Planner

Which Discord permissions each job should have.

Maintained by Perminator · Updated 2026-11-01

Pick the job, not the person. The lists below are Discord's own permissions — the toggles in Server Settings — for a mid-size public community. They are deliberately narrower than the role most servers end up with after a year of exceptions. A tournament, a raid, and a founder who "needs it for tonight" are how Administrator spreads. This page is the list you compare against before you tick the box.

Every job is on the page. The filters only hide sections while you read. Nothing here asks you to sign in, and nothing here is a Perminator permission. Where Discord bundles two jobs into one flag, the note says so. Splitting "rename a channel" from "delete it" is not something these toggles can do.

The long form, with a channel map and a role order, is a staff ladder you can copy. Individual flags and their failure modes are in the permission reference.

Whether that job's role should have the flag at all. Channel overrides can still add a narrower allow.
Role	Timeout	Kick	Ban	Manage channels	Manage roles	Administrator
@everyone	No	No	No	No	No	No
Event host	No	No	No	No	No	No
Trial moderator	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Moderator	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Senior moderator	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Channel manager	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Admin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Moderation bot	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Only if it assigns roles	No
Utility bot	No	No	No	No	Only above cosmetic roles	No

@everyone

Every current and future member holds this role, including the account that joined a minute ago. Build the public baseline here, then add powers on named roles. A permission you leave on @everyone is not a default you can take back with a "Muted" role — server permissions only add.

Where the role sits

Discord pins @everyone at the bottom. You cannot move it, and you cannot remove it from a member.

Grant

View Channels, Send Messages, Send Messages in Threads, and Read Message History in public channels.
Add Reactions, Embed Links, Attach Files, and Use Application Commands, if the community actually uses them.
Connect and Speak in public voice. Prefer channel overrides if new voice rooms should not inherit this automatically.

Withhold

Create Invite. A public invite on every member is how a raid link spreads. Publish one invite yourself if the server is open.
Mention Everyone. Anyone who can type can then ping the whole server. Put this on the announcements channel, not on the role.
Manage Messages, Kick, Ban, Timeout, Manage Channels, Manage Roles, Manage Webhooks, Manage Server, Administrator. None of these belong on a role the next joiner receives.

Channels

Deny View Channel for @everyone on staff, mod-log, and ticket categories. Allow it back on the roles that should see them.
Deny Send Messages for @everyone on announcements, and allow it for the role that posts there.

What Discord still will not split

There is nothing to split on this role. The work is keeping it small and re-checking it after every Discord permission Discord adds to the default set.

Event host

A host runs a named event. They are not moderators, and the role should come off when the event ends. Leaving a permanent "events team" with leftover channel overrides is how last month's guest still sees the prep room.

Where the role sits

Hosts do not need to sit above members. They are not punishing anyone. If a host must be timeout-able by moderators, keep the host role below Moderator.

Grant

Create Events, so they can publish their own event.
Move Members, only if the event is in voice and they have to sort people into rooms.
Bypass Slowmode as a channel override on the single slowed-down event channel, not on the role.

Withhold

Manage Events. That flag edits and deletes events other people created. Create Events is enough for their own.
Mention Everyone on the role. Grant it only as an override on the announcements channel, or they can ping from general chat.
Kick, Ban, Timeout, Manage Channels, Manage Roles, Manage Webhooks, Administrator. Running a bracket does not require any of these. If the night needs moderation, a moderator is in the channel.

Channels

Allow View Channel and Send Messages on the event-prep channel for the host role.
Do not give them the staff category.

What Discord still will not split

Move Members still lets them drag people into a channel the target cannot see. Take the role off after the event instead of trying to make the flag smaller. Discord will not.

Trial moderator

A trial is learning judgment. Give them a power that expires on its own, a place to ask questions, and a moderator above them who can remove the role. Thirty days is long enough to see how they handle a bad night.

Where the role sits

Above members, below moderators. A moderator must be able to time out or kick a trial. A trial must not be able to act on a moderator.

Grant

Timeout Members.
View Channel on the staff category, so they can ask for help in the room where the decision is being made.

Withhold

Kick and Ban. A wrong timeout ends. A wrong ban is an appeal. Wait until they are no longer on trial.
Manage Messages. Optional, and only as a category override on public channels after you have watched them. Not on day one, and not in the staff room.
Manage Nicknames. Renaming someone is a common first abuse and it shows up in the member list immediately.
Manage Channels, Manage Roles, Administrator. A trial with any of these is not a trial.

Channels

Staff category: allow. Mod log: do not allow, unless a senior wants them to read one investigation.

What Discord still will not split

Timeout Members is already a single flag. The coarse problem starts if you "just add Manage Messages" server-wide. Scope it to the public category or leave it off.

Moderator

Day-to-day staff. They clean public channels, break up voice fights, and remove people who need to leave but are not banned. They do not redesign the server.

Where the role sits

Above trials and members, below senior moderators. Peers who share this as their highest role cannot kick each other. That is what you want. An admin or senior above them is the escape hatch.

Grant

Timeout Members, Kick Members, Manage Messages, and Manage Nicknames.
Mute Members, Deafen Members, and Move Members if they run voice.
Manage Threads if the server uses threads and they should archive or unlock them.

Withhold

Ban Members. Hold bans at senior so a kick can be the fast action and a ban gets a second person.
Manage Channels and Manage Roles. Both rewrite the server. Manage Channels includes deleting channels and editing overrides. Manage Roles includes editing every role below them.
Mention Everyone, Manage Webhooks, Manage Server, Administrator. None of these are moderation. They are how a single account announces to everyone, impersonates staff, or invites another bot.

Channels

Manage Messages can be a public-category override if they should not delete messages in the staff room.
They see the staff category. They do not see the mod log unless you want every moderator reading investigations.

What Discord still will not split

Manage Messages still deletes other people's messages in bulk. Discord does not offer "delete one spam message" as its own flag. Do not add Administrator because a moderator hit a channel they could not edit — that channel is probably locked on purpose.

Senior moderator

The people who can undo a moderator and who read the audit log when a member says a ban was unfair. This is still not an admin role.

Where the role sits

Above moderators, below admin and below any moderation bot that must be able to act on seniors. If the bot sits above them, a compromised bot can ban them. Decide that on purpose.

Grant

Everything a moderator has.
Ban Members.
View Audit Log.

Withhold

Manage Roles. Banning a spammer does not require editing the role list. If they also need Manage Roles, count them as an admin.
Manage Channels. Same split. Creating channels is a channel-manager or admin job, not a side effect of being trusted with bans.
Administrator and Manage Webhooks. A senior who can bypass every channel lock, or mint a webhook, no longer has a senior's blast radius.

Channels

Allow View Channel on the mod log.
Mention Everyone only as an override on announcements, if seniors are the ones who post there.

What Discord still will not split

Ban Members includes unban and up to seven days of message deletion. There is no separate "unban" flag. Write the reason down somewhere that outlives the audit log's 45 days.

Channel manager

Someone has to create event channels, fix categories, and archive old rooms. That person is not automatically a moderator. Give them a role named for the job, and treat them with the same trust as an admin, because Discord bundles the dangerous parts in.

Where the role sits

Below admin, so an admin can remove the role. Position relative to members does not decide whose channel overrides win — allows and denies do not follow role order. Position does decide who can take this role away.

Grant

Manage Channels.

Withhold

Manage Roles, Ban, Kick, Manage Webhooks, Manage Server, Administrator. The job is the channel list. The other flags are different jobs.
Timeout, unless they are also a moderator. Do not combine the roles quietly. If one person does both, they should hold both roles so the audit still shows two jobs.

Channels

Expect them to be able to edit overrides on channels where Manage Channels is not denied.
A staff category can deny Manage Channels for this role if they should build public rooms but not retune the mod log. Test that deny. It is easy to think the server-level grant overrides it.

What Discord still will not split

This is the coarsest everyday flag. Manage Channels means create, rename, delete, and rewrite who can see the channel. You cannot grant "rename only" inside Discord. Give it to few people, or put a second check in front of delete and override edits.

Admin

Admins change the structure: roles under them, channels, bots, webhooks, and server settings. There should be one or two, they should have two-factor authentication on, and they should not use the owner account for ordinary nights in voice.

Where the role sits

Directly under the owner, above seniors and above bots. The owner remains the account that can fix a lockout. Admins cannot act on the owner.

Grant

Manage Channels, Manage Roles, Manage Server, Manage Webhooks, Manage Expressions, and Ban Members.
View Audit Log.
The moderator flags, if admins also moderate. Otherwise leave moderation to moderators so the admin role is not required for a timeout.

Withhold

Administrator. An admin with the specific flags can already do the job. Administrator additionally ignores every channel lock, including rooms you hid on purpose, and it includes permissions Discord has not invented yet.

Channels

Admins see staff rooms and the mod log.
Do not try to hide a channel from an admin with a deny if they hold Administrator. The deny does nothing.

What Discord still will not split

Manage Roles still cannot say "assign Verified and do nothing else." Manage Channels still cannot say "rename, don't delete." An admin is trusted with those bundles. A moderator should not be promoted to admin to escape them.

Moderation bot

The bot is a member with a managed role. Its permissions are the permissions of a staff account that cannot turn on two-factor authentication. Require 2FA for moderator actions does not put a prompt in front of a bot token.

Where the role sits

Above the members it must punish, and no higher. If it must time out moderators, it sits above moderators, and a flaw in the bot is a moderator-level incident. Do not park it above Admin to "stop the errors."

Grant

Timeout Members, Kick Members, Ban Members, and Manage Messages, matching what you actually want it to do.
Manage Roles only if it assigns a mute or jail role, and only above that role.

Withhold

Administrator. It bypasses channel locks and makes the bot's host a full server compromise. Decline invite URLs that require it.
Manage Server and Manage Webhooks. A moderation bot does not need to invite other bots or mint webhooks.
Manage Channels. Unless the bot's real job is creating ticket channels. If it is, that is a second grant you should notice in the role list, not a default.

Channels

It needs View Channel in the channels it moderates and in its log channel.
Send Messages in the log channel. It does not need Manage Messages everywhere if it only logs.

What Discord still will not split

You cannot give a bot "delete spam" without Manage Messages, and you cannot make its token ask for a second factor. Keep the grant list shorter than the human moderator you trust most.

Utility bot

Welcome messages, reaction roles, and level roles. These bots are invited with wide permissions because the install screen is lazy. Strip it before you test, not after something goes wrong.

Where the role sits

A reaction-role or level bot sits above the cosmetic roles it assigns and below every staff role. A welcome bot that only talks can sit just above @everyone.

Grant

Send Messages in the welcome channel, for a welcome bot.
Manage Roles, for a role bot, with no other staff flags.

Withhold

Administrator, Ban, Kick, Timeout, Manage Channels, Manage Webhooks, Manage Server. A bot that posts a greeting or hands out a color does not need a single one of these. Remove them from the role after invite even if the authorization screen requested them.

Channels

Welcome bot: Send Messages in one channel. Deny View Channel on staff categories so a compromised welcome bot is not also reading them. View Channel follows the same @everyone deny as everyone else unless you allowed the bot's role.

What Discord still will not split

Manage Roles on a level bot is still Manage Roles. Place the role directly above the cosmetic roles and do not let it climb. If the bot can assign a staff role, it is no longer a utility bot.