Install & admin

Add Ergod to your Discord server

Five-minute setup. Pick the channels Ergod is allowed in, optionally gate by role, and you're done. No webhook plumbing, no backend to host.

Don't own a server you can install bots on? You don't need one — start in your browser, or add Ergod to your account — its commands work in every server you're in, and in DMs. No install, no admin rights.

How to add a bot to Discord

Adding any bot to a Discord server is the same three steps, and you need Manage Server permission on the server you are adding it to. You click an invite link, Discord shows you exactly which permissions the bot is asking for, and you pick the server. That is the whole flow — there is no install on your machine and nothing to host.

The part people get stuck on is the permission screen, because it is the one moment you are agreeing to something without being told why. The section below lists every permission Ergod asks for and what breaks if you decline it, which is the answer that link usually does not give you.

If you do not run a server, you do not need one. The same install link also offers Add to my apps — add Ergod to your own account and its commands work in every server you are in, even ones that do not have the bot, and in DMs. Ergod also works in a browser tab and in Telegram, with the same agent and the same files.

Ready to install?

Discord OAuth flow. You'll need Manage Server on the server you're adding it to.

Add to your server
  1. 01

    Open the install link

    Click Add to your server above. Discord will ask you to pick a server you have Manage Server on. If you're inviting Ergod for someone else, send them this page - only a server admin can complete a server install (anyone can still add Ergod to their own account instead - its commands then work in every server they're in).

  2. 02

    Review the requested permissions

    Discord shows the exact permission set Ergod is asking for. The defaults cover replies, public reply threads, polls, and creating Ergod's own events - nothing destructive, no kick/ban, no admin. Full breakdown below. You can tighten further by limiting the bot's role to specific channels.

  3. 03

    Drop Ergod into the channels you want

    By default Ergod responds anywhere it can see an @-mention. Most servers want to scope it tighter. Two options:

    • Right-click the channel → Edit Channel → Permissions → add the Ergod role and only enable View Channel + Send Messages in the channels you want.
    • Or run /ergod-config channel action:allow channel:#dev-help from any text channel - explicit allowlist, stacks across multiple channels, persists across role edits.
    Pro tip: for high-traffic servers, use /ergod-config threads mode:always. Ergod will reply in a thread off the trigger message instead of cluttering the channel. Keep @-mentioning it inside the thread - Ergod runs without the Message Content intent, so an un-mentioned message is invisible to it.
  4. 04

    Say hi

    In one of the allowed channels, type @Ergod what can you do? The first response after install will take up to ~20s while your container provisions. Warm replies land in 10-15s. Free gives every user in the server a full day's usage that refills every morning, plus a usage bonus to start that never expires.

  5. 05

    Optional - gate by role or upgrade to Pro

    Some teams want to restrict who can use the bot, or unlock the Pro tier (2.5× Free's usage, pooled over a rolling week so a big night can spend it; sub-agent dispatch; containers that stay warm 60 minutes instead of 10; channel-shaped personas; hosting several shared channel sessions at once — every tier hosts one, free, on its own storage). Any tier — Free included — can plug in a Claude / GPT / Gemini / OpenRouter key with /byok set to make the same usage go about 5× further.

    • /ergod-config role action:block role:@Read-Only - block a role from invoking Ergod. Use action:unblock to reverse.
    • To restrict Ergod to a specific role, use Discord's native channel permissions instead - the bot's role-gating is a blocklist, not an allowlist.
    • For Pro / Pro+ subscriptions: open Ergod's profile in Discord → Subscribe. Discord handles billing; we never touch your card.
What your members see

A room in every voice channel.

Once Ergod is in, any member can open the Activity in a voice channel: start a round, pick a game, or play what the room already made. Nobody needs to be an admin for that part. How the Activity works.

The lobby: start a round, pick Trivia, or play what the room already made.
On a phone, in a channel nobody has claimed: the first turn is a button.
Permissions Ergod requests

Exactly what it asks for, and why.

Discord groups permissions into a single OAuth grant. Below is every individual permission inside the install URL, explained one by one. Notably absent: Manage Server, Manage Channels, Kick, Ban, Mention Everyone, Administrator.

View ChannelsSee channels in the channel list. Required to know where it can be summoned.
Send MessagesThe core capability - replying in channels Ergod is allowed in.
Send Messages in ThreadsReply inside threads when @-mentioned there, or when threads mode is set to always.
Create Public ThreadsSpawn a thread off the trigger message when threads mode is set to always. Cannot create private threads.
Embed LinksRender rich link previews and inline tool output cards.
Attach FilesUpload files Ergod creates in your workspace back into Discord.
Read Message HistoryResolve the message you used Discord's Reply button on, when it is one of your own. Ergod runs without the Message Content intent, so other people's messages stay unreadable.
Use Application CommandsShow Ergod's slash commands and context-menu actions.
Add ReactionsReact to your message to confirm the request was received before the response is ready.
Create EventsCreate a scheduled event and edit or delete only events Ergod created. It cannot manage other people's events.
Send PollsPost Discord-native polls from /poll create or when you ask Ergod to make one.
Admin commands

Commands for server admins.

These are gated behind the Discord Manage Channels permission - the same bit Ergod checks before it will show you anything about a server. Members without it won't see these in the slash-command picker. The full command list (including end-user commands) lives on the commands page.

/ergod-configchannelaction:allow|blockchannel:#channel

Allowlist or blocklist a specific channel. Once any channel is allow-listed, all others are off by default. Stacks.

/ergod-configroleaction:block|unblockrole:@role

Block a role from invoking Ergod, or unblock a previously-blocked one. Blocklist only - no role allowlist.

/ergod-configthreadsmode:always|never

Whether Ergod creates a thread for each reply across the whole server.

/ergod-configthreads-heremode:always|never|default

Override thread mode for the current channel. default returns to the server-wide setting.

/ergod-configmentionsmode:on|off

Toggle scrubbing of @everyone, @here, and role pings in Ergod's replies.

/ergod-configdeny-replymode:ephemeral|silent

How Ergod tells users they're blocked - a private notice or no reply at all. Applies to slash commands only: Discord cannot answer an @mention privately, so a blocked @mention is always dropped in silence.

/ergod-configshow

Print the current server-wide config (allowed channels, blocked channels, blocked roles, thread mode, mention scrub).

Servers, in the browser

Read and change your server's settings without typing a command.

Until now the only way to find out how Ergod was configured in your server was to know /ergod-config show existed and type it in Discord. Sign in at app.ergod.dev/dashboard and a Servers surface lists the servers Ergod is in where you hold Manage Channels. Pick one and read its whole configuration on a page — and set the two that are switches, thread mode and mention scrubbing, right there.

Thread modeWhether Ergod opens a thread for each message across the server, plus every per-channel override, each shown as the channel it applies to.
Channel rulesThe channels Ergod never responds in and the channels it only responds in - both, in the order the bot actually applies them (blocks are checked first). A server with neither is told it responds everywhere.
Blocked rolesThe roles that cannot invoke Ergod here, or a plain statement that every member can.
Mention scrubbingWhether Ergod's replies are prevented from pinging @everyone, @here and roles.
When someone is blockedWhether a blocked member gets a private notice or no reply at all.
HistoryThe Discord user ID of whoever last changed the config and the day they did - or, for a server nobody has ever configured, a note that everything above is Ergod's default rather than a blank page.
Shared channel sessionsEvery shared session in the server: which channel, its status, who hosts it, the day it opened, when its next renewal check falls (and whether the host asked not to be reminded), and how many members are blocked from it.
The deletion clockWhen a shared session's retention period has started, the page shows the date it started and says the shared workspace is deleted 90 days after it. Nothing else in the product displays that date.
Two settings are controls; the rest are still commands. Thread mode and mention scrubbing are switches on the page, because they are switches. Channel rules and role blocks take a channel or a role and read as lists, so they stay in Discord until they get a control that suits them - and every row still names the exact command that changes it, so the page is a way to find the command as much as a way to read the value. Whichever you use, the same code runs: a control here writes through exactly what /ergod-config writes through, and your Manage Channels permission is re-checked against Discord on the write as well as the read.
You only see it if you administer something. Servers you administer that Ergod is not in do not appear - Ergod cannot see them. And if you hold Manage Channels in no server Ergod is in, there is no Servers item and no Servers page at all, rather than an empty one. Your permission is re-checked against Discord on every single request, including on the reads, so losing the permission closes the page on the next click.
Security & data

What we do and don't touch.

The short version. Full detail lives in privacy and how it thinks.

Container isolation

One sandbox per user

Each user gets a Docker container scoped to their workspace. No cross-tenant access; ALL caps dropped, no-new-privileges enforced, RFC1918 + cloud metadata blocked at egress.

Workspace files

You own them - export anytime

/export ships your workspace as a zip, or download individual files from the dashboard file browser at app.ergod.dev/dashboard. /session reset clears history; /factory-reset rebuilds the container from scratch.

Server data

We can't read non-trigger messages

Ergod runs without Discord's Message Content intent. It only ever sees messages that @-mention it, DM it, or pass slash-command arguments - everything else arrives with the text already stripped by Discord.

Credentials

GitHub auth is encrypted at rest

Linked GitHub tokens are encrypted with Fernet (AES-128-CBC + HMAC-SHA256), scoped per-owner, and never written to your workspace filesystem.

One link, five minutes.

No server of your own? Start in the browser instead - same agent, same workspace, nothing to install.

Add to your serverOr start in your browser