Text commands and the prefix

By default YAWBDB answers to slash commands only. If your members would rather type !rank than /rank, set a prefix and part of the bot becomes reachable from a normal message.

This page is the complete list of what the prefix reaches and what it does not — and, for each exclusion, the reason it cannot be lifted.

⚙️ Setting the prefix

Panel → your server → Features, in the Text commands card at the top of the page.

Changes reach the bot straight away — there is no wait and no restart.

A word prefix catches more than you think. With a prefix of yb, every message starting with those two letters is inspected. It still stays silent unless the rest names a real command, but a punctuation prefix is the safer habit.

✅ What works with the prefix

Assuming a prefix of !:

Your own custom commands

Both simple and graph-mode custom commands work. This is the main reason the prefix exists.

Games

Leveling and stats

Anything else is only ever tried as one of your custom commands. A message starting with the prefix that names nothing gets no answer at all — no error, no noise.

Get an option wrong and the bot replies with the line you should have typed, e.g. Usage: !bingo <start|stop>.

🚫 What the prefix does not reach, and why

Eleven of the bot's thirty-two commands answer to text. The other twenty-one are grouped below by the reason they do not — including one group that is simply a gap, and is named as one rather than dressed up as a rule.

Discord's permission settings decide who may run these

/ban, /unban, /mute, /unmute, /kick, /warn, /softban, /history, /clear-history, /reason, /info.

These stay slash-only on purpose. A slash command carries a permission requirement that Discord itself enforces, and a server can tighten it further in Server Settings → Integrations → YAWBDB, per command, per role, per channel. A text message goes through none of that. Exposing !ban would quietly hand everyone a bypass of the restrictions you set in Discord — so it is not exposed.

Use the slash versions; the panel's own moderation pages remain available too.

These open a pop-up window, which a message cannot

/form, /wordle play.

Discord only lets a bot open a form in response to an interaction — a slash command, a button, a menu. A message is not an interaction, so there is no form to open. This is a Discord limitation, not a YAWBDB setting.

These are meant to stay discreet

/report, /ticket.

A message is read by the whole channel. Reporting someone, or opening a ticket, in front of the room is not the same act as doing it privately — so they stay where the answer can be private.

Not available as text commands yet

/suggest, /birthday, /voice, /record, /record-storage, /my-history.

This group is a gap, not a rule. Nothing about them forbids a text version; nobody has written one. If one of them matters to your server, say so — it is a short piece of work, not a Discord limitation.

One more, outside the list

The Save Message right-click action is slash-only too — a context-menu action has no text equivalent by construction.

📌 Two differences to expect

Answers are public. A slash command can reply privately, so only you see it. A message reply cannot. Where a command would normally answer privately — !boosters, a custom command you set to ephemeral, a cooldown notice — the bot replies in the channel and deletes its answer after 30 seconds. That keeps the channel clean; it does not make the answer secret.

Command messages earn no XP. A message that runs a command is a command, not chat, so it does not count toward leveling. It is still checked by Automod and the Honeypot, exactly like any other message.

🔗 See also

• Slash commands — the full command list
• Custom Commands — creating your own
• Games