Discord Onboarding setup: questions, default channels and roles

Anyone who joins a big server and instantly sees forty channels often has no idea where to start. Discord's own Onboarding solves exactly that: new members answer a few questions, get matching roles and only see the channels they actually care about. Everything else stays reachable but out of the way.

In this guide you set up Discord Onboarding step by step: default channels, questions with roles, and the Server Guide with tasks for newcomers. Then you connect it sensibly with Lizbot, so that the welcome message, rules, verification and role menus fit the Onboarding flow instead of getting in each other's way.

What Discord's Onboarding is and who gets it

Onboarding is only available on Community servers. If you haven't enabled Community yet, you'll find it in the server settings under Enable Community. Among other things, Discord requires a rules channel, a channel for community updates and a verification level where members need a verified email address. All requirements in detail are covered in the guide Enable a Community server. How to build a server cleanly from scratch is covered in the guide Create a Discord server.

After that, Onboarding lives in the server settings in the Community section under Onboarding. It has several parts:

• Default Channels: every new member sees these channels, regardless of their answers.
• Questions: multiple choice questions whose answers assign roles and show additional channels.
• Server Guide: a start page with a welcome, tasks for newcomers and resources.

Everyone who joins sees Onboarding. Existing members don't go through it automatically, but they can change their picks at any time via Channels & Roles at the top of the channel list. Questions you didn't add to the actual join flow also show up there.

Before you start: plan roles and channels

Onboarding only maps things that already exist. So create the roles and channels you want to hand out first. A good rule of thumb: each question covers exactly one thing, and each answer leads to a role, a channel or both.

For a gaming server, the plan could look like this:

These roles should not have any moderation permissions, because anyone can pick them. How to set up the role hierarchy and permissions properly is explained in the guide Set up Discord roles. Pronoun roles can also be added to onboarding as an optional question.

1. Set your default channels

Open Onboarding in the server settings and pick the default channels first.

Discord requires a minimum here: at least 7 default channels, of which at least 5 must allow @everyone to send messages. Depending on your settings, channels shown through questions can count too. If you don't reach these numbers, you can't enable Onboarding.

Good default channels are:

• rules and announcements
• the welcome channel where the greeting appears
• a general chat and an introductions channel
• help or support
• the channel with your role menu, if you use one

Important: everything new members need in their first few minutes belongs in the default channels. If the welcome channel isn't one of them, nobody sees the greeting, even if it's posted correctly.

2. Create questions and link them to roles

Next you create the questions. For each question you set:

• the question text, short and clear
• the answers, each with a title, an optional emoji and a short description
• which roles and channels an answer assigns
• whether only one answer or several are allowed
• whether the question is required

Questions can be asked pre-join or post-join. Pre-join questions appear right when someone joins and suit the basics like language or main game, meaning anything that unlocks important roles and channels. Post-join questions end up under Channels & Roles and fit extras like ping roles that people can change at any time.

A few rules from practice:

• Three to five questions are enough. Every extra question costs newcomers patience.
• Only one required question. Only make something required if it really changes the server for the member, such as language.
• Name ping roles clearly. "Event pings" says more than "Events". How to build ping roles only for those who want them has its own guide.
• Test the answers. Use a second account to check that each answer shows the expected channels.

3. Design the Server Guide and tasks for newcomers

Once default channels and questions are done, you build the Server Guide. It's the start page new members see first, and it has three parts:

• Welcome message: a short greeting in the name of a team member, plus an image. Write two or three sentences that say what the server is about.
• New member to-dos: three to five small tasks, each pointing to a channel, such as "Introduce yourself in #introductions" or "Read the rules".
• Resources: read-only channels like rules, FAQ or guides that appear as their own pages in the guide.

Good tasks are concrete and quick to finish. "Tell us in #general which game you're playing right now" works better than "Be active". At least one task should lead to a first message, because people who have posted once are much more likely to stay. A popular task is a short profile in the introductions channel.

Once the Server Guide is active, Discord no longer shows new members the old Welcome Screen. Rules screening, on the other hand, still appears. Finally, review everything in the overview and enable Onboarding.

4. Add a welcome with Lizbot

The Server Guide is the same for everyone. Lizbot provides a personal greeting in the channel. In the dashboard, open the Welcome module and, on the Welcome tab, set the welcome message to Enabled. Pick one of the default channels as the Channel and write a short text, for example:

Welcome {user.mention} to **{guild.name}**! Check out the Server Guide and feel free to introduce yourself in <#channel-ID>.

Use Preview by DM to check the message in advance. The welcome message is included in the Free plan. All options, from embeds and placeholders to the farewell message, are explained in the guide Set up a Discord welcome message. Instead of plain text, Lizbot can also post a welcome card with avatar and name.

5. Use welcome on role grant

This is where Discord Onboarding and Lizbot mesh particularly well. The Welcome module has an On role grant tab. There you create rules: when a member newly gets a specific role, Lizbot posts a greeting in the chosen channel. Lizbot reacts to every newly assigned role, including roles that Discord assigns through an Onboarding answer.

An example for bilingual servers (how to plan language roles and channels as a whole is explained in the guide Multilingual Discord server):

1. In Onboarding you ask about language, and the answer "German" assigns the German role.
2. In Lizbot you create the rule: role German, channel #welcome-de, text Hallo {user.mention}, schön, dass du bei {guild.name} bist!
3. A second rule greets the English role in #welcome-en in English.

Each rule fires only once per member, and bots are skipped. In addition to the usual placeholders, {role.name}, {role.mention} and {channel.mention} are available here. You can create up to 10 rules.

6. Role menu for later changes

Members can change their Onboarding answers at any time via Channels & Roles. Many don't find that option, though. A role menu in a default channel is more visible, and the basics are in the guide Set up reaction roles. In the dashboard you'll find it in the sidebar under Roles, on the Role menus page. Pick the channel, the type (Buttons or Dropdown), a title and up to 25 roles, then click Save and post.

Two options go well with Onboarding:

• Only one role at a time: one click swaps out the previous role, ideal for language or region.
• Required role: only members with this role can use the menu, for example only after rules or verification.

Lizbot doesn't allow roles with staff permissions or roles above the Lizbot role in a role menu. The Free plan includes 5 role menus, Pro and above unlimited. More on this in the guide Set up Discord roles.

Combining Onboarding with verification

This is where the most common conflict hides. Discord requires @everyone to be able to send messages in at least five default channels. A strict verification does exactly the opposite: newcomers first see only one channel and get the rest after confirming. You can't fully have both at once. You have to decide how much stays open.

Option A: open entry with Onboarding. The default channels are writable for everyone. Protection against bots comes from Discord's verification level, AutoMod and raid protection. Good for public communities that want to grow fast. More on this in the guides Set up Discord AutoMod and Raid protection.

Option B: Onboarding plus protected areas. The default channels stay open, but sensitive areas like voice, media, marketplace or event sign-ups are only visible with a verified role. In Lizbot, open the Welcome module, set up the method on the Verification tab (Button in Discord (one click), Web page with captcha or Code by email) and pick the Role after verification. This role only unlocks the protected areas. You lock the areas themselves via the channel permissions for @everyone and open them up for the verified role. A Minimum account age also keeps fresh throwaway accounts out.

Option C: strict verification without Onboarding. For small, private or especially vulnerable servers, a fully locked entry is often the better choice. In that case you skip Discord's Onboarding and hand out interest roles after verification through a role menu. The walkthrough is in the guide Set up Discord verification.

As a rule of thumb: the more public and larger the server, the more likely option A or B. The more private, the more likely option C.

Tuning autoroles correctly

On the Autoroles tab of the Welcome module, Lizbot automatically assigns roles to new members, separately for members and bots. With Onboarding you need them less often, because the interest roles come from the answers. A neutral base role like "New" or a separate role for bots still makes sense. All options are explained in the guide Assign roles automatically on join.

The option Only assign after Discord membership screening only applies if rules screening is enabled in the Discord server settings. Lizbot then waits until the member has accepted the rules there. It has nothing to do with Lizbot's own verification or the Rules acceptance module.

Careful with option B: if an autorole already grants access to the protected areas on join, it bypasses verification. That's why the dashboard shows a warning when Lizbot verification is active and autoroles assign a role other than the Role until verification right on join.

Checklist

• Community is enabled, roles and channels exist for every answer
• at least 7 default channels, 5 of them writable for @everyone
• welcome, rules and role menu channels are default channels
• at most one required question, no answer grants staff permissions
• Server Guide with a welcome message and three to five concrete tasks
• the Lizbot role sits above every role Lizbot should assign
• welcome on role grant set up for language or area roles
• the whole flow tested end to end with a second account

Common mistakes

• Welcome channel missing from the default channels: Lizbot posts the greeting, but new members don't see the channel.
• Too many required questions: people who have to answer five questions before joining are more likely to give up.
• Channels not assigned anywhere: a channel that is neither a default channel nor shown through an answer is hard for newcomers to find.
• Role above the Lizbot role: then Lizbot can't assign it, neither through autoroles nor through role menus. Drag the Lizbot role up in the role list.
• Strict verification and Onboarding at the same time: if you lock everything for @everyone, the server doesn't meet the minimum number of writable default channels. Consciously pick one of the options above.
• Never tested yourself: only a test run shows whether every answer opens the right channels.