Discord governance

Discord Third-Party Bot Vetting: Verification Requirements

Review a moderation bot before it gets broad access to your server.

Use Discord’s verification rules as one input, then apply least privilege, data-minimization, and ongoing vendor review.

Start with the access the bot is asking for

A bot’s invite link exposes OAuth scopes and requested permissions, but the real risk depends on the events and data it can access after installation. Compare the requested access with the bot’s published feature set. A moderation bot that only needs slash commands and selected channels should not automatically receive broad administrator permissions or every privileged intent.

  • • Record OAuth scopes separately from Discord permissions.
  • • Review administrator, manage-server, manage-roles, and message-management access as high impact.
  • • Check whether presence, member, or message-content intents are enabled and justified.
  • • Prefer a role and channel allowlist over server-wide access when the product supports it.

Separate Discord verification from your own vendor vetting

Discord’s current guidance describes more than one gate. Its verification help page says verification is required for an app to scale past 100 servers. Discord’s newer data-access update says apps reaching 10,000 or more total users need review to retain access to message content, server member data, or user presence, with annual re-review. A server administrator should track both platform status and local approval; neither is a substitute for understanding what the bot does with your community’s data.

  • • Ask for a clear privacy policy, retention period, deletion path, and support contact.
  • • Confirm who operates the bot and whether the organization has a security contact.
  • • Require change notification when permissions, subprocessors, or data use change.
  • • Document the approval date, reviewer, scope, permissions, and conditions.

Moderation-specific checks

Moderation bots process sensitive community content, so evaluate the safety workflow as well as the installation flow. Ask where messages are sent, whether attachments are retained, how false positives are handled, and whether moderators can inspect an evidence trail. If your own service already moderates text or images, keep a consistent policy and audit record rather than giving a bot unreviewed authority to delete content.

  • • Use least-privilege actions: flag and queue first, delete or ban only when justified.
  • • Keep human review for ambiguous or high-impact decisions.
  • • Record the bot version and policy conditions used for each action.
  • • Revoke and rotate access when the operator, scope, or behavior changes.

What it detects

  • • Discord message content
  • • Attachments and links
  • • Spam and raid signals
  • • Moderator actions
  • • Bot permissions and privileged intents
  • • Vendor and privacy risk

Why developers choose Vettly

  • • Least-privilege review before installation
  • • Clear separation between platform status and local approval
  • • Human review for consequential moderation actions
  • • Auditable decisions when policies or bot versions change
Example request
bash
const review = {
  bot: 'example-moderator',
  owner: 'https://example.com/security',
  oauthScopes: ['bot', 'applications.commands'],
  permissions: ['ViewChannel', 'SendMessages'],
  privilegedIntents: [],
  dataAccess: ['message content in moderation channels'],
  retention: '30 days',
};


// Approve only after the requested access matches the published behavior.
await saveVendorReview(review);
Example response
json
{
  "decision": "approve_with_conditions",
  "conditions": [
    "Keep privileged intents disabled unless required",
    "Limit the bot to moderation channels",
    "Re-review after permission or data-use changes"
  ],
  "reviewed_at": "2026-09-19T00:00:00Z"
}

Bot verification compared with a moderation control plane

Discord’s verification process answers whether an app meets platform requirements. A control plane like Vettly helps your team express moderation policy, route review, and preserve decision evidence across Discord and other surfaces.

See Vettly Discord moderation

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