Roles & Permissions

Arkanis uses a capability-based permission system with fine-grained capabilities organised into groups. Assign role presets, customise per-role overrides, and control exactly who can do what.

What is this?

Capability-based permissions: every Arkanis action belongs to a capability (issue a strike, edit a role, run an RCON kick), and you decide which Discord roles hold which capabilities. Eight role presets (Owner, Senior Admin, Head Mod, Moderator, Game Admin, Support, Staff, Custom) cover most teams; per-command overrides handle the edge cases.

Why you might want it

One Discord "Admin" role giving everyone everything is how communities end up with mass-ban incidents. Capability presets let you say "mods can warn and strike but not ban", "game admins can run RCON but not edit settings", and have it enforced everywhere Arkanis runs. The Check User Permissions tool tells you exactly what someone can do before you trust them.

Setup time: about 10 minutes for first-time setupDifficulty: Moderate. Plan a few minutes.

The Capability System

Instead of simple "admin" or "moderator" levels, Arkanis uses a fine-grained capability system. Each capability controls access to a specific action or feature. Capabilities are organised into the groups shown below.

Dashboard Preview
Advanced Settings
Enforcement Settings
Auto-ban, categories, and thresholds
Player Identity
ID types and verification config
Support Inbox
DM notifications, auto-close, modmail
Reset Configuration
Reset all settings to defaults
Role Permissions — Moderator
strike.addGranted
strike.removeGranted
ban.addDenied
ticket.claimGranted
ticket.closeGranted
settings.editDenied
Panels (8)

Access to each Discord panel: player, enforcement, cases, moderation, settings, help, RCON, and Pterodactyl.

Players (3)

View player profiles, link IDs, and unlink IDs.

Enforcement (7)

Issue strikes, bans, warnings, mutes; clear strikes; view the enforcement board; manage enforcement rules; wipe history.

Cases (2)

Manage cases and handle ban appeals.

Moderation (4)

Send announcements, manage role panels, configure AutoMod rules, manage embeds.

Settings (7)

Toggle features, configure channels, manage role permissions, reset config, run setup wizard, inspect user perms, view Pro status.

Servers (3)

View server status, control power, and manage server files.

RCON (4)

Player management, server control, game config, and verification commands.

Pterodactyl (4)

View servers, control power, manage files, and send console commands.

SFTP Logs (3)

Configure log monitoring, control start/stop, and access server files via SFTP.

Role Presets

Instead of configuring every capability individually, Arkanis provides role presets: pre-built bundles of capabilities designed for common staff positions. You link a Discord role to an Arkanis preset, and everyone with that Discord role inherits the corresponding capabilities.

Owner

Full access to every capability. Automatically assigned to the guild owner; cannot be removed.

Senior Admin

All capabilities except settings reset and some dangerous server operations. For trusted admins who manage day-to-day operations.

Head Moderator

Full enforcement, cases, moderation, and player management. No settings or server infrastructure access.

Moderator

Issue strikes and warnings, manage cases, view players. No ban capability or panel access.

Game Admin

RCON, Pterodactyl, and SFTP access. Designed for technical staff who manage the game server but don't handle community moderation.

Support

Case management and player lookup only. Ideal for community helpers who handle support requests.

Staff

Read-only access to panels and player profiles. A baseline role for staff who need visibility without action permissions.

Custom

Start from scratch and assign exactly the capabilities you need. Use this when none of the presets fit your team structure.

Setting Up Admin Roles

1

Link a Discord Role

In the Settings Panel or dashboard, go to the roles section. Select a Discord role from the dropdown and assign it an Arkanis role preset. Anyone in your server with that Discord role inherits the preset's capabilities.

2

Add Per-Role Command Overrides (Optional)

After assigning a preset, you can add command-level overrides. For example, you might assign the "Moderator" preset but explicitly grant the ban capability, or assign "Senior Admin" but deny access to a specific RCON command. Overrides are additive for grants and absolute for denies.

3

Verify with Check User Permissions

Open the settings panel with /settings panel and select Check User Permissions from the dropdown. Pick the staff member to see their effective capabilities, command access, and role-by-role breakdown. This is the fastest way to debug "why can't I run this command?" reports.

💡
Tip
If a user has multiple Discord roles that map to different Arkanis presets, capabilities are merged: the user gets the union of all granted capabilities. Explicit denies always override grants.

Dangerous Commands

Some commands can cause data loss, disrupt service, or affect many users at once. Arkanis tags these as dangerous and disables them by default in every preset, including Owner. They must be explicitly granted through capability overrides.

Enforcement
  • wipehistory
  • ban
  • clearstrikes
Players
  • unlinkid
Settings
  • rolepermissions
  • feature
  • Several inpanel_settings_* actions
RCON
  • rcon_ban, rcon_removeserver
  • rcon_wipecorpses, rcon_allowdinos
  • rcon_whitelist*, rcon_globalchat
  • rcon_togglehumans, rcon_toggleai
  • rcon_disableai, rcon_aidensity
Pterodactyl
  • server_stop, server_kill
  • server_editfile
  • server_console
In-Panel Actions
  • inpanel_enforcement_ban
  • inpanel_enforcement_clear
  • inpanel_enforcement_wipe
  • inpanel_player_unlink
⚠️
Warning
Every dangerous command is guarded by an in-Discord confirmation dialog even after the capability is granted. This prevents accidental clicks from causing permanent damage.

Checking Effective Permissions

1

Open the Settings Panel

Run /settings panel in Discord.

2

Select Check User Permissions

From the Account & Admin category, choose Check User Permissions.

3

Pick a User

Use the member selector to pick the user whose permissions you want to inspect.

4

Review the Breakdown

Arkanis returns the user's full capability matrix, the commands they can currently invoke, and a role-by-role breakdown showing which role granted each capability. Any denies from overrides are highlighted.