How to add roles in Discord
Making a role takes about a minute in Server Settings. The parts that trip you up come after: handing it out, why the order of the list matters, and how members pick their own roles without asking you every time.
Roles do two jobs in Discord. They colour a member's name and group them in the member list, and they decide what that member can do. Both come from the same screen in Server Settings.
1Make a role
- Press your server's name at the top left and pick Server Settings.
- Open Roles and press Create Role.
You need the Manage Roles permission. Server owners and admins have it.
Name and colour
The name is what members see. The colour is what their name turns, and only the highest coloured role a member has counts, so a decoration role like Red sitting above Member works, and the other way round does not.
Two switches worth knowing on the same screen:
- Display role members separately from online members gives the role its own heading in the member list. Good for Staff, noisy for a colour role.
- Allow anyone to @mention this role lets every member ping everyone in it. Leave it off for anything with more than a few people in it.
What the role can do
Open the Permissions tab on the role. Tick only what the role needs: a colour role needs nothing at all, a moderator role needs Kick Members, Ban Members, Manage Messages and Timeout Members. Administrator overrides every other tick and every channel setting, so give it to nobody you would not trust with the server.
Channels can override this. A role's permissions are the starting point. Each channel can then allow or deny the same things for that role under Edit Channel, Permissions, which is how a staff-only channel works.
2Give the role to someone
One member
- On desktop, right click their name in the member list, hover Roles, and tick the role.
- On a phone, tap their name to open their profile, tap Roles, and tick it there.
Several at once
Discord has no way to hand a role to everybody in one press. For a handful of people, open Server Settings, then Members, and use the + next to each member's roles. For everyone who joins from now on, step 5 handles it.
3Put the roles in order
The list in Server Settings, Roles is the hierarchy, highest at the top, and it decides:
- Which colour a member's name takes (the highest coloured role they have).
- Who can hand out which roles. You can only give out roles below your own highest one.
- Who can moderate whom. A moderator cannot time out somebody whose top role sits above theirs.
Drag the roles so staff sit above members, and colour roles sit above the plain ones so the colours show. A bot's own role follows the same rule: if it has to hand out a role, drag the bot's role above it.
4Let members pick their own roles
Discord gives members no way to tick their own roles, so most servers post a menu and let people choose from it. BotGhost's free Reaction Roles module posts that menu. Make a bot first if you have not: the no-code bot guide takes about five minutes. Then open Reaction Roles from your bot's dashboard and press Enable.
Buttons, a menu, or reactions
Buttons are one press and the clearest to read. A dropdown suits a long list. Reactions are the old way, and they still work if that is what your members expect.
Choose the roles
Add a row for each role members can pick, with the words on its button, an emoji, and a colour. Pick the roles you made in step 1; the module never creates roles of its own.
One at a time, or a role that expires
Only one picked swaps the old role for the new one, which is what you want for colours or a team. Take roles away after a time hands the role back after a set wait. Linked menus makes one menu depend on another, so a member picks a game before they can pick a platform.
Post it in a channel
Pick the channel, name the menu, and the page gives you the command to post it from Discord. The message itself is yours to write, and a Take off my roles button can go on it so members can undo their pick.
The bot's role has to be higher. A bot can only hand out roles below its own. If members press a button and nothing happens, drag the bot's role above the roles in the menu in Server Settings, Roles.
5Give a role the moment someone joins
For a role everybody should have, like Member or Unverified, nobody needs to pick anything. BotGhost's free Auto Role gives the role as a member joins, and it can wait a set time first so a raid of fresh accounts does not get it straight away.
If the role is what people get for proving they are human, the verification bot hands it out after they pass a check instead. And if you are already greeting new members, the free Welcomer can give the roles in the same step as the welcome message, including handing a returning member their old roles back.
Questions people ask
How do I add roles in Discord?
Open Server Settings, then Roles, and press Create Role. Give it a name and a colour, tick the permissions it needs, and save. To hand it to someone, right click their name, open Roles, and tick the role.
How do I add a role to a user?
Right click the member in the member list, hover Roles, and tick the role you want them to have. On a phone, tap their name and tap Roles. You need Manage Roles, and the role has to sit below your own highest role.
How do I add roles to myself in Discord?
You can't tick your own roles unless you have Manage Roles. In most servers members pick their own roles from a menu an admin set up, with buttons, a dropdown, or reactions. BotGhost's free Reaction Roles module posts that menu.
Can one person have multiple roles in Discord?
Yes, as many as you like. Their name colour comes from the highest coloured role they have, and their permissions are everything their roles allow added together.
Why can I not give someone a role?
Either you do not have Manage Roles, or the role sits above your own highest role in the list. A role can only hand out roles below itself, and the same rule applies to bots.
Is a reaction roles bot free?
BotGhost's Reaction Roles module is free: buttons, dropdowns, reactions, roles that expire, and linked menus. You make your own bot in a few minutes and it runs on BotGhost's servers.
