means no feature can fail over a box somebody forgot; the individual grants mean unticking Administrator — on the invite screen, or on Arclo's role long afterwards — leaves a bot that still works. Nothing is used speculatively: the table below is what Arclo actually uses, and a feature you do not use can safely lose its permission in Server Settings → Roles.
Two different things
Permissions are what your server allows Arclo to do, and you control them. Intents are what Discord allows Arclo to receive, and they are set on the bot application itself — you do not need to do anything about them.
Permissions, and what needs them
| Permission | Used by | Without it |
|---|---|---|
| View Channels / Read Message History | Everything that reads a channel: logging, auto moderation, tickets, starboards, sticky messages | Arclo is blind in that channel — no filters, no logs, no stickies |
| Send Messages / Embed Links / Attach Files | Every message Arclo sends anywhere | Silent failures in exactly the channel you configured |
| Manage Messages | Moderation /clear, auto moderation deletions, auto purge, starboard cleanup, sticky reposts, clearing reactions | Nothing can be deleted |
| Pin Messages | Pinned leaderboards, the Temp Voice control panel, auto moderation honeypots, backup restore | Boards are posted but never pinned — Discord split this out of Manage Messages |
| Manage Roles | Auto Roles, Reaction Roles, level rewards, verification, temporary roles, birthday roles, voice linking | No role is ever granted or removed |
| Kick / Ban Members | Moderation, Auto Moderation punishments, Security responses, Join Guard | Warnings still work; kicks, bans and softbans do not |
| Moderate Members | Timeout-based mutes, the default mute method | Mutes fail unless you switch to a mute role |
| Manage Channels | Ticket channels, temporary voice rooms, statistics channels, lockdowns, slowmode manager, backups | Tickets never open and counters never update |
| Create Public / Private Threads, Send Messages in Threads, Manage Threads | Thread-mode tickets, giveaway winner threads, suggestion discussion, Temp Voice text rooms | Thread tickets never open; discussion threads are never created |
| Manage Webhooks | Batched log delivery and information channel publishing | Logs fall back to slower plain messages |
| Add Reactions | Reaction roles, reaction verification, suggestion voting, starboards | Panels post without their reactions |
| Use External Emojis / Stickers | Arclo's own emoji set in its embeds and buttons, and ticket permission sets | Buttons and embeds fall back to plain text |
| Mention Everyone | Welcome, giveaway, social alert and birthday announcements that ping a role or @everyone | The announcement still posts; the ping is silently dropped |
| Manage Expressions / Create Expressions | The Emojis system. Discord splits creating from editing, so both are needed | Nothing can be uploaded, renamed, restricted or archived |
| Manage Events / Create Events | Social Alerts' scheduled events for a stream going live, and backup restore | Alerts still post; no scheduled event is created |
| Connect / Move Members / Mute Members / Deafen Members | Temporary voice controls, /voicemute, /deafen, disconnecting somebody from a call | Room owners cannot kick or move anybody; voice moderation fails |
| Set Voice Channel Status | /voice status in Temporary Voice | That one subcommand fails; every other voice control still works |
| Manage Server | Invite tracking and vanity URL protection | Invites cannot be attributed to an inviter |
| View Audit Log | Security's anti-nuke, and who did it on every log entry | Security cannot work at all; logs say what happened but not who |
| Create Instant Invite | Security's anti-nuke undo, putting back an invite an attacker deleted | A deleted invite cannot be restored |
Some permissions exist only so Arclo can take them away
Discord only lets a bot deny a permission it holds itself. Arclo never joins a voice channel and never sends a TTS message — it holds Speak, Video, Send TTS Messages, Send Voice Messages, Create Polls, Use Slash Commands, Use Soundboard, Use Embedded Activities, Priority Speaker and Request To Speak purely so a mute, a lockdown, a quarantine or a ticket's permission set can switch them off for somebody else. Deny one of these to Arclo and it is the muting that breaks, not the speaking.
Channel overwrites beat server permissions
Arclo having Send Messages at the server level means nothing if a category denies it. When a system works everywhere except one channel, check that channel's own permission overwrites first.
Gateway intents
Intents decide which events Discord sends the bot at all. They are configured on Arclo's application, not on your server — this section is here so you know what the bot can and cannot see.
- Server MembersPrivileged
- Joins, leaves and role changes. Welcome messages, Auto Roles, Join Guard, invite attribution and every member counter depend on it.
- Message ContentPrivileged
- The text of messages. Auto Moderation's filters, ticket transcripts, starboard reposts and automation word conditions all read it.
- PresenceOff by default
- Who is online. Only the twelve online / offline statistics counters use it, and it is a privileged intent Discord approves case by case, so it is opt-in rather than requested for everyone. The counters that need it say so on the Statistics Channels page.
- Guild Moderation, Invites, Voice States, Webhooks, Integrations, Expressions, Scheduled Events, AutoMod
- Non-privileged, always on. They back the ban/unban triggers, invite tracking, voice systems, the Apps & Integrations log types, the emoji and sticker counters, the scheduled-events counter, and logging of Discord's own AutoMod.
Role hierarchy
Permissions are only half of it. Discord also refuses any action against a member whose highest role sits above the acting bot's highest role — regardless of permissions.
- Arclo cannot ban, kick, mute or rename somebody who outranks it.
- Arclo cannot grant or remove a role positioned above its own.
- Role pickers in the dashboard mark unreachable roles, and the Settings page warns when Arclo has no Manage Roles at all.
- The fix is always the same: Server Settings → Roles, drag Arclo's role higher.
Diagnosing a permission problem
Check the system's status strip
An amber pill on the system page names the missing channel or permission directly.
Check the channel, not just the server
Right-click the channel → Edit Channel → Permissions → Arclo. This is where the answer usually is.
Check the role ladder
If it works on ordinary members and fails on moderators, it is hierarchy, not permissions.
Check the logs
With Logging on, Arclo's own failures are recorded with the reason Discord gave.
Still stuck? Ask in the support server — somebody there has almost certainly configured this before.