Your server is described by a blueprint — one document covering your roles, channels, permissions, and Packet's own features. You edit it visually on the Configure page, preview exactly what will change on the Diff page, then Apply it to your live server. Nothing changes until you hit Apply, and Packet takes an automatic backup first.

1. Invite Packet and pick your server.
2. Build a blueprint — write one from scratch, generate one with AI, or pull your existing server in.
3. Configure it visually (or edit the JSON directly).
4. Diff to preview, then Apply.

Set every one of these up in the Configure editor — the section to open is noted with each — then preview the change and apply it. (You can also author any of them in the blueprint directly, or with the AI generator.)

Roles, permissions & bands

Define your role hierarchy, colors, and per-role permissions. Role bands group roles by purpose (staff, color, activity, members) and keep them ordered correctly. Packet writes channel permission overwrites for you, so private and read-only channels are correct by construction. (Configure → Roles and Role bands.)

Channels & categories

Text, voice, forum, announcement, and stage channels, organized into categories — created, renamed, moved, and kept in sync. Rename anything and Packet re-points every reference automatically. (Configure → Channels.)

The Role Caller — self-serve role pickers

A message members click to add or remove their own roles (buttons or a dropdown). Use several pickers to split menus by topic or across channels, and auto-assign roles on join. (Configure → Features.)

Color roles

Let members pick their own name color. Offer a preset palette (organized into a single-select menu, auto-split across menus if it's large), or enable custom colors so members choose any hex color via a button. (Configure → Color roles for the palette; Custom colors for the pick-your-own option.)

Activity roles

Auto-assign a hoisted role while a member is playing a game or using an app (for example, a "Playing ARK" role, or a "Listening to Spotify" role) — removed shortly after they stop, so the member list groups people by what they're doing. (Configure → Activity roles.)

Sticky roles & temporary roles

Sticky roles restore a member's roles when they rejoin. Temporary roles let staff grant a role that auto-expires, via /temprole. (Configure → Features.)

The Greeter — welcome, goodbye & ban messages

Post a message when a member joins, leaves, or is banned — plain text, a rich embed card, or both. Add an optional pinned welcome panel (a kept-in-sync rules/welcome board) and an optional welcome DM. Uses variables like {user} and {memberCount} (see below). (Configure → Greeter.)

Scheduled messages

Post a message to a channel on a schedule — every few hours, or on set days and times in your timezone (e.g. every Friday at 6pm, daylight-saving aware). Plain text or a rich embed. A Send now button posts on demand. (Configure → Scheduled messages.)

Forums & polls

Run a community-engagement loop on a forum: Packet periodically opens a poll of the top posts, announces the winner, and can run a follow-up "should we implement it?" vote. It can also post and pin a first post (rules / how-it-works), archive stale threads, and ping a role when a poll opens. Configure tags, the default reaction, and guidelines per forum. (Configure → Forums.)

Welcome screen & server widget

Discord's invite-time welcome screen (a description plus up to five channel shortcuts) and the embeddable server widget — both kept in sync, with a copy-ready embed builder for the widget. (Configure → Welcome & widget.)

Automated snapshots

Periodically capture a backup of your whole server on a schedule, keeping the most recent N. Automated snapshots are tamper-resistant — they can't be deleted manually, so your safety net stays intact. (Configure → Auto snapshots.)

AutoMod

Discord's native AutoMod, in your blueprint: keyword filters, username (member-profile) filters, the built-in profanity / sexual-content / slur presets, spam blocking, and mention-spam limits — each with exempt roles/channels and actions (block the message, send a staff alert, time the member out, or quarantine them). (Configure → AutoMod.)

Social alerts — go-live & new-post notifications

Announce when a creator goes live or posts — your own channels or your favorite creators, Packet just watches public feeds. It posts a rich card to the channel you pick, exactly once per stream or post (no spam, no duplicates). (Configure → Social alerts.)

Platforms you can watch (what to put in the Creator box):

Setup: open Configure → Social alerts, + Add alert, pick a platform, paste the creator, and choose the channel to post in. Twitch and Kick need a one-time setup by the bot's operator (a free developer app — see .env.example); every other platform works out of the box. Hit Send test alert to preview the card — it uses the creator's most recent post (or current stream), so you can see a real alert without waiting, even for someone who rarely posts.

Post style — each alert is one of two styles (pick it per alert; new alerts start on the recommended one for that platform, and you can switch any time):

• Link preview (recommended for posts, videos, news — YouTube, Reddit, GitHub, Steam, RSS, Bluesky, Mastodon): Packet posts your message with the link, and Discord builds the rich preview — the image, title, and summary pulled straight from the page, exactly like when you paste the link yourself. This is usually the best look, and it's what you want if a manual link post shows more than a Packet card.
• Packet card (recommended for live streams — Twitch, Kick): Packet builds its own embed (with the stream title, game, and viewer count). Use this when you want full control of the card, or for streams (which aren't a web page Discord can preview).

Make it yours — each alert can also have:

• a custom message (with variables — see below), and, in Packet card style, a custom embed; leave them blank for Packet's built-in defaults;
• a ping role (pairs perfectly with a self-serve role from the Role Caller — members opt into "stream pings" themselves);
• filters — only alert when a stream is playing certain games, or when a title contains certain keywords;
• a cooldown so a flaky stream can't spam the channel;
• a live role (Twitch/Kick) — give a member a "🔴 Live" role while they're streaming, removed automatically when they go offline.

Alert variables (for the message + embed): {creator}, {title}, {url}, {game}, {viewers}, {platform}, and {mention} (the ping role). Plus {server} and {memberCount}. For example: {mention} **{creator}** is live playing {game}! {url}

Not supported (yet): TikTok, X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads don't offer a free way to watch arbitrary creators, so they're not available. Many of those creators cross-post to a platform above — watch them there.

Moderation — warn, mute, kick, ban with memory

Moderate your server from /mod in Discord: warn, mute (timeout), kick, and ban members — each recorded as a numbered case with its reason, and /mod history shows a member's whole record. Set up an escalation ladder so Packet auto-mutes, kicks, or bans once a member accumulates enough strikes. Discord's own actions (a manual ban, an AutoMod timeout) can feed the same record, so repeat offenders escalate even when no staff are online. In Configure, choose the mod-log channel, which staff roles are exempt, whether the member gets a DM, and the escalation thresholds. (Configure → Moderation; the actions themselves are /mod commands in Discord.)

Server logging — a record of what happens

Keep a record of your server's activity. Packet mirrors joins and leaves, nickname and role changes, bans and kicks, channel and server edits, and members using Packet's own features — to a log channel in Discord AND a dashboard activity feed on the server's Status page. Route different kinds to different channels, exempt certain roles or channels, choose who each log entry posts as, and set how long the dashboard feed keeps history. (Configure → Logging.)

Support tickets — private, staff-routed help rooms

Let members open private, staff-only help rooms. Post a panel with a button members click to open a ticket, and Packet creates a private channel and writes the permissions itself, so a ticket can't leak. Staff claim, reply, close, and triage tickets right in Discord (/ticket) or from a full dashboard with search, filters, priorities, tags, and canned replies — and a cross-server Tickets hub manages every server you run in one place. Set the staff roles, an auto-close timer for idle tickets, a satisfaction survey on close, and optional questions asked before a ticket opens. (Configure → Tickets.)

Packet updates — hear from Packet directly

Opt in to Packet's own announcements. Pick a channel and Packet posts new features, fixes, and news there as a clean, managed message — so you find out what's new without leaving your server. Add a ping role if you want members notified. (Configure → Packet updates.)

In any Packet-posted message (welcomes, scheduled messages, forum pings, first posts) you can drop in variables — they're filled in when the message is sent. They're case-insensitive, and anything Packet doesn't recognize is left exactly as you typed it.

Where each works: {user.*} only exists for the Greeter (welcome/goodbye/ban) — those are the only per-member events. Scheduled messages, forum pings, and first posts have {server}, {memberCount}, and (for forums) {forum}. Social alerts add {creator}, {title}, {url}, {game}, {viewers}, {platform}, and {mention}.

• Type @RoleName (the exact role name) to ping a role. @everyone and @here work too.
• Type #channel-name (the exact channel name) to turn it into a clickable channel link.

One catch: Discord only renders mentions in a message's body and inside an embed's description or field values — not in an embed title, author, or footer. In those spots, use {user.name} (a plain name) instead of {user} (a mention), or they'll show as raw code. (Packet handles this for you in titles — {user} there shows the name automatically.)

Greeter messages, scheduled messages, forum posts, and social alerts can include a rich embed: a title, description, accent color, author line, thumbnail and banner images, fields, footer, and a timestamp. Set {user.avatar} as the thumbnail for a welcome card, use {memberCount} in the footer, and so on. Leave the embed blank for a plain-text message.

• Configure — build and edit everything above, visually.
• Diff — preview exactly what an apply will change.
• Apply — push it live (with an automatic backup first).
• Commands — the full slash-command reference.
• Changelog — what's new.
• Questions or something off? The Feedback page reaches the team.