solution channel high macos linux windows discord
Discord: 'Used disallowed intents' / bot connects but doesn't respond
Fix Discord bots that connect but don't receive messages by enabling privileged intents (Message Content, Server Members) and reinstalling/restarting.
By CoClaw Team •
Error signatures: Used disallowed intents
Symptoms
- Discord channel shows connected, but the bot never replies in guild channels.
- Logs show “Used disallowed intents” (or similar intent-related errors).
Cause
Discord blocks “privileged intents” unless you explicitly enable them in the Developer Portal. Without these intents, your bot may connect but won’t receive the message events OpenClaw needs.
Fix
1) Enable privileged intents in the Discord Developer Portal
In your Discord application:
- Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents → enable:
- Message Content Intent (required for most guild message text)
- Server Members Intent (recommended; required for some lookups/allowlist matching)
2) Restart the gateway
After changing intents, restart OpenClaw so it reconnects with the new permissions.
3) Verify guild/channel access rules
If your config requires mentions or uses allowlists, make sure:
- you are mentioning the bot, and/or
- your user/channel is allowed in
channels.discord.guilds.
Verify
- Mention the bot in a channel it can read; it replies.
openclaw channels status --probeshows Discord healthy.