Guide · Moderation
Discord moderation commands: ban, kick, timeout, warn and more
Discord's built-in moderation tools vs bot commands, plus a full reference of BotGG's moderation commands: options, cases, warnings, temp bans, purge, lockdown and permissions.
ModerationLogsBan appeals
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Discord gives every server three moderation actions out of the box — ban, kick and timeout — in the right-click menu on a member. A moderation bot adds the rest as slash commands: /warn with automatic escalation, temporary bans that lift themselves, /purge to bulk-delete messages, /slowmode, channel locks and a server-wide /lockdown, plus a numbered case and a mod-log entry for every action, so your team can always see who did what and why.
This guide starts with what Discord does natively and where it stops, then gives a complete reference of BotGG’s moderation commands with every option, and finishes with the parts that make commands work for a team: cases, warnings and escalation, permissions, DMs and logging.
Discord’s built-in moderation vs bot commands
Discord’s own tools are fine for a small server with one or two moderators. They become thin once you have a team, because nothing connects the actions: there is no warning system, no history per member beyond the audit log, and a ban lasts forever unless someone remembers to lift it.
| Need | Discord built-in | With BotGG commands |
|---|---|---|
| Ban, kick, timeout | Right-click menu, reason goes to the audit log | /ban, /kick, /timeout with reason, evidence links and a DM to the member |
| Ban someone who already left | Not from the member menu | /ban user works for people who left |
| Temporary ban | Not available | /ban with a duration, lifted automatically |
| Warnings | Not available | /warn, warnings expire, escalation rules punish repeat offenders |
| Member history | Search the audit log | /modlog member and a searchable case list in the console |
| Bulk delete messages | Only when banning (message history up to 7 days) | /purge by count, user, text or bots, or /softban |
| Timeout length | A fixed menu up to one week | Any duration from 1 minute to 28 days, e.g. 90m or 3d |
| Lock channels | Edit permissions channel by channel | /lock, /unlock, /lockdown start for many channels at once |
Discord’s actions still work alongside the bot. Bans, unbans and timeouts made from Discord’s own menus are recorded by BotGG’s Logs member events, but they don’t get a case number — so it pays to agree as a team to use the commands.
Before you start: a 5-minute setup
- Open https://console.botgg.app, choose your server and turn on Moderation.
- On the Settings tab, pick your mod roles. Members with one of these roles can use every moderation command (except deleting cases).
- Choose a mod-log channel. Every action posts an embed there: who, what, why and for how long.
- Decide whether to require a reason. With it on, every command without a reason is refused — useful when you want “Rule 4 — spam in #general” on every case.
- Check the DM settings: members get a DM for warnings, timeouts, kicks, bans and unbans (on by default), optionally with the moderator’s name and an appeal note.
- In Discord’s role list, drag BotGG’s role above the roles of the members it should moderate. Discord doesn’t let a bot act on anyone whose highest role is above its own.
Moderation command reference
All commands work only in servers, and the bot’s replies are ephemeral — only the moderator sees them. The public record is the mod-log embed. The full list with descriptions in every language is on the commands page.
Member actions
| Command | Options | What it does |
|---|---|---|
/warn | member, reason, evidence, rule | Adds a warning case; counts toward escalation |
/timeout | member, duration, reason, evidence, rule | Times the member out for 1 minute to 28 days |
/untimeout | member, reason | Removes a running timeout |
/kick | member, reason, evidence, rule | Removes the member; they can rejoin with an invite |
/ban | user, reason, delete_messages, duration, evidence, rule, shield_category | Bans the user; with duration it’s a temporary ban |
/softban | member, reason, delete_messages | Bans and unbans at once to wipe recent messages (last 24 hours by default) |
/unban | user_id, reason | Lifts a ban; the ID autocompletes from your ban list |
/note | member, text | A private moderator note — no DM, no punishment |
A few details that save time:
evidencetakes up to 5 links separated by spaces — screenshots or message links. They are stored on the case.delete_messagesoffers the same choices as Discord’s ban dialog: nothing, the last hour, 6 or 12 hours, 24 hours, 3 days or 7 days./banworks for users who already left. Pick them from the user option or paste their ID.- Discord doesn’t allow timing out members with Administrator, so
/timeoutrefuses them. rulecites one of your numbered server rules when Rules as Code is on: it autocompletes from the published rules (“3.2 No spam”), becomes the reason if you don’t type one (“Rule 3.2: …”), shows up on the case and in the mod log, and the member’s DM can quote the rule. More in the guide on rules members accept.shield_categoryon/banmatters only when your server shares signals with BotGG Shield: it sets the category the ban is shared as (raid, spam, scam, nuke, ban evasion), ornoneto keep this ban private.
Channel tools
| Command | Options | What it does |
|---|---|---|
/purge | count, user, contains, bots, reason | Deletes up to count (1–100) recent messages that match |
/slowmode | duration, channel | Sets slowmode up to 6 hours, or off |
/lock | channel, reason | Members can no longer send messages, create threads or react |
/unlock | channel, reason | Restores the channel’s previous permissions exactly |
/lockdown start | reason, duration | Locks your anti-raid lockdown channels (or every text channel @everyone can write in), optionally ending by itself after up to 24 hours |
/lockdown end | — | Ends the lockdown and restores every channel |
/panic start | quarantine | Locks every writable channel, pauses invites (needs Manage Server, which the default invite doesn’t grant) and can quarantine one member |
/panic end | — | Unlocks the channels and resumes invites |
Records
| Command | Options | What it does |
|---|---|---|
/case view | number | Shows a case with its reason, evidence and duration |
/case edit | number, reason, evidence | Changes the reason and adds evidence links |
/case delete | number | Hides a case from lists and escalation (needs Manage Server) |
/modlog | member | The member’s full moderation history, page by page |
Durations
Wherever a command asks for a duration, you can type it the way you would say it: 10m, 2h, 7d, 1w, 1mo, combinations like 1h30m or 1d 12h, decimals like 1.5h and words like 2 hours. Russian (2ч 30мин) and Hebrew (3 ימים) work too. A bare number means minutes — except in /slowmode, where it means seconds.
Some examples:
/timeout member:@Alex duration:2h reason:Rule 3 — spam after a warning/ban user:@Spammer duration:7d delete_messages:24 hours reason:Scam links/purge count:50 user:@Spammer/slowmode duration:15s
Cases and the mod log
Every action — including automatic ones from AutoMod, escalation and anti-raid — becomes a numbered case per server: #1, #2, #3 and so on. A case stores the action, the member (and their username at the time), the moderator, the reason, the duration, evidence links and whether the DM was delivered. A timeline records what happened afterwards: the reason was edited, evidence added, the timeout expired, or a new action replaced it.
In the console, the Cases tab lists every case with filters for action and source, an “active only” toggle and a search box, and the Dashboard shows actions per day, top moderators and AutoMod hits. Deleting a case hides it but doesn’t undo the ban or timeout, and its number is never reused — so references like “see case #214” always stay valid.
Warnings and escalation
Warnings are only useful if they add up to something. BotGG’s warnings stay active for 30 days by default (you can choose up to 365 days, or 0 to keep them forever), and escalation rules turn repeated warnings into punishments automatically. Rules are set on the Escalation tab, up to ten of them:
| Active warnings | Within | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 7 days | Timeout 1 hour |
| 3 | 30 days | Timeout 1 day |
| 4 | 30 days | Temp ban 7 days |
| 5 | Any time | Ban |
After each warning the bot checks the rules; if several fire, the harshest one wins, and once a member is past your top threshold, the top rule repeats. The automatic action becomes its own case with the reason “Automatic: N warnings within D days”, so the member and your team can see exactly why it happened. AutoMod rules can add warnings too, so a member who keeps spamming climbs the same ladder.
Escalation is only as fair as your rules. The server rules guide has templates and a sensible warning ladder to match them.
Temp bans and timeouts
- Timeouts use Discord’s native timeout, from 1 minute up to Discord’s ceiling of 28 days. A new timeout or
/untimeoutreplaces the running one. - Temp bans are
/banwith aduration, up to 365 days. The bot lifts them on schedule, even after a restart, and even if Moderation has been switched off in the meantime. - Softban is for cleaning up, not punishing: it bans and immediately unbans, so the member’s recent messages are deleted and they can come back with a new invite.
Purge, slowmode, lock and lockdown
/purge deletes up to count (1–100) recent messages that match your filters — from one user, containing some text, or only from bots; with a filter it searches back through the last 500 messages. Pinned messages are skipped, and Discord doesn’t allow bulk-deleting messages older than 14 days. The contains filter can only read message text when the bot has Discord’s Message Content access.
/slowmode is the gentle option for a heated channel: 15s stops rapid back-and-forth without silencing anyone.
/lock stops members from posting, creating threads and reacting in one channel and posts a short notice; /unlock puts the previous permissions back exactly. /lockdown start does the same in one go for the channels picked in your anti-raid settings — or, if you picked none, for every text channel @everyone can write in — and /panic start is the emergency version for the whole server. The anti-raid guide explains when to use which.
Who can use moderation commands
Moderation commands are visible to everyone, but the bot checks permissions every time one is used. A member can use a command if they have a mod role or the matching Discord permission:
| Commands | Discord permission (any of) |
|---|---|
/warn, /note | Timeout Members, Kick Members, Ban Members |
/modlog, /case view, /case edit | Timeout Members, Kick Members, Ban Members, Manage Messages |
/timeout, /untimeout | Timeout Members |
/kick | Kick Members |
/ban, /softban, /unban | Ban Members |
/purge | Manage Messages |
/slowmode, /lock, /unlock | Manage Channels |
/lockdown | Manage Channels, Manage Server |
/panic | Manage Server, Ban Members |
/case delete | Manage Server only (a mod role is not enough) |
On top of that, the hierarchy is checked: nobody can act on themselves, on the server owner or on BotGG, and the target’s highest role must be below both the moderator’s and BotGG’s. Everyone else gets a short “not allowed” reply that only they see.
One more safety net: bans and kicks made through BotGG count for the person who ran the command in anti-nuke protection. If a moderator account is compromised, mass-banning with /ban trips the same thresholds as banning by hand.
DMs, reasons and appeals
When DMs are on, members get a message for warnings, timeouts, kicks, bans, temp bans, softbans and unbans, in your server’s language: the server, the action, the reason, the duration and the case number. For kicks and bans the DM is sent before the action — afterwards the bot may no longer share a server with the member. If their DMs are closed, the moderator sees a short note in the reply.
You can show or hide the moderator’s name, write your own text for each action with placeholders like {reason}, {duration} and {case}, and add an appeal note to ban DMs. With Appeals enabled, ban and temp ban DMs also carry an “Appeal this ban” button that leads to your appeal form.
Write reasons for the member, not for the team: “Rule 2 — insults in #general” tells them what to change; “being annoying” starts an argument.
Logging
There are two places where actions show up:
- The mod log (Moderation settings) — one embed per case. This is where your team reads what happened.
- Logs — server-wide event logs. Its moderation category mirrors every case, AutoMod hit and raid or lockdown alert, and its member events record joins, leaves, role changes, timeouts, bans and unbans, including those made in Discord’s own menus.
Many servers use a private #mod-log for cases and a separate #server-log for everything else, so staff can follow both without one drowning the other.
FAQ
What is the difference between kick, ban and timeout on Discord?
A timeout keeps the member in the server but stops them from talking, reacting and joining voice for a while. A kick removes them, but they can rejoin with any invite. A ban removes them and blocks them from rejoining until it is lifted — or until a temp ban expires.
Does Discord have a warn command?
No. Discord has no built-in warning system. Warnings come from bots: BotGG’s /warn creates a case, DMs the member, and counts toward the escalation rules you set.
Can I ban someone who isn’t in the server?
Yes. /ban accepts a user who has already left, by picking them or pasting their ID, so they can’t come back.
Why can’t BotGG ban or time out a member?
Usually the hierarchy: BotGG’s role must be above the member’s highest role, and the member can’t be the server owner. Members with Administrator can’t be timed out at all. The reply tells you which rule blocked the action.
Are BotGG’s moderation commands free?
Yes. Every moderation command, cases, escalation, AutoMod, the mod log and DM templates are part of the free plan.