Discord embed builder: create embeds with images and link buttons, no code

An embed is the colored box you know from bot messages: a title, some text, a colored bar along the edge, often an image and buttons underneath. For rules, server info or announcements, a box like that looks far tidier than a long wall of text. Important points stand out, and links hide behind clear buttons instead of long addresses.

With your normal account, though, you can't write an embed yourself in Discord. In this guide you'll learn when an embed is worth it, how it's put together and how to create a Discord embed with Lizbot's embed builder, no code required. You send it as the bot, edit it later and set up templates for rules, info and announcements.

What an embed is and when it's worth it

An embed is part of a message that bots and webhooks can send along. Discord displays it as a card below the actual message text. Normal accounts only create embeds indirectly: when you post a link, Discord turns it into a preview. So for a freely designed embed with your own title, your own color and buttons, you always need a bot or a webhook.

An embed is especially worth it for messages that stay up for a long time and get read often:

• Rules in the rules channel
• Server info such as "Where do I find what?" or links to your website and social media
• Announcements for events, updates or new channels
• Signposts in channels like #roles or #support

For quick conversations, plain text is better. An embed for every small piece of info quickly feels cluttered, and a box between lots of chat messages tends to get in the way.

How an embed is built

A Discord embed is made up of several building blocks, all of them optional:

Discord also has fields: small blocks made of a name and a value that can sit side by side. Lizbot's embed builder doesn't offer separate fields. You can get a similar structure by using bold lead-ins and blank lines in the description, for example When: and Where: at the start of a line.

The description uses the usual Discord text formatting: **bold**, *italic* and line breaks. Channel mentions like #rules work too if you enter them in the format <#ChannelID>.

1. Open the embed builder in the dashboard

Open the dashboard and pick your server. In the sidebar under Automation you'll find the Embed builder. To save and send embeds, you need admin access to the server in the dashboard.

At the top of the page there's a selection. New message is preselected there, and your saved templates will appear below it later. Next to the editor, or below it on smaller screens, you'll see a preview of how the message will look in Discord. It updates as you type.

The entire embed builder is included in the Free plan. You don't need Pro or Studio to build, save and send embeds.

2. Set the text, title and color

The builder has two parts: the Text above the embed and the embed itself.

1. The Text above the embed field holds what Discord shows as normal message text above the box. It's optional. Use it, for example, to mention a role in announcements, in the format <@&RoleID>. For the ping to go through, the role has to be mentionable or Lizbot needs the permission to mention all roles. @everyone and @here don't ping anyone here.
2. The Embed switch turns the box on or off. A message needs either text or an embed; it can't be completely empty.
3. Enter a Title, up to 256 characters.
4. Write the Description, up to 4000 characters.
5. Choose the Color with the color picker. Discord blue is the default.

A simple rule helps with color: always use the same one for each type of message. For example red for rules, blue for info and yellow for announcements. That way members can tell what it's about from the bar alone.

3. Add images and a footer

1. Under Thumbnail, choose Server icon or None. The server icon appears small in the top right, provided your server has one, and suits rules and info well.
2. In Image URL, enter the full address of a large image, ideally starting with https://. It should point directly to the image file, not to a page that merely embeds the image.
3. In the Footer line, add a short note such as "Last updated: October 2026" or "Questions? Open a ticket in #support".

Pay attention to where your images are hosted. Links to files you uploaded in Discord expire after a while. Your embed will then stop showing the image at some point. Store banners and graphics on your own website or with a permanent image host instead.

4. Add link buttons

Under Link buttons (max. 5), click Button to add a new one. Each button has three settings:

• Emoji: optional, an emoji in front of the text
• Text: the label, up to 80 characters
• Link: the full target address with https:// at the start; the builder flags an address like www.example.com without it as an error

The bin icon next to a button removes it again. These are pure link buttons: a click opens the address in the browser, and for external sites Discord asks whether you really want to open them. These buttons don't assign roles or open tickets. There are dedicated modules for that, see the section on templates further down.

Good examples of link buttons are your project's website, your stream channel, a sign-up page for a tournament or a link to a message on the server. You copy the link to a message in Discord by right-clicking the message and choosing Copy Message Link.

5. Save a template

Before you send, it's worth saving the embed as a template. Enter a Template name at the top, for example rules or event-info, and click Save. Letters, numbers, spaces, underscores, dots and hyphens are allowed, up to 64 characters.

Saved templates then appear in the selection at the top. You load one with a click, change it and save again. Careful: when a template is loaded, Save overwrites exactly that template. For a new template, select New message first. You remove templates you no longer need with Delete.

6. Send the embed as the bot

Click Send in the top right. In the Send message window, choose the Channel and confirm with Send. Lizbot then posts the message under its own name.

For this to work, Lizbot needs the permissions View Channel, Send Messages and Create Posts and Embed Links in the target channel. If Embed Links is missing, only the text arrives and the embed stays invisible. Check the channel permissions to see whether an override takes these permissions away from Lizbot, for example in a read-only rules channel. How overrides work is explained in the guide on setting up Discord roles. You can set the name and profile picture the message appears under for each server, see Changing the bot name and avatar.

You can also send saved templates straight from Discord:

• /server embed send template:rules posts the template in the current channel. With the channel option you pick a different text or announcement channel. Discord suggests the template name as you type.
• /server embed list shows all saved templates.

By default, both commands are only visible to members with the Manage Server permission.

7. Edit a sent embed later

Rules change, dates move. Instead of deleting the message and posting it again, you edit it:

1. In Discord, copy the link to the message Lizbot sent: right-click the message, then Copy Message Link.
2. In the embed builder, load the matching template or rebuild the embed.
3. Click Send and paste the link into the Or replace an existing bot message field.
4. The button now reads Update. One click replaces the text, embed and buttons of the existing message.

This only works with messages Lizbot sent itself. Lizbot can't change messages from you or from other bots; Discord doesn't allow that. The advantage of editing: the message link stays the same, and anything that points to it, such as a link button, keeps working.

Placeholders: data that fills itself in

In the text above the embed, the title, the description and the footer, Lizbot fills in placeholders when sending:

• {guild.name} for the server name
• {guild.memberCount} for the member count
• {channel.mention} for the channel the message goes to

The values apply to the moment of sending. So the member count is fixed in the message afterwards and doesn't keep counting on its own. If you want to refresh it, send the template again to the same message with Update. Placeholders for individual members such as {user.mention} belong in the welcome message; more on that in the guide on the Discord welcome message. For dates that everyone should see in their own time zone, put a Discord timestamp in the text.

Templates for rules, info and announcements

Three examples you can copy straight away and adapt.

Rules

• Title: "Server rules"
• Color: red
• Thumbnail: server icon
• Description: numbered rules, each with a bold heading, for example "1. Respect: No insults, no discrimination."
• Footer: "By writing on this server, you accept these rules."
• Button: link to the Discord Community Guidelines

If members should confirm the server rules with a click and get a role for it, also use the Rules acceptance module. The embed from the builder then remains the nicely designed overview.

Server info

• Title: "Welcome to {guild.name}"
• Color: blue
• Description: a short list of the most important channels with mentions, for example rules, roles, support
• Image: a banner for your server
• Buttons: website, stream channel, video channel

Announcement

• Text above the embed: mention of the ping role for announcements
• Title: the name of the event
• Color: yellow
• Description: "When: Saturday, 8 pm", "Where: #event-voice" and two sentences about the schedule
• Button: sign-up or more info

Embeds show up elsewhere in Lizbot too. Under Scheduled messages, text or an embed goes out at a fixed time or on a recurring basis, and sticky messages in the Engagement module stay at the bottom of the channel as text or an embed. Buttons that assign roles are built with role menus, buttons for support requests with the ticket system. You'll find all of the builder's features on the Embeds page.

Other ways to create an embed

If you'd rather work without a bot, you can use a webhook. You create it in Discord under Server Settings, Integrations, Webhooks. A webhook can send embeds, but you need a tool that sends the message to the webhook address in the right format. The message then appears under the webhook's name. For one-off messages, that's a workable route. If you want to save templates, send from Discord and comfortably edit messages afterwards, an embed builder in the dashboard is usually quicker.

Treat the webhook address like a password. Anyone who knows it can post in your channel.

Checklist

• short title, description with paragraphs and bold lead-ins
• one fixed color per type of message
• images live at a permanent address with https://
• link buttons clearly labelled, five at most
• template saved before you send
• Lizbot has Send Messages and Embed Links in the target channel
• message link of the sent message noted down in case you want to edit it later

Common mistakes

• Embed Links missing: Lizbot sends the message, but the embed is missing. Give Lizbot the permission in the channel or the category.
• Image disappears after a few days: The link pointed to a Discord attachment and has expired. Use a permanent address.
• Button link without https: An address like www.example.com isn't enough. The builder then shows an error on the field, and sending stays blocked until https:// is at the front.
• Reposting instead of editing: If you post the rules again every time, old message links break. Use Or replace an existing bot message.
• Trying to edit another bot's message: Lizbot can only change its own messages. Post the embed once more through Lizbot and delete the old message.
• Too much in one embed: Nobody reads a wall of 4000 characters. Split long content across two or three embeds.