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Summary Bot
SB-PERM-401

The bot can't read that channel

What happened

Summary Bot could not read the source channel or thread. Its read permissions may be missing, or Discord may have refused access when it tried to read the history.

What to do

Try /catchup in another channel both you and the bot can read. To use the original source, ask an admin to check the bot's View Channel and Read Message History permissions there.

Restore access to the intended source

If you manage the channel: check Summary Bot’s role and any channel-specific permission overrides. Grant View Channel and Read Message History only for the source you intend it to summarize, then retry. Keep other private channels restricted; there is no need to grant Administrator or open the channel to everyone.

If you have Manage Server: /admin setup can help diagnose the bot’s permissions for the text channels shown in its report. It reports View Channel, Read Message History, Send Messages, and Embed Links. For this read error, focus on the first two. This report does not test your own access, thread membership, or whether Discord will allow the next history read.

If the source is a thread: ask an admin to check access to that specific thread as well as its parent channel. Being able to see the parent does not prove that you or the bot can read a private thread. Keep its intended membership; making it public is not a required fix. Private threads are excluded from server-wide catch-ups.

Check the code on your error: SB-PERM-401 concerns the bot’s read access. If you see SB-PERM-403, the requesting member is missing the required read permissions. Choose a source you already have access to; granting the bot more permissions will not fix your access.

Still stuck?

The message that showed you this code also carries a short trace id — something like trace f3a9c2. Paste the whole footer line into the community server and your exact request can be looked at directly. Never paste an API key or private message content.

Open the community server

Other permissions and privacy codes