New: Settings in Discord and auto-delete delays

Discord staff application bot

Better Tickets runs staff applications inside Discord. Each application category is one form: a member clicks Apply on a panel, the bot asks your questions one at a time in their DMs, and the finished application is posted to a review channel where staff accept or deny it with a button. Most servers use it for staff recruitment, but it works for any structured form, such as partnership requests or event sign-ups.

For advice on writing questions and keeping the process fair, read how to set up Discord staff applications. To compare this with dedicated application bots, see Discord staff application bots compared.

Create and edit an application category

Open Applications → Forms & panels, create a form, choose reviewers and a private review channel, and add the questions applicants should answer. Save the form, then publish its panel.

For manual control, open Applications → Forms & panels → Edit. The editor groups form setup, applicant experience, and options with preview on one page. Select a settings tile to edit inline. The dashboard calls application categories forms.

1

Create it

Open Applications → Forms & panels and click New form. Give it a unique name. The name cannot be changed later.

2

Configure it

Click Edit, then Basics. Choose who reviews applications and where submissions should go. Save changes. Every field is covered in application settings.

3

Add questions (optional)

On the Questions tab, give each question a label, an input type and whether it's required. With no questions, clicking Apply submits straight away without a DM conversation.

4

Send the panel

Click Publish panel at the top of the form editor, or use Messages for a custom message. You can also post it from Discord with /application send.

Send an application panel from the category page

Applications → Forms & panels has a panel publisher. Choose the forms members should be able to start, customize the message, preview it and choose the destination channel.

For anything beyond a single category's panel, use the full Message builder instead.

The application lifecycle, from apply to decision

  1. Apply. Click Apply or run /apply category:<name>. Eligibility is checked first (see below); ineligible members are told why.
  2. Questions, or immediate submission. With questions, the bot DMs them one at a time. cancel stops the application, --skip skips a non-required question. A review screen shows every answer with a jump-back menu before final submit. With zero questions, it submits immediately.
  3. Submission. Posts to the submission channel with the answers, Accept/Deny buttons, and an Open Ticket button if configured.
  4. Review. Staff click Accept/Deny (or /accept//deny), with an optional reason. The message updates in place: buttons removed, color changes, decided-by footer added.
  5. Notification. DMs the applicant the result, if Notify user on decision is on (default).

See Commands for exact options.

Reapply rules and cooldowns

Checked in order, first match wins:

  1. Blacklisted role → blocked outright.
  2. An application already in progress, anywhere → blocked, only one DM conversation at a time.
  3. A submitted application awaiting review, this server → blocked until decided.
  4. A recent denial, this category → blocked until the reapply cooldown passes (3 days by default, adjustable with Premium). They're told when they can apply again.

Accepted applications never trigger a cooldown.

Reviewer roles

Full details: Application settings.

  • Staff roles: review, accept, deny.
  • Ping roles: pinged on submission.
  • Assign on open / Assign on accept / Remove on accept / Assign on denial: role changes at each stage.
  • Blacklisted roles: can't apply.

Reviewing from the submission message

If a Linked ticket category is set (General tab), the submission message gets an Open Ticket button that opens a ticket with the applicant straight from the review, which is handy for interviews. Jail categories can't be linked.