How to Set Up a Discord Staff Application Bot, Step by Step

Staff applications are the most common reason a server adds an application bot, and the setup is short. This guide covers the one-command route, what to change afterwards, and the checks worth doing before you announce anything.

What do you need before you start?

Two things: Manage Server on your own account, and the right permissions for Mico. The invite link asks for them, but if someone unticked boxes while adding the bot, this is what each one is for:

What is the fastest way to set it up?

Here is what /setup does in that one step:

• Reviewer role. It looks for a role you already use, by name: recruiter, reviewer, staff, support, moderator, mod or admin. If none fits, it makes "Application Reviewer".
• #apply. Everybody can read it, nobody but the bot can post in it. An existing #apply is reused.
• #application-reviews. Private: only the reviewer role and the bot can see it. If you already have a channel with that name that everyone can read, it is left alone and a private one is made instead, because applications hold what people wrote about themselves.
• A starter panel called "Staff applications", with AI scoring on and these four questions:

1. Why do you want to join the team?
2. What experience do you have with moderating or helping a community?
3. How many hours a week can you be active, and in which time zone?
4. Is there anything else we should know about you?

It then posts the panel in #apply. Posting your first panel also starts the server's free Premium trial. The details are on the pricing page.

If /setup refuses, it is one of two things: the server already has a panel (use /panel), or Mico is missing Manage Channels or Manage Roles.

How do you build the panel and its questions?

The four starter questions are a placeholder. Open the panel with /panel, or on the dashboard, and go through its groups: text and look, questions, who can apply, reviewers and pings, AI scoring, opening hours and limits, messages, and channels.

Each question has a few settings worth knowing:

• Required or optional. Send stays off until every required question is answered.
• Minimum and maximum length. A minimum stops one-word answers.
• Placeholder. A hint shown in the answer box.
• Expected answer. A note for the AI describing what a good answer contains. Applicants never see it.
• Identifier. Mark name, age or time zone questions as identifiers, so they are kept but not scored.

What to actually ask is its own topic: the Discord moderator application template has scenario questions and what a good answer to each looks like.

If you would rather not start from a blank page, /panel can also write a draft from a short description of your server, or you can import a ready panel from the community library.

Who can review staff applications?

Two kinds of people: anyone with Manage Server, and anyone with one of the panel's reviewer roles (the reviewer role from /setup is already one). A reviewer sees only the panels they review, so if you later add a partner panel with its own reviewers, they will not read staff applications.

On paid plans you can also set ping roles, which get mentioned when a new application arrives, so nobody has to watch the channel.

Reviewers work in the review channel, or with /review, which lists what is waiting in each of their panels.

What happens when someone applies?

The member presses Apply Now on the panel. Mico checks they are allowed to apply (not paused, not on cooldown, long enough in the server, and so on), then DMs them the questions one card at a time. When they press Send, the answers are frozen.

The application then appears in your review channel:

The message holds the answers, the AI's quality score, its score for how likely the text was AI-written, a short reason, and the buttons. The full application is attached as a text file, which is handy for long answers. Staff can open a private thread under it to talk before deciding. The applicant never sees the scores or the thread.

What happens when you accept or deny?

A reviewer presses Accept or Deny and can add a short reason. Then:

• The applicant gets a DM with the result. On Premium and above you write that message yourself.
• Reward roles are added or removed. The usual setup is: on accept, give the staff role and remove a "trial" or "applicant" role.
• The review message changes colour and names who decided.

Only the first click counts. If two reviewers press at once, one decision is recorded and the other person is told it was already decided.

More on reward roles and fixing them: give a role when a Discord application is accepted.

How do you test it before announcing it?

Minimum days in the server works on every plan, and it does more against throwaway applications than any other single setting. Stopping spam applications goes through the rest.

Which commands will you use?

Where does this setup stop?