Setup & permission errors
If the agent is installed but something isn’t working, it’s usually a Discord permission. Discord’s permission system is layered, so an agent can have a permission at the server level and still be blocked in one channel.
The permissions it needs
In every channel on the allowlist, the agent needs:
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| View Channel | To see the channel at all |
| Read Message History | To read the question it’s answering |
| Send Messages | To post its answer |
| Embed Links | To format answers cleanly |
| Add Reactions | For reaction-based flagging |
| Use Application Commands | For /ask and the mod commands |
View Channel, Read Message History, and Send Messages are the three it can’t work without. The rest affect specific features.
Message content access
Reading the questions it answers relies on message-content access, a privileged Discord setting we enable for the agent during onboarding. It covers mention and auto modes, where the agent has to read a message it wasn’t handed directly.
You won’t normally touch this. The one symptom worth knowing: if that access were ever off, the agent would see messages arrive but not their text, so it would stay silent while still looking online. If the agent is quiet in a correctly permissioned channel and nothing else explains it, tell us and we’ll check this on our side.
Why a channel gets blocked
Discord applies channel overrides on top of server-wide roles. A channel can deny the agent’s role a permission it otherwise has. If the agent works in most channels but not one, check that channel’s permission overrides for its role.
- Open the channel settings, then Permissions.
- Find the agent’s role.
- Make sure the permissions above aren’t set to deny.
Fixing it
The clean fix is to give the agent’s role the permissions it needs at the server level, and then make sure no channel on the allowlist overrides them to deny. Editing Discord permissions needs the Manage Roles or Manage Channels permission, so this is a job for a server admin.
Adding or removing the agent
Adding the agent to the server needs Manage Server. Removing it needs Kick Members, and an Administrator can always do it. If the invite link didn’t seem to work, confirm the person opening it has Manage Server. See how onboarding works for the invite step and offboarding for removal.
Still failing?
If permissions look right and the agent still can’t post, there may be something specific to your server’s setup. Send us the channel and a screenshot of the agent’s role permissions on Slack or at support@atcampfire.xyz.