What permissions Nexus needs, and why.
A short breakdown of every Discord permission Nexus asks for, what feature depends on it, and the safe way to grant only what you actually use.
Our philosophy
Nexus follows the principle of least privilege: by default we ask for what every server needs (read messages, send replies). The heavier permissions — banning, role management, channel management — are optional, and Nexus will tell you clearly in the dashboard which feature needs which permission if you skipped it at invite time.
Permission breakdown
Required permissions are needed for the bot to do anything useful at all. Optional permissions unlock specific features — granting them later is fine.
| Permission | Required | Why | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| View Channels | Required | Nexus has to read channel metadata to know which channels exist and where to post. | Every feature. |
| Send Messages | Required | Required to reply to slash commands, post welcome cards, ticket transcripts, etc. | Welcome cards, custom commands, tickets, giveaways, AI commands. |
| Embed Links | Required | Almost all Nexus replies use rich embeds for structure and color-coding. | Everything that posts a message. |
| Read Message History | Required | Auto-mod scans the recent buffer to detect raid patterns; analytics counts messages. | Auto-moderation, analytics, AI summarize. |
| Manage Roles | Optional | Needed only if you use reaction roles, level-up roles, or warning escalations that change roles. | Reaction roles, leveling, moderation actions. |
| Manage Channels | Optional | Temp-voice creates and deletes voice channels on demand; stat channels updates names. | Temp voice, stat channels. |
| Kick Members | Optional | Used by moderation actions and auto-mod escalations when a kick is the configured penalty. | Moderation, auto-mod escalations. |
| Ban Members | Optional | Same as kick — only triggered when you explicitly configure a ban as the penalty for a rule. | Moderation, auto-mod escalations. |
| Manage Messages | Optional | Lets auto-mod delete violating messages and lets moderators delete via the dashboard. | Auto-mod deletions, dashboard moderation. |
Role hierarchy gotcha
Discord enforces a role hierarchy: a bot can only act on members whose highest role is below the bot's own role. If Nexus appears to "do nothing" when you run a kick or ban, this is almost always the cause.
Fix: in Discord, open Server Settings → Roles and drag the Nexus role above any role you want it to be able to moderate. The bot can never act on the server owner regardless of role position — that's a Discord-side guarantee, not a Nexus rule.
What Nexus never does
For clarity on the privacy side:
- We do not log message content. Auto-mod scans messages in-memory and discards them; the only thing stored is metadata about violations (count, type, timestamp).
- We do not read DMs. Nexus has no DM intent — the Discord API physically won't deliver DMs to us.
- We do not read messages from servers where Nexus isn't a member. Even if your account has access, the bot doesn't.
The full list of what we collect lives in our privacy policy.