Before you start

You need to be an administrator of the Discord server, or have permission to add apps to it. Clutchat never needs the Administrator permission itself; it needs the ordinary permissions to read and send messages, embed links, attach images, create threads and use slash commands in the channels it posts to. Have a rough idea of three things before you begin, because the setup wizard asks for them:

which games your community plays;
which members should be able to run events and settle disputes;
which channels the bot should post announcements, results and logs in.

If you do not have channels for these yet, create them first. A typical layout is an announcements channel for new events, a results channel for finished matches, and a private log channel that only staff can read.

Step 1: add the bot

Add Clutchat to your server from the server dashboard. Discord will ask which server to add it to and confirm the permissions. Once it has joined, type / in any channel and you should see Clutchat's commands listed.

Step 2: run /setup

Run /setup. It opens a four-step wizard, and nothing is saved until you press Create on the last step, so you can cancel at any point without leaving half a configuration behind.

Games and features

Choose the games your server plays and which parts of Clutchat to turn on: tournaments, clans, duels and scrims. Only turn on what you plan to use in the next month. The checklists in /help and the guide /config guide posts only show features that are switched on, so a smaller set means a clearer first experience. You can change both later with /config game and /config feature.

Roles

Map your Discord roles to Clutchat's permission slots: organizer (creates and runs tournaments and scrims), clan captain, and moderator (can settle disputes). Anyone with the mapped role gets the matching permission in the bot. Give the organizer and moderator slots to more than one person if you can, so events do not stall when one person is offline. Skipped slots can be set later with /config role.

The organizer tools, /tournament-admin and /scrim-admin, are hidden from members by default: Discord only shows them to people with the Manage Server permission. To let your organizer role use them, open Server Settings → Integrations → Clutchat and allow that role on both commands. Only the server owner, or an admin with Manage Server, can change this; the bot cannot do it for you. Clan moderation in /clan-admin stays with your admins.

Channels

Bind the channels the bot posts into: the feed, results, log and announcements channels. The log channel is the important one for organizers, because disputed match results are sent there with buttons to settle them. Any slot left empty can be set later with /config channel.

Finish

Review the summary and press Create. Your server is now registered with Clutchat.

Step 3: check the details

A few settings are worth checking straight away:

Permissions. /config permissions checks that the bot has every Discord permission it needs, and tells you exactly which are missing. Channel overrides are the usual culprit when the bot cannot post somewhere.
Time zone. The server time zone defaults to UTC. Set yours with /config timezone using a name such as Asia/Kolkata or Europe/London, so event times shown by the bot match the times you announce.
Notifications. /config notifications chooses between DM-first notifications, where match messages go to players directly, and channel-only notifications for communities where many members keep DMs closed.
Overview. /config show prints the whole configuration so you can check it in one place.

If you ever need to start again, /config reset re-runs the setup wizard over the existing configuration. If your community wants clan seasons, /config season turns them on and sets their length; they are off until you do.

Step 4: tell your members

Post a short message in your announcements channel explaining what the bot is for and pointing people to two commands:

/config guide posts a how-to-play guide in the channel you pick. Pin it, and members see what to do here before they type a single command. /help then gives each member a short checklist for being a player, leading a clan, running tournaments or managing the server.
/help lists every command.

Members can see their own record in the server with /player profile, share a profile image with /player card, and check rankings with /leaderboard.

Step 5: run a first event

A new bot with nothing happening is quickly forgotten. Have something ready for the same week. Good first events, from least to most effort:

Duels. Nothing to organise, and nothing to switch on — duels are global across Clutchat: members challenge each other with /duel challenge, or leave out the opponent to join the queue. See duels.
A one-off scrim. /scrim-admin open opens registration immediately. See running weekly scrims.
A small tournament. Eight or sixteen players, single elimination, on a weekend evening. See running a sixteen-team bracket.
Clans. If your community already has groups, invite their leaders to create clans with /clan create. See clans.

Managing from the web

Everything above can be done from Discord, but the server dashboard also lets server managers handle clans, tournaments and settings from a browser, which is easier for long lists and for reviewing an event after it has finished.

Getting help

If something does not work as described here, or a command returns an error you do not understand, ask in the Clutchat support server. Error messages from the bot include a short code, which helps us find the problem quickly. You can also read the FAQ or see other ways to reach us on the contact page.

Setting up Clutchat in your Discord server