Kotbo 4 min read
Discord AutoMod: filter spam, insults, links and mentions
An AutoMod watches every message in place of your staff: it removes spam, insults, shady links and mass mentions before anyone reads them. Discord has a few native filters, but limited ones. In Kotbo the Filters page of the dashboard gathers every setting, and each filter has its own punishment
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What an AutoMod is for on Discord
A mod can’t read every message in every channel, especially at night. The AutoMod fills the gaps
- Spam and mass mentions are removed within seconds, before they flood a channel
- Insults and unwanted links don’t stay on screen
- Punishments are the same for everyone, with no mood or favoritism
- Staff keep their time for cases that need judgment
What Discord offers without a bot
Discord has its own automatic moderation: a blocked-word list, a spam and mention filter. Kotbo builds on those filters where they exist and shows them on the same page. But they stay limited: they don’t cover caps, invites with an allowed-code list or ghost pings, and they don’t censor only the offending part
Setting up filters with Kotbo
Everything is set on dash.kotbo.fr, in the Filters page, under Protection. Turn filters on one by one, starting with the ones you really need
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Pick your filters
Anti-spam, banned words, insults, links, invites, caps, emojis, mentions, @everyone. A filter that’s off costs nothing
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Set each one’s punishment
Alert only in the logs, delete silently, delete and warn, warn, or delete and time out for 10 minutes
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Tune the thresholds
For example how many messages in how many seconds for anti-spam, or the caps percentage and the minimum message length
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Add exceptions
Channels and roles ignored by every filter, so you don’t block your own staff or a link-sharing channel
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Watch the logs
Spend a few days in alert-only mode to see what would be blocked, then tighten the punishments
The filters one by one
Each filter answers one specific case
Anti-spam
A maximum number of messages over an interval in seconds. If three members spam the same channel within 15 seconds, the channel switches to slowmode instead of punishing each one
Banned words
Your own list, one word or phrase per line, 1000 at most. The star stands for “anything”: *spam* also blocks “antispam”. An exceptions list allows words anyway
Insults and shocking content
Uses Discord’s lists, by category: insults and profanity, sexual content, hate speech
Links and invites
Links with an allowed-sites list, and invites to other servers, with the list of permitted invite codes, such as your own server’s
Caps, emojis, mentions
A caps percentage above a minimum length, and a maximum number of emojis or mentions per message. At zero, the limit is off
@everyone and @here
Removed when the member isn’t allowed to use them, with or without a warning, or a 10-minute timeout
Ghost pings
Warns when someone mentions a member then quickly deletes the message. Kotbo only catches messages sent since its last restart
Censoring without deleting everything
For banned words, one action masks only the offending part and keeps the rest of the message. Kotbo then reposts the message under the member’s name with the part hidden. It needs the “Manage webhooks” permission
Protecting administrator rights
Three settings on the same page cover a different risk: a trusted account getting hijacked, or an admin going off the rails
Admin approval
Nobody gets administrator rights without approval. If someone grants them directly in Discord, Kotbo reverts the change. Place Kotbo’s role above the administrator roles, or it can’t revert it
Adding bots
Only the server owner can add bots. A bot added by anyone else is kicked or banned, and the person gets a DM explaining why
Emergency removal
Strips administrator rights from someone who chains deletions or bans in a short time