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Two separate things determine whether a command works: what you are allowed to do, and what the bot is allowed to do. Getting both right is straightforward — but when something fails silently, one of these is almost always why. Nothing in Newt requires Administrator.

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Your permissions

Newt maps each command to its matching Discord permission. If you don’t hold that permission in the server, the command won’t run. The table at the bottom of this page covers the most common commands. Moderation commands are different. Ban, kick, timeout, warn, and related commands are controlled through the Permissions tab on the dashboard, not by Discord permissions alone. A member with the Discord “Ban Members” permission still cannot use /ban until an admin adds their role to the allowed list on the dashboard. This lets you give moderation access precisely — your Mod role gets /timeout and /warn, your Senior Mod role gets /ban and /kick — without handing out broad Discord permissions. The server owner, roles with Administrator, and any roles explicitly allowed on the dashboard’s Permissions tab can always use moderation commands.

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The bot’s permissions

Newt needs the right permissions in the channels and roles you point it at:
  • Send Messages and View Channel — in every channel you assign as a log channel, welcome channel, or giveaway channel. If the bot can’t see or post in a channel, nothing it’s supposed to send there will arrive.
  • Manage Roles — required for autorole, role button panels, and reaction roles. Without it, the bot can’t assign or remove roles regardless of how they’re configured.
  • View Audit Log — required to identify who deleted a message or placed a ban. Without it, the server log reports deletions and bans as “unknown actor”. Everything else logs normally.
  • Manage Channels — required for ticket panels (to create and delete ticket channels) and counters (to create and rename counter channels).
  • Manage Messages — required for sticky messages, the purge command, and automod actions that delete messages.
Run a status command after configuring any feature to check the bot’s permissions in one go. Commands like /logging status, /automod status, and /welcome show report exactly what’s set up and flag anything that’s missing.

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Role position

For any moderation action to work, the bot’s role must be positioned above the roles of the members you want to action in Server Settings → Roles. This is a Discord requirement — permissions alone are not enough. If the bot’s role sits below a member’s highest role, moderation commands against that member will fail, even if every permission is correctly granted. Move the bot’s role up in the role list to fix this.
The same rule applies to you as a moderator: you cannot action a member whose top role is at or above your own highest role. And nobody — including the bot — can action the server owner under any circumstances. For autorole and role panels, the bot’s role must also sit above every role it’s handing out. A role above the bot in the list is shown as unavailable on the dashboard, with the reason displayed next to it.

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Common commands and required permissions

These defaults can be adjusted on the dashboard’s Permissions tab for most commands. The “Allowed on the dashboard” commands have no default Discord permission requirement — access is granted entirely through the Permissions tab.