Learn the fundamentals of Discord roles and permissions—the key tools for running an organized and secure server. Whether you're just starting as a server admin or want to improve your current setup, we'll explore the following: role colors, the role hierarchy system, and channel permission management.
Role Colors
Discord's role system includes role colors—a visual element that lets you quickly identify members' permissions and status. Server members inherit permissions and colors from the roles assigned to them. The color you see for a member comes from their highest role in the hierarchy.
For example:
- If a member has multiple roles, they'll display the color of their highest-positioned role
- You can adjust role positions by dragging them up or down in the roles list
- Moving a role higher in the list makes it more prominent - its color will override lower roles
Example of Role Colors
1. Press the server name in the upper-left corner and select Server Settings.
2. Navigate to the Roles tab and select the role you want to assign a color to.
How to Navigate to Roles in Server Settings
3. In Role Color, choose a color from the presets or use the Custom Color picker.
Role Color: Preset and Custom Color Options
4. Press Save Changes to confirm your selection.
Save Changes Button in Role Settings
Role colors are visible in:
- Member usernames in chat and member lists
- The separate role groups in the member list (when enabled)
Example of Role Colors in Members List
Role Hierarchy System
The role hierarchy is crucial for server management and security. It offers a structured way to delegate permissions to users and establish anything from a multi-tiered public server admin system to a trusted buddy in your private server helping out here and there.
Here's how the hierarchy works:
- Roles follow a top-down structure
- Members can only affect users with roles lower than their highest role
1. Navigate to Server Settings > Roles to find the Administrator permission.
2. In Edit Role, select the Permissions tab.
3. Under Advanced Permissions, toggle Administrator on or off.
4. Press Save Changes to confirm your selection.
Administrator Permission Toggle in Advanced Permissions Settings
Manage Roles
Users with the Manage Roles permission can create and modify roles positioned below their own in the role hierarchy. However, they are limited to assigning only the permissions that they themselves possess, and cannot make any changes to roles that are equal to or positioned above their own role level. For example, if your role lacks the Ban Members permission, you cannot grant this permission to other users.
1. Navigate to Server Settings > Roles to find the Manage Roles permission.
2. In Edit Role, select the Permissions tab.
3. Under General Server Permissions, toggle Manage Roles on or off.
4. Press Save Changes to confirm your selection.
Manage Roles Permission Toggle in General Server Permissions Settings
- The @everyone role acts as the template for all new roles.
- New roles are placed at the bottom of the hierarchy (just above @everyone), though administrators can adjust their positions later.
- You cannot remove permissions from lower roles that your own role requires to function.
Channel Permission Management
Channel permissions let you customize access and capabilities within specific channels to help you manage channel permissions effectively.
To manage channels in a server where you have permissions, right-click any channel and select the desired action from the menu.
Channel Permissions: Available Actions
There are two key tools that can streamline your server organization:
- Duplicate Channel: This feature lets you quickly copy any channel and its permission settings. It's especially helpful when creating multiple channels that need the same access rules—for example, when setting up different topic channels that should be available to the same group of members. To duplicate a channel, right-click the channel you want to copy, select
Duplicate Channel, enter a name, and press Create Channel.
Duplicating a Channel
- Role-exclusive Channels: Role-exclusive channels are perfect for creating private spaces in your server. When you set up a private channel, Discord automatically enhances security by removing the View Channel permission from the @everyone role. You can then grant specific roles access to the channel through permission overrides. To make a channel role-exclusive:
-
- Right-click the desired channel and select Edit Channel > Permissions.
- Under Channel Permissions, toggle Private Channel.
- You'll see a list of roles with current channel access.
- Press Add members or roles to grant access to additional members or roles.