Set Up United in a New Discord Server

A reliable setup starts with Discord permissions and one working log channel. Add advanced protection and ticket routing only after the basic path has been tested from event to recorded result.

Before you invite United

Choose the Discord server where you have authority to configure roles, channels, moderation, and integrations. Decide which staff members will validate the setup and where private bot activity should be recorded. United is free and does not require a paid feature tier, but Discord still requires a person with suitable server permissions to install and configure it.

The standard invite requests broad permissions so protection, moderation, tickets, roles, channels, transcripts, and repair can work together. You can later reduce permissions according to the features your server uses. Reducing them before validation makes failures harder to diagnose because the bot may be able to read a command while being unable to perform its result.

1. Put United's role in the correct position

Open Server Settings → Roles after the invite. Move United's highest role above every member and staff role it may need to timeout, kick, ban, strip, restore, mute, jail, or otherwise manage. Keep the human server-owner role and any roles United should never manage above it.

Discord role hierarchy is enforced even when a bot has Administrator. If United's role is below the target, a command can be accepted and still fail when Discord checks the action. Role position is therefore the first setup check, not a later troubleshooting trick.

2. Open the dashboard and review Permission Health

Use ,dashboard or the Dashboard link on the website and authorize with Discord. The server-owner dashboard shows servers owned by the signed-in account or servers where dashboard access was explicitly granted. It does not expose the private bot-owner console.

Select the new server and open Permission Health. View Audit Log is essential for attributing structural changes. Manage Messages supports cleanup and spam controls. Moderate Members supports timeouts. Manage Roles and Manage Channels support role workflows, ticket setup, lockdown, and repair. Kick Members and Ban Members are needed only when those results are configured.

3. Create one dependable Bot Logs channel

Set one private channel as Bot Logs through Dashboard → Setup → Logs or with ,logs #bot-logs. Confirm United can view the channel, send messages, embed links, and attach files. This channel becomes the default record for moderation, protection, member, server, configuration, and ticket activity.

Do not begin by creating a separate destination for every event. Specialized channels are useful only after the default path works. When a dedicated route is removed, United sends that event group back to Bot Logs.

4. Apply the baseline protection setup

Open Protection Setup or run ,protection setup. Review the generated defaults rather than treating them as a finished security policy. Start Anti-Spam with a reversible response such as message deletion or a short timeout. Review account-age and join thresholds before enabling Anti-Raid enforcement. Confirm View Audit Log and role hierarchy before enabling an aggressive Anti-Nuke punishment.

Keep whitelists narrow. A whitelisted person, bot, or trusted role can bypass applicable automatic protection. Do not whitelist a general member role, a cosmetic role, or a role granted automatically to every staff member.

5. Run controlled tests

Use test roles and disposable channels. Do not simulate a destructive raid in a live community merely to prove protection works. The goal is to verify the event, attribution, response, and log chain with the smallest safe action.

6. Build tickets only after logs work

List the few reasons members actually contact staff, create one ticket type for each reason, select its destination category and staff roles, and add only questions that affect the first response. Publish the panel last. A public panel channel is not an open ticket and should never receive open-ticket controls during restart recovery.

Open a test ticket as a non-staff account. Confirm unrelated roles cannot see it, selected staff can respond, claim and close controls work, and a transcript reaches Bot Logs or the dedicated transcript destination before deletion. Use Refresh Panel for wording changes. Use Repair only when the saved panel is genuinely missing.

7. Review access and document the result

Grant dashboard access only to people who need it and remove access when responsibilities change. Dashboard controls still follow Discord permissions. If action logging is enabled, review the recorded server, actor, old value, and new value after a settings change.

Write down the chosen Bot Logs channel, transcript destination, ticket staff roles, protection responses, whitelist owners, and the staff member responsible for periodic review. A setup that only one person understands becomes fragile when that person is unavailable.

First-hour completion checklist

• United's role is above every role it is expected to manage.
• Permission Health matches the features enabled in this server.
• Bot Logs accepts messages, embeds, and transcript attachments.
• At least one safe moderation test produced one clear log record.
• Automatic punishments begin with reversible responses while thresholds are tuned.
• Whitelists and ignored areas are intentionally narrow.
• A test ticket reaches the correct staff and saves a transcript.
• Two trusted staff members know where to find logs, Permission Health, and Incident Mode.