The Varko Guide
How to set Varko up and actually get use out of it — written the way we'd explain it to a friend, not a manual.
Here's what it actually looks like — pick a module below to see it run:
staffmemberToday
/warn user:@RuleBreaker reason:Spamming in #general01
Getting started
Adding Varko takes about thirty seconds. Click the button below, pick your server, and approve the permissions Discord shows you — Varko only ever asks for what a command actually needs, not a blanket everything-access grant. Here's exactly what gets requested and why you'll see it:
Once it's in, open the dashboard and log in with Discord. You'll see every server you manage — pick the one you just added Varko to.
A few things worth doing in your first five minutes:
- Set your prefix (it's
!by default) if you'd rather use something else for the text-triggered commands, like Custom Commands. - Turn on the modules you actually want. Almost everything starts off — nothing runs in the background that you haven't explicitly switched on.
- Set a mod-log channel in General Settings — this one setting is what most other modules' logging depends on.
- Match embeds to your server's branding with a custom color, also in General Settings — mod-log and logging embeds use it instead of Varko's default blue.
02
Finding your way around the dashboard
The sidebar groups every module into five categories — Moderation & Safety, Fun & Games, Growth & Engagement, Utility & Info, and Automation & Scheduling — instead of one long flat list you have to scroll through to find the thing you want.
Get Started
6 modules
Moderation & Safety
5 modules
Fun & Games
8 modules
Growth & Engagement
8 modules
Utility & Info
9 modules
Automation & Scheduling
4 modules
Click into any module and you get its own settings page — which channels it posts to, which roles it respects, whatever else it needs. If it's configurable, it's on that page; nothing's hidden behind a slash command you have to memorize.
General Settings (top of the sidebar) is where the server-wide stuff lives:
- Your command prefix, for text-triggered features like Custom Commands.
- The mod-log channel — the one setting most other modules' own logging depends on.
- Welcome, goodbye, and boost messages — each with its own channel and a message that supports
{user}and{server}placeholders. - Auto-roles, granted automatically the moment someone joins.
- Per-command role restrictions and a custom embed color for mod-log/logging embeds.
Team lets you give someone dashboard access without making them a full Discord server admin — add them as a Viewer (read-only, for a moderator who should be able to check settings but not change them), Editor (can change any setting), or Admin (can also add/remove other people on the Team page itself).
03
Common setups, start to finish
A few specific goals people usually come here for, and the exact steps for each:
Just want basic moderation set up?
- Turn on Moderation and Automod from the sidebar.
- In General Settings, set a mod-log channel — every warn/kick/ban/timeout posts there automatically.
- That's it. /warn, /kick, /ban, and /timeout work immediately for anyone with the right Discord permissions.
Want a support ticket system?
- Turn on Tickets, then open its settings page and set a category (where ticket channels get created) and which role counts as support staff.
- Run /ticket-panel in whichever channel members should click to open one.
- Closed tickets keep a transcript, and staff can claim one from the Owner Panel's Ticket Queue too.
Want leveling with role rewards?
- Turn on Leveling — members start earning XP from chatting immediately, no extra setup needed.
- Use /level-rewards to map specific levels to roles (e.g. Level 10 → "Regular").
- Double-check Varko's own role sits above any reward role in Server Settings → Roles — a bot can never assign a role ranked higher than its own, and this is the single most common reason role rewards silently don't apply.
Want welcome or goodbye messages?
- In General Settings, set a welcome (and/or goodbye) channel and write your message.
- Use {user} and {server} in the text — they get swapped for the real mention and server name every time.
- No channel set means the message just doesn't send — there's no default text posted anywhere until you add one.
Want to run a giveaway?
- Turn on Giveaways, then run /giveaway start with a prize, duration, and how many winners.
- Members react to enter; winners are picked automatically when it ends — or reroll one from /giveaway reroll if a winner doesn't claim it.
Want members to suggest ideas?
- Turn on Suggestions and set a channel on its settings page.
- Anything posted there automatically gets upvote/downvote reactions and a status your team can update.
04
Every module
Varko has 41 modules in total, grouped the same way the dashboard sidebar groups them. Here are the ones most servers reach for first:
Moderation
Warn, timeout, kick, and ban — every action gets a case number and a real history you can pull up later.
Custom Commands
Build your own trigger-and-response commands with embeds, buttons, cooldowns, and role pings — no code involved.
Tickets
Members open a private channel or thread to talk to your team, with transcripts saved once it's closed.
Leveling
XP from chatting, a real leaderboard, and role rewards at whatever levels you pick.
Music
Play from YouTube or a Spotify link, with a proper queue, volume, and loop controls.
Economy
A per-server currency members earn by chatting or claiming /daily, spendable on gambling games or a role shop.
And the complete list, by category:
Get Started
Welcome Cards
Posts a generated image banner (avatar + username + member number) alongside your welcome message when someone joins.
Moderation
Warn, mute, kick, ban, and case history.
Tickets
Support ticket channels and transcripts.
Server Logging
Message edits/deletes, joins/leaves, bans, and channel changes — pick exactly which ones post to the log channel.
Automod
Automatic filtering for spam, links, and banned words.
Verification
New members click a button to get a verified role before they can access the rest of the server.
Moderation & Safety
Server Rules
Post your rules with an "I Agree" button that grants a role — a lighter-weight alternative to full Verification.
Anti-Alt
Flags or removes accounts newer than a minimum age when they join — a lightweight guard against throwaway/alt accounts.
Inactivity Kick
Periodically kicks (or just alerts staff about) members who haven't sent a single message in a configurable number of days, with role exclusions and a grace period for recent joins.
Promotions & Demotions
Promote or demote members with /promote and /demote — optionally adding/removing a rank role — and announce it in a promotions channel, in the member's DMs, or both, with a fully customizable message. Keeps a per-member history.
Call Recording
Varko joins a voice channel once it crosses a member-count threshold you set, announces it's recording (in-channel and to a log channel — never silent), and staff can save the last N seconds as a clip with /clip or an opt-in spoken trigger, then route it as a staff or member report.
Fun & Games
Music
Play music from YouTube (and Spotify links, resolved to their YouTube match) in a voice channel, with a queue, volume, and loop controls.
Giveaways
Host timed giveaways with button entry, optional role/level requirements, automatic winner picking, and reroll.
Birthdays
Members set their birthday and get an announcement (and optional role) in the configured channel each year.
Confessions
Members submit anonymous messages that post to a confessions channel, with optional staff-only identity reveal.
Counting Game
Members count up one number at a time in a channel — post out of order or repeat and the count resets.
Server Events
Schedule an event with a title, time, and channel — members RSVP with reactions, and everyone going gets a reminder ping beforehand.
Trivia
Posts a daily trivia question and tracks each member's answer streak.
Fun Commands
Text-prefix joke commands (default ">", changeable anytime) — yeet, nuke, vibecheck, and more. Kept separate from slash commands so they don't clutter the command list.
Growth & Engagement
Leveling
XP, levels, and leaderboards.
Economy
A per-server currency members earn by chatting, claiming /daily and /work, and can spend on gambling games or a role shop.
Reaction Roles
Self-assignable roles via emoji reactions.
Role Menus
Select-menu-based self-role menus — a modern alternative to emoji reaction roles.
Starboard
Cross-post popular messages to a starboard channel.
Streaming & Video Announcements
Post a customizable announcement when a tracked Twitch, YouTube, Kick, or TikTok streamer goes live, or a tracked YouTube channel uploads a new video — one module for both.
Bump Reminder
Detects a successful Disboard /bump and reminds the server to bump again once the 2-hour cooldown is up.
Suggestions
Member suggestions with upvote/downvote buttons and staff approve/deny.
Utility & Info
Analytics
Server activity dashboards.
Invite Tracker
Track which invite each new member used to join.
Custom Commands
Define your own text-triggered canned responses.
Auto Responder
Automatic replies triggered by a keyword or phrase anywhere in a message — no command prefix needed.
Temporary Channels
Auto-create a personal voice channel when a member joins a trigger channel.
Server Stat Channels
Auto-updating voice channel names showing live member, online, or boost counts.
Sticky Messages
Keeps a message pinned to the bottom of a channel, reposting it whenever new activity buries it.
Dynamic Slowmode
Watches message activity in chosen channels and automatically raises or lowers slowmode to match — quiet channels relax, busy ones tighten up.
Translation
React to a message with a flag emoji to get it translated and posted as a reply.
Automation & Scheduling
Scheduled Announcements
Queue a message to post at a future time, once or on a repeating daily/weekly/monthly cadence.
Auto-Clean Channels
Automatically deletes messages older than a set age in configured channels.
Weekly Digest
Posts a weekly summary of moderation cases, tickets, and current member count to a channel of your choice.
Applications
Run your own staff/member application form with a modal, a review queue, and accept/reject buttons — separate from Varko's own hiring.
05
Who can do what
There are two separate permission systems here, and it's easy to mix them up.
Bot commands have a tier baked in — Everyone, Moderator, or Admin — based on the real Discord permissions a member holds (Manage Server, Kick Members, and so on). You can tighten any individual command further from General Settings by restricting it to specific roles, regardless of its tier — for example, a Moderator-tier command restricted to just your "Trial Mod" role means only people with that specific role can run it, even though every other moderator would normally qualify by permission alone.
Dashboard access is separate — it's about who can open the dashboard and change settings, not who can run commands in Discord. Anyone with Manage Server on the actual server gets in automatically as a full Admin. If you want to give dashboard access to someone who doesn't have that (a moderator who shouldn't be a full Discord admin, say), add them from Team as a Viewer, Editor, or Admin — see the dashboard section above for exactly what each of those three can do.
06
Troubleshooting
The most common situations, and what actually fixes them — most of these are settings, not bugs:
A command isn't doing anything.
Almost always one of three things: the module it belongs to is turned off, it's been restricted to specific roles/channels in General Settings and you don't have them, or Varko is missing a Discord permission it needs (check Server Settings → Integrations → Varko). Actual bugs are rare — settings are the first thing to check.
Welcome, goodbye, or boost messages aren't posting.
Check that a channel is actually set on General Settings — no channel means no message, silently. Also confirm Varko can see and send messages in that specific channel; a channel-specific permission override can block it even if its server-wide permissions look fine.
Level-up role rewards aren't being given.
This is almost always Discord's own role hierarchy, not a Varko bug: a bot can only assign roles ranked below its own highest role. Open Server Settings → Roles and drag Varko's role above whatever reward role isn't being applied.
Auto-roles aren't applying to new members.
Same role-hierarchy rule as above applies here too. Also double check the role is actually saved on General Settings — it's easy to pick one and forget to hit save.
The ticket panel button doesn't do anything when clicked.
Make sure the Tickets module is turned on and has a category set — Varko needs somewhere to actually create the private channel. If it's using threads instead, confirm Varko has permission to create private threads in that channel.
Music won't play, or disconnects immediately.
Varko needs Connect and Speak permissions in the voice channel specifically — a server-wide grant doesn't always cover channel-specific overrides. If it joins but no audio plays, try a different source link; some links are region- or platform-restricted.
I changed a setting and it doesn't seem to have saved.
Check for a toast/error message at the top of the page after clicking save — a validation error (like an empty required field) will block the save silently otherwise. If you have Viewer-only dashboard access, every field is intentionally read-only.
07
Still stuck?
If none of the above covers it, here's where to go next: