How To Add, Manage and Delete Roles in Discord

In the context of Discord, roles are permission levels that dictate what a user can do. They apply permissions across servers that can enable a user to be an admin, moderator, user or guest and many things in-between.

If you are building a Discord server, you’re going to want to know how roles work, which is why I created this tutorial on how to add, manage and delete roles in Discord.

Assigning roles to your Discord server can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Currently, there are currently thirteen server permissions, nine text permissions and six voice permissions that you can add to roles.

You don’t have to manually configure all these permissions to each user. All you need do is create a few roles with specific permissions and then assign a role to a user.

How to add roles in Discord

Roles help you organize your server and are useful if you have a large community or you want to maintain a grip on who can do what. Once configured, you can use roles across channels to control all users. It is worth taking the time to set up some basic roles as soon as you begin using Discord.

You can always add more later if you need.

1. Log into Discord and access your server.
2. Select the small dropdown arrow next to that server and select Server Settings.
3. Select Roles in the right pane. You should see a single role ‘@everyone’.
4. Select the ‘+’ icon at the top of the center pane to add a role.
5. Name the role to something descriptive and assign a specific color to help manage them.
6. Select the permission toggles at the bottom of the popup.
7. Select Save Changes to do just that.
8. Rinse and repeat for however many roles you require. Just remember to modify the permissions according to the level you want to assign.

Assigning the different permission levels to different roles allows you to create a hierarchy according to trust. You can assign lower roles to newbies and higher roles with more permissions to those you know well.

To assign a role to a user:

1. Select your server and then Members from the left pane.
2. Select the small ‘+’ next to the username and select the role from the menu.
3. Repeat for every user on your server.

Manage roles in Discord

Managing roles in Discord is much the same as creating them. You can add more roles should you need to and modify the permissions within each. Depending on how you want to run your server, you could get away with creating just two roles, admin and user. As your community grows, you can add others.

Or you could recreate a clan hierarchy and create roles in the same way you would create officers, veterans, soldiers, members or whatever. Newer members can be assigned lower roles until they prove themselves reliable. You can then assign a new role to the user once you think they are ready for it.

Deleting roles in Discord

It is rare that you would need to delete a role in Discord as you could simply not assign it. However, if you like to maintain a tidy ship, it is possible to delete a role you no longer need.

1. Select the small dropdown arrow next to that server and select Server Settings.
2. Select Roles in the right pane and select the role you want to delete.
3. Scroll down the role window until you see a trash can.
4. Select the trash can to delete the role. You may need to confirm your choice.

That’s it for deleting roles.

Role permissions

Earlier on I mentioned there were a bunch of permissions you can assign to each role. Rather than listing them all here, check out the Unofficial Discord Wiki as it has a breakdown of the permissions you can assign.

Permissions is a subject worthy of research before you jump in. Not only can you assign permissions to roles but also permissions for channels and category permissions. This page on permissions on the Discord website is very useful in deciding on roles and their permissions.

You don’t have to go quite so in depth with roles and permissions, you can just assign full permissions to one role and no permissions to another. Much depends on how you want to run your server. One of the coolest things about Discord is that you can keep it as simple as you like or make it as refined as you dare. It is entirely up to you!