Discord Bot Moderation Commands — Complete Code Guide (2025)

A Discord moderation bot is one of the most useful bots you can build. Every active Discord server needs tools to manage members, enforce rules, and maintain a healthy community. In this guide, we'll build a complete moderation system with warn, mute, tempmute, lock, slowmode, and more.

Moderation Commands We'll Build

• !warn — Issue a warning to a user with a reason
• !warnings — View all warnings for a user
• !clearwarns — Clear all warnings for a user
• !mute — Mute a member in the server
• !unmute — Unmute a member
• !tempmute — Temporarily mute a member for X minutes
• !kick — Kick a member with a reason
• !ban — Ban a member with a reason
• !tempban — Temporarily ban for X days
• !unban — Unban a user by ID
• !slowmode — Set channel slowmode
• !lock — Lock a channel from messaging
• !unlock — Unlock a channel
• !modlog — View moderation log for a user

discord.js Complete Moderation Bot

require('dotenv').config();
const { Client, GatewayIntentBits, EmbedBuilder, PermissionFlagsBits } = require('discord.js');

const client = new Client({
  intents: [
    GatewayIntentBits.Guilds,
    GatewayIntentBits.GuildMessages,
    GatewayIntentBits.GuildMembers,
    GatewayIntentBits.MessageContent,
  ],
});

// Simple in-memory warning storage (use a database in production)
const warnings = new Map();

const PREFIX = '!';

function getWarnings(guildId, userId) {
  const key = `${guildId}-${userId}`;
  return warnings.get(key) || [];
}

function addWarning(guildId, userId, reason, moderator) {
  const key = `${guildId}-${userId}`;
  const warns = getWarnings(guildId, userId);
  warns.push({ reason, moderator, date: new Date().toISOString() });
  warnings.set(key, warns);
  return warns.length;
}

client.on('messageCreate', async (message) => {
  if (message.author.bot || !message.content.startsWith(PREFIX)) return;

  const args = message.content.slice(PREFIX.length).trim().split(/ +/);
  const command = args.shift().toLowerCase();

  // WARN command
  if (command === 'warn') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.ModerateMembers)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need the Moderate Members permission.');
    }
    const target = message.mentions.members.first();
    if (!target) return message.reply('❌ Please mention a member to warn.');
    const reason = args.slice(1).join(' ') || 'No reason provided';
    const count = addWarning(message.guild.id, target.id, reason, message.author.tag);
    const embed = new EmbedBuilder()
      .setTitle('⚠️ Warning Issued')
      .setColor(0xf59e0b)
      .addFields(
        { name: 'Member', value: target.user.tag, inline: true },
        { name: 'Moderator', value: message.author.tag, inline: true },
        { name: 'Reason', value: reason },
        { name: 'Total Warnings', value: count.toString(), inline: true },
      );
    message.reply({ embeds: [embed] });
    target.send(`⚠️ You were warned in **${message.guild.name}** for: ${reason}`).catch(() => {});
  }

  // WARNINGS command
  if (command === 'warnings') {
    const target = message.mentions.members.first() || message.member;
    const userWarns = getWarnings(message.guild.id, target.id);
    if (userWarns.length === 0) {
      return message.reply(`✅ ${target.user.username} has no warnings.`);
    }
    const embed = new EmbedBuilder()
      .setTitle(`⚠️ Warnings for ${target.user.username}`)
      .setColor(0xf59e0b)
      .setDescription(userWarns.map((w, i) =>
        `**${i + 1}.** ${w.reason} — by ${w.moderator} on ${new Date(w.date).toDateString()}`
      ).join('\n'));
    message.reply({ embeds: [embed] });
  }

  // CLEARWARNS command
  if (command === 'clearwarns') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.Administrator)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need Administrator permission.');
    }
    const target = message.mentions.members.first();
    if (!target) return message.reply('❌ Please mention a member.');
    warnings.delete(`${message.guild.id}-${target.id}`);
    message.reply(`✅ Cleared all warnings for ${target.user.username}.`);
  }

  // MUTE command (using Discord timeout / "time out" feature)
  if (command === 'mute') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.ModerateMembers)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need the Moderate Members permission.');
    }
    const target = message.mentions.members.first();
    if (!target) return message.reply('❌ Please mention a member to mute.');
    const reason = args.slice(1).join(' ') || 'No reason provided';
    // Timeout for 28 days (maximum)
    await target.timeout(28 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000, reason);
    message.reply(`🔇 ${target.user.username} has been muted. Reason: ${reason}`);
  }

  // TEMPMUTE command
  if (command === 'tempmute') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.ModerateMembers)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need the Moderate Members permission.');
    }
    const target = message.mentions.members.first();
    if (!target) return message.reply('❌ Please mention a member to tempmute.');
    const minutes = parseInt(args[1]);
    if (isNaN(minutes) || minutes < 1) return message.reply('❌ Please provide minutes (e.g., !tempmute @user 30 spamming)');
    const reason = args.slice(2).join(' ') || 'No reason provided';
    await target.timeout(minutes * 60 * 1000, reason);
    message.reply(`🔇 ${target.user.username} has been muted for ${minutes} minutes. Reason: ${reason}`);
  }

  // UNMUTE command
  if (command === 'unmute') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.ModerateMembers)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need the Moderate Members permission.');
    }
    const target = message.mentions.members.first();
    if (!target) return message.reply('❌ Please mention a member to unmute.');
    await target.timeout(null);
    message.reply(`🔊 ${target.user.username} has been unmuted.`);
  }

  // SLOWMODE command
  if (command === 'slowmode') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.ManageChannels)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need Manage Channels permission.');
    }
    const seconds = parseInt(args[0]);
    if (isNaN(seconds) || seconds < 0 || seconds > 21600) {
      return message.reply('❌ Please provide seconds between 0 and 21600.');
    }
    await message.channel.setRateLimitPerUser(seconds);
    message.reply(seconds === 0 ? '✅ Slowmode disabled.' : `✅ Slowmode set to ${seconds} seconds.`);
  }

  // LOCK command
  if (command === 'lock') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.ManageChannels)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need Manage Channels permission.');
    }
    await message.channel.permissionOverwrites.edit(message.guild.roles.everyone, {
      SendMessages: false,
    });
    message.reply('🔒 Channel locked.');
  }

  // UNLOCK command
  if (command === 'unlock') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.ManageChannels)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need Manage Channels permission.');
    }
    await message.channel.permissionOverwrites.edit(message.guild.roles.everyone, {
      SendMessages: null,
    });
    message.reply('🔓 Channel unlocked.');
  }

  // UNBAN command
  if (command === 'unban') {
    if (!message.member.permissions.has(PermissionFlagsBits.BanMembers)) {
      return message.reply('❌ You need Ban Members permission.');
    }
    const userId = args[0];
    if (!userId) return message.reply('❌ Please provide a user ID to unban.');
    try {
      await message.guild.members.unban(userId);
      message.reply(`✅ User ${userId} has been unbanned.`);
    } catch {
      message.reply('❌ Could not find that user in the ban list.');
    }
  }
});

client.login(process.env.TOKEN);

Best Practices for Moderation Bots

• Use a database — Store warnings, bans, and mutes in MongoDB or SQLite for persistence
• Set up mod logs — Log all moderation actions to a dedicated channel
• DM users — Notify users when they are moderated
• Auto-moderation — Add spam detection, word filtering, and anti-raid protection
• Hierarchy checks — Prevent mods from actioning users with higher roles
• Reason tracking — Always require a reason for serious actions

Share Your Moderation Bot

Built a great moderation bot? List it on dlist.space in the Moderation category and let thousands of server owners discover it!