Documentation
Troubleshooting
The problems that come up most often, and what to do about each. Every error Summary Bot can show you is a named code with a plain explanation and a next step — never a stack trace — and each one has its own page under Error codes.
Common problems
The things that actually come up, and what to do about each.
The slash commands don't appear
Discord caches an app’s commands, and they can take a few minutes to show up after the bot joins. Fully quitting and reopening Discord — not just closing the window — usually forces a refresh. If they still aren’t there after ten minutes, check that the bot was added with the applications.commands scope; re-running the invite link fixes it without removing anything.
It says it can't read a channel I can read
Try
/catchup in another channel both you and the bot can read. For the original source, ask an admin to check the bot’s View Channel and Read Message History permissions. If you have Manage Server, /admin setup helps diagnose the bot’s permissions for the text channels shown in its report, but does not verify your access or thread membership. Follow the read-access recovery steps for channel overrides, private threads, and the distinction between the bot’s access and your own.The summary covered the wrong stretch of time
Almost always a timezone. Until you set one with
/settings timezone:America/New_York, times like since:9pm are read as UTC. Every summary states the window it used and why — check that line first. With no options at all, it starts from your own last message in the channel.It said there was nothing to catch up on, but the channel is busy
Three possibilities: the range was narrower than you meant; everyone who spoke has used
/privacy optout; or an admin has blocked the channel with /privacy channel. Try an explicit since:2 days to rule out the first.A scheduled summary stopped arriving
Run
/schedule list to see its state. Schedules stop deliberately — and say so — when credits run out, the plan drops below what the schedule needs, or the destination channel is blocked or loses Send Messages. The one silent case is a genuinely quiet day, which produces nothing rather than a message saying nothing happened.A new member didn't receive a welcome summary
Open
/admin welcome to check its state, plan eligibility, and daily slots. Welcomes need readable conversation, completed membership screening, and funding. The member’s welcome opt-out or Discord DM settings may prevent delivery. Slot usage does not confirm that a DM arrived. Follow the welcome troubleshooting steps.It's using more credits than I expected
The usual causes, in order: recast buttons (each one is a new request), a high quality tier set in
/settings, or a live channel with a low message threshold. Run /debug after a summary to see exactly what that one cost and why, and /usage for the server’s totals. The full formula is on Credits & billing.I bought a top-up and my balance didn't change
Expected, and recoverable. A one-time purchase belongs to you until you choose which server it goes to. Run
/usage in the server you want it in and apply it there. Nothing is lost in the meantime.It's taking a long time
Large reads are genuinely slow — a 5,000-message server-wide sweep takes around 40 seconds. The bot shows live progress with message counts so you can tell it’s working rather than stuck. If it’s consistently slower than that, use a smaller range or a lower quality tier.
Error codes and trace ids
Every failure the bot can produce has a stable code and a short trace id, shown together at the bottom of the message — SB-CREDIT-402 · trace f3a9c2. The code tells you what class of problem it is; the trace id identifies your exact request in the logs.
Each code has its own page, so you can go straight to the one on your screen: trysummarybot.com/docs/errors/sb-credit-402. All 45 are listed on Error codes, grouped by what went wrong.
Quote the trace id
If you bring a problem to the community server, paste the whole footer line. It turns “a summary failed” into a specific request that can be looked at directly.
Credits and plans15SB-CREDIT-402 · SB-CREDIT-429 · SB-CREDIT-430 · SB-CREDIT-409 · SB-CREDIT-400 · SB-CREDIT-503 · SB-TIER-402 · SB-PLAN-402 · SB-PLAN-409 · SB-ASK-402 · SB-QUOTA-431 · SB-QUOTA-433 · SB-AGENT-430 · SB-REC-429 · SB-REC-204Permissions and privacy11SB-PERM-403 · SB-PERM-401 · SB-PERM-407 · SB-SCHED-403 · SB-PERM-402 · SB-PERM-405 · SB-PERM-406 · SB-PERM-404 · SB-PERM-408 · SB-PRIV-403 · SB-DM-403Your request5SB-MSG-204 · SB-AGENT-413 · SB-TIME-400 · SB-TIME-404 · SB-BUSY-409API keys4SB-KEY-401 · SB-KEY-402 · SB-KEY-404 · SB-KEY-409Upstream5SB-PROV-503 · SB-PROV-504 · SB-PROV-451 · SB-RATE-429 · SB-DISCORD-502Presets3SB-PRESET-400 · SB-PRESET-409 · SB-PRESET-404Bugs2SB-SCHED-404 · SB-INT-500
Getting help
If none of the above covers it, the Summary Bot community server is the place. It’s a small project run by one person, and questions get real answers rather than a ticket number.
What helps most, in one message:
- The error code and trace id, if you got one.
- What you ran, including the options you set.
- Roughly when it happened.
Never paste an API key or private message content
Not in the community server, not anywhere. If a problem involves a key, say so and it’ll be handled privately.
Billing transactions and refund requests have to go through Discord support, since Discord processes every payment — see how billing works.