Docs
Your rules
Staffd moderates against your server's own rules. During setup it reads them from your rules channel or a linked Google Doc or GitBook and shows you what it found. After you hire it, you change rules by telling it, and nothing is applied until you confirm.
Where it looks
During setup, before you hire it, it reads:
- Your rules channel, named like
#rulesor#guidelines. - A rulebook linked from that channel (see below).
- Pinned messages in your channels.
- A general look around your server, to get a feel for your community. This never adds to your rules.
It only reads channels its role can open (View Channel and Read Message History). It only lists rules it actually found.
Rulebooks on Google Docs and GitBook
If your rules channel links to a rulebook, it follows the link and reads the whole thing.
- Google Docs: share the doc so anyone with the link can view it, and paste its regular share link. A Publish to the web link won't work.
- GitBook: a public space on a gitbook.io address. A link to any page in it works. Custom domains aren't supported.
- Any other site, including your own website, isn't read. Paste those rules into a Discord channel instead.
It reads one rulebook, so if you link several documents, put the main rulebook first.
If your rules carry their own labels, like "2.4" or "NLR", it keeps them, and the Rule line on a flag card names the rule the same way.
The First impressions card
- Rules I found, with a count. On a long rulebook the card lists some and says how many more it read.
- Where I read your rules: the link it read, when your rulebook came from Google Docs or GitBook. Wrong document? Tell it and drop the right link.
- I couldn't open your rules link: it found a link but couldn't read it (a private or deleted doc, or a site it doesn't read).
- I can't read, followed by your channel's name: it can see your rules channel but doesn't have access to it.
If it finds no rules
The card says so plainly: Rules I found: none. Until you point it at your real rules, it watches with a small common-sense baseline, like no spam and no hate speech, labeled as a placeholder and not your law. While only the baseline is in use, /rules says so too, so members never mistake it for your server's rules.
Fixing it before you hire
Before you pick a name, you can redo the read as often as you like. Each time, you get a fresh card.
- Drop a link in the private channel. Paste your Google Doc or GitBook link as a message and it reads from that instead. If it can't open the link, it tells you and your current card stays as it was.
- Post your rules in your rules channel (named like
#rules), or pin them, and say "re-read". It reads the whole server again, rules included. Rules written in other channels aren't picked up. - If your rules channel is locked to it, give its role View Channel and Read Message History there, then say "re-read".
Changing rules after you hire
After the hire, tell it what you want in the private channel. For example:
- "add a rule: no posting links in #general"
- "remove rule 8"
- "change rule 3 to: no trading outside #marketplace"
It replies with the exact change, quoting the rule it means, plus Confirm and Cancel buttons. Nothing changes until someone clicks Confirm, so check the quoted rule first. If Confirm says the proposal expired, just ask again.
For judgment calls that aren't rules, like "OOC trash talk is fine here", it proposes a calibration instead. See How moderation works and Talking to your employee.
Seeing the rulebook: /rules
Anyone can run /rules. The reply is posted in the channel for everyone to see. On a long rulebook it shows as many whole rules as fit in one Discord message and says how many it's showing; it still uses all of them. See Commands.
What /relearn does, and doesn't
/relearn (an owner command, for members with Manage Server), or asking it to "re-read the room" after the hire, refreshes its understanding of your server's culture. It posts what it found with Confirm and Cancel. Confirming updates that understanding and refreshes its welcome messages. Your rules and calibrations stay exactly as they are.
There's no full re-read of the rulebook after the hire, and dropping a link in the private channel won't trigger one. If you later edit your rules channel or linked doc, tell it the changes instead. Before the hire, /relearn isn't available, but saying "re-read" reads everything again, rules included.