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Summary Bot

Documentation

Getting started

Adding Summary Bot takes about ten seconds and needs no configuration. This page covers the whole path from invite to first summary, plus what the bot is actually asking your server for.

Add it to a server

To add Summary Bot, you must own the server or have the Manage Server permission. Open the invite, pick your server, and confirm. If the server is missing, check that you are signed into the right Discord account and have permission to add apps.

Add Summary Bot to Discord

Not a server admin? Ask yours to add it.

The server owner or someone with Manage Server can add Summary Bot. Once it is installed, members can run /catchup in channels they can read, as long as the server allows them to use it.

Copy the request, then paste it into a message to an admin. You choose where to send it.

There is no account to create, no dashboard to log into, and no API key to paste. The server receives 2,000 free credits once, when first added. Reinstalling does not reset that allowance.

A setup DM for the installer

Summary Bot first attempts to send the person who adds it a useful setup DM. If that succeeds, it may add an introduction using up to 50 recent messages from one channel both the installer and bot can read. Summary Bot pays for this introduction; it leaves the server’s trial credits unchanged. Quiet conversation, permissions, closed DMs, or the demo budget can mean no introduction appears. This is separate from new-member welcome summaries, which an admin enables for future arrivals on Pro or Scale.

The permissions it asks for

Discord shows a consent screen listing what the app is asking for. Summary Bot asks for eight permissions and uses all eight. If you see a request for anything else — Manage Messages, Mention Everyone, Administrator — you are not looking at our invite link.

View Audit Log
To identify who added the bot and send that person the one-time setup DM.
View Channels
To see that a channel exists at all.
Read Message History
To read the messages it is summarizing.
Send Messages
To reply with the summary.
Embed Links
Summaries are Discord embeds; without this they cannot render.
Attach Files
Only for file output, which is off by default.
Create Public Threads
For the @mention agent's visible working thread.
Send Messages in Threads
To reply inside that thread and in existing threads.

Note what is not there: it cannot delete anyone’s messages, kick or ban, manage roles or channels, or mention everyone.

Channel permissions still win

Granting these at the server level does not give the bot access everywhere. Discord’s per-channel overrides apply as normal, so a private channel the bot’s role can’t see stays invisible to it. On top of that, it re-checks your access before every single read — see Privacy & permissions.

Run /admin setup at any point and it reports View Channel, Read Message History, Send Messages, and Embed Links per channel, so you can see exactly which one is missing rather than guessing.

The admin starting point

Run /admin overview to see permissions, shared credits, daily and billing-period member limits, access restrictions, blocked channels, automation, and the server overage key in one place. It points to the exact command that changes every item.

Your first catch-up

Go to a channel you’ve been ignoring and run it with no options at all:

/catchup

No arguments. This is the intended way to use it.

It starts from your last message in that channel, reads everything since, and replies privately — only you can see it. If you have never posted there, it falls back to a sensible recent window and tells you which one it used.

Once that works, these are the only three options most people ever touch:

sinceplain language
since:3 hours, since:yesterday, since:monday. Set your timezone with /settings first, or times are read as UTC.
channel
Summarize a different channel without leaving this one.
public
Post the summary into the channel for everyone instead of just you. Off by default.

There is also a faster way in with nothing to memorise: right-click any message → Apps → Catch up from here. That starts a catch-up at exactly that message.

On the free trial

A trial server can read up to 200 messages per request and use the Cheap and Fast quality tiers. That covers a normal busy channel comfortably. See Credits & billing for what each request actually spends.

Reading the result

The reply is built to be checked, not just read. Every part of it is there for a reason.

The headline
One or two lines: the thing you would want to know first.
Coverage
How many messages it read, how many topics it found, and the exact window — “since your last message · Tuesday 07:04 → now”. If it skipped anything, it says so.
Topics
Each with a title, a short write-up, who was involved, and a jump → link straight to the message it came from. That link is how you verify it.
Buttons
Recast the same summary as shorter, more detailed, decisions only, or the funny bits; expand one topic; ask a follow-up; or share it to the channel.
Credits
What the request cost, and what the server has left.

If you ever want to know how a particular result was produced, /debug explains the last summary — quality used, coverage, timing, the prompt, and the credits spent. It’s open to everyone, not just admins.

Where to go next

  • How summaries work — where the window comes from, what quality and detail change, and how to reshape a result you already have.
  • Credits & billing — what a credit is, what each request costs, and what happens at renewal. Worth reading before you subscribe.
  • Schedules, live & welcomes — how to make recaps arrive without anyone running a command.
  • New-member welcome summaries — set up private introductions to recent conversation with /admin welcome.
  • Troubleshooting — if a command didn’t appear or a summary refused to run.