Guide/Protect your server/Role permissions & whitelist

Discord Role Permissions Without Admin: Staff Grants

Bot-level permission keys for roles, and the per-protection whitelist for users, bots, roles and channels.

Quick answer

Delegate without Discord permissions

!permission grant @Helpers timeout,warn,purge
!permission grant @Mods kick,ban,quarantine,links,cases
!permission grant @LogTeam logconfig,search,export
!permission list
!whitelist add bot 123456789012345678 antinuke
!whitelist add role @Bots automod
!whitelist add @contractor antinuke expires:7d "server rebuild"   # temporary: removed automatically

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Step by step

Role permissions

Let a role use moderation features without holding the Discord permission. Keys: ban, kick, timeout, warn, purge, quarantine, lockdown, panic, links, logs.view, logs.search, logs.export, logs.deleted, logs.configure, incidents.view, incidents.manage, cases.view, cases.manage, backup.manage, backup.restore, whitelist.manage, permissions.manage, antinuke.configure, antiraid.configure, automod.configure, verification.configure. !permission keys lists them with short names (restore, logconfig, managecases…).

!permission grant @Helpers timeout,warn,purge
!permission grant @Mods kick,ban,quarantine,links,cases.view
!permission grant @Admins *
!permission revoke @Helpers purge · !permission list

These grants also decide what a role can do on the dashboard (viewing logs, changing protections) and what a button or autoresponder action may do on someone's behalf. Discord permissions always work in addition (View Audit Log reads logs, Manage Server configures them, and so on). Reading is separate from changing: rewriting a case reason or resolving an incident needs the manage key, not the view one. Dashboard: Security → Role permissions is the same as a checkbox grid.

Role permissions and the anti-nuke whitelist are different things. A role may hold ban and still be banned by anti-nuke for banning someone, unless it is whitelisted or has a permission grant for ban. See Anti-nuke → Permission grants.

Whitelist

Exempts trusted admins, bots, roles or channels from specific protections: antinuke, antiraid, automod, antispam, antimention, joingate, lockdown, logs or all.

!whitelist add user @cofounder antinuke "trusted"
!whitelist add bot 123456789012345678 joingate
!whitelist add role @Bots automod · !whitelist add channel #memes antispam
!whitelist add bot 123456789012345678 automod       target, kind and protection in any order
!whitelist remove @cofounder · !whitelist list

Whitelisting a user for joingate (or all) authorises them to add bots. Whitelisting a bot for joingate allows that specific bot regardless of who adds it. Whitelisted people remain subject to moderator limits when "apply to whitelisted" is on.

Copy and try

Delegate without Discord permissions

!permission grant @Helpers timeout,warn,purge
!permission grant @Mods kick,ban,quarantine,links,cases
!permission grant @LogTeam logconfig,search,export
!permission list
!whitelist add bot 123456789012345678 antinuke
!whitelist add role @Bots automod
!whitelist add @contractor antinuke expires:7d "server rebuild"   # temporary: removed automatically

Good to know

The wildcard * never grants restore, panic, permission management or whitelist management — grant those four by name. Grant changes take effect within 60 seconds everywhere.
Keys are additive to Discord permissions, never subtractive.
Whitelist entries are per protection; all covers everything.
A temporary entry (expires:7d) stops counting the moment it lapses and is deleted within five minutes.

Still stuck? Ask in the support server.