VALUE gate: PASS | Reader: Founder, CEO, or COO | Takeaway: Ask three questions about each account, bot and webhook that holds more than a visible staff role, move each one to the lowest of five levels that still covers its weekly work, and keep the result in a one-page register you review each quarter.

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TL;DR

Three questions that decide who keeps access

Three questions settle almost every access decision in a Discord server.

1. Has this account used the power recently?
2. Could a narrower role cover the work it does every week?
3. Would you be comfortable if this account were taken over tonight?

Put them to every account holding the Administrator permission and very few pass all three. That is the answer to who should hold it. Keep it on the owner and on one or two people who share full responsibility for the server, which is the number I work to in most servers. Give everyone else the smallest set of powers that covers their normal week.

Two words come up throughout. A permission is one switch that allows one action, such as removing a message. A role is a named group of permissions that you attach to members.

Why Administrator is where to start

Nobody plans to give that much away. It happens one quick decision at a time. A contractor has channels to build and Administrator is the fastest way to let them start. A bot requests it during setup. A moderator needs one setting changed on a busy day. Each job finishes, and the permission stays where it was put.

Later you find you cannot say who can delete a channel, change roles or post in your announcement channel. Not knowing is a large part of why your own server can feel unsafe to open.

Most holders of Administrator only ever needed one or two narrower permissions, and the work below is finding out which ones.

I managed BlueWillow's Discord through its rise from about 1K to 1.7M members, and this is the access model I use in every server I set up.

Five levels, from most access to least

Sort every person and every bot in the server onto one of these. A bot takes the level that matches what its role can do.

• Owner. One account. According to Discord's help center (2023), only the server owner can delete a server, whatever permissions others hold. Protect that account with two-factor authentication, which adds a second login step such as a code from an app on your phone.
• Administrator. The smallest number you can run the server with. It suits a person who carries full day-to-day responsibility and touches nearly every setting in a normal week. If there is a setting they never touch, look one level down.
• Builder. Holds Manage Channels, Manage Roles and Manage Webhooks, the permissions that construction work needs. It is given for a stated job and removed on a stated date, and both go in writing on the day it is granted.
• Moderator. Holds timeouts, which temporarily stop a member from posting, and message removal. Both are easy to reverse. Kicking or banning, which removes a member from the server, is heavier, so only the moderators who handle those cases get it.
• Helper. A named role with every extra permission switched off. Members can see who is staff, and the holder has no power to misuse. Most people who answer questions belong here.

The order of roles in the role list matters as much as their contents. According to Discord's help center (2025), a member with Manage Roles can create and change only the roles positioned below their own highest role. Keep the Builder role below the Administrator role, and a Builder has no way to grant a role above their own.

Turning the answers into a decision

Work down from the top: Administrator holders first, then Builders, then Moderators. Helpers hold no extra power, so they need no review.

Evidence for question one. According to Discord's developer documentation (2026), the audit log is a built-in record of administrative actions, entries are kept for 45 days, and viewing it needs the View Audit Log permission. Open it in Server Settings and look for the holder's name. No action that needed their level in 45 days means the power went unused. A quarter is longer than the log, so ask the holder about the earlier weeks.

Evidence for question two. List what the person does in an ordinary week and find the lowest level that covers it. Leave out anything they do once a quarter, because someone at that level can do it for them, or they can hold a Builder role for a day.

Evidence for question three. A staff account can be taken over, for example through a leaked password. Name the worst thing a stranger could do with this account's access tonight. If you would lose channels, roles or members, the access is too wide for that account.

Send a note before any role changes, so the person hears it from you first.

Hi [name]. I am reviewing who has which access in the server.
From [date] your role moves from [old level] to [new level].
The new role covers [their weekly work].
If something you need stops working, tell me and I will
fix it that day.

Bots, apps and webhooks

A bot is an automated account that does a job in the server, for example greeting new members. A webhook is a posting link, explained below. Both hold access. A bot given Administrator on the day it was installed keeps it until a person changes that.

Start on one screen. According to Discord's help center (2024), the Integrations page in Server Settings lists everything added to the server, including apps, bots and webhooks, with when each was added and who added it.

Most bots need very little. One that greets new members needs to post in one channel, and one that assigns roles needs Manage Roles. The command limit is a built-in setting. According to Discord's help center (2024), an app's commands can be limited to chosen roles, members and channels from the Integrations page.

A webhook URL is a key. Whoever holds a copy can post into that channel, and you cannot see how many copies exist.

That follows from how webhooks are built. According to Discord's Safety Center (2022), a webhook is a URL that posts messages into one channel, posting through it needs no login and no bot, and deleting the webhook ends that access. A URL pasted into an outside tool or a shared document works for everyone who can still open it, including people who left the team.

A webhook does not fit the five levels, so it gets its own row in the register. For each one, write down the channel it posts into, the tool that uses it, and who is responsible for it. Delete the ones with no answer. When a webhook is still needed and its URL has travelled, delete it, make a new one, and paste the new URL into the tool.

The base role every member holds

Access also includes what members can do with no staff role at all. Every member holds a base role, listed as @everyone. Whatever is switched on there is given to each new account the moment it joins.

Check three settings on it. The first is mentioning everyone, which lets a single message notify the whole server. I turn it off on the base role and leave it to Moderator and above. The second is creating invites. Keep it on if members bringing people in is part of your plan, and turn it off if every arrival should come through links your team controls. The third is creating threads, which are side conversations attached to a channel. Leave it on in discussion channels and off in channels meant only for reading.

Two-factor for anyone with moderation powers

According to Discord's Safety Center (2022), the server owner can require that anyone using moderation powers has two-factor authentication on their account. The owner needs it on their own account first. You will find the setting in Server Settings.

Tell staff the date a few days before you switch it on, so nobody is caught without it in the middle of a shift.

Check your work with a second account

Settings can look correct and still allow the wrong action. Prove each change on the day you make it.

1. Create a spare Discord account and join the server with it.
2. Give the spare account the narrowed role.
3. Try the action that should now be blocked, such as deleting a test channel or mentioning everyone.
4. Try the weekly work the role is meant to cover, and confirm it still works.
5. For a bot, trigger its main job once.
6. Open the audit log and confirm the change is recorded, with the date and the account that made it.

If step three succeeds, something else is granting the power. Look at the other roles on that account and at the base role.

A register you keep outside Discord

Write the result down on one page, in a spreadsheet or document your leadership team can open. Keep it outside Discord, because the audit log holds only 45 days and the list should be readable without opening the server.

Give one row to each holder above Helper, each bot and each webhook. If you cannot fill in the Why column for a row, narrow or remove that holder.

The quarterly review, step by step

Book the review once a quarter. With the register already built, 30 minutes is what I set aside.

QUARTERLY ACCESS REVIEW

[ ] Open the register and the Integrations page side by side
[ ] Every holder has a row, and every row still has a holder
[ ] Three questions asked for each row above Helper
[ ] Keep, narrow or remove decided for each row
[ ] Note sent before each change
[ ] Each change tested with the spare account
[ ] Register updated with new review dates

Some events should not wait for the quarter. Review the affected row on the same day when:

• a team member leaves
• a contractor finishes their job
• a bot is added
• a new role is created
• anything odd happens, such as a channel going missing or a message nobody admits to posting

How access fits with the rest of the server

Deciding who holds which level is one part of role and channel architecture: the roles that exist, what each can see, and how the channels are grouped. Moderation load, escalation paths, automation coverage and documentation are separate layers beside it.

You can finish the access work alone this week. The other layers govern how much work reaches the people on your register.

Every permission in a server was switched on by someone for a reason, and the register is where that reason stays written down. More at danieljeong.org.