Why not Discord’s own log
Discord keeps an audit log, but it lives in server settings, it retains a limited window, it does not cover message edits and deletions, and nobody on your moderation team is watching it. A log your moderators do not read is a log that only helps after something has already gone wrong.
What gets logged
Events are written to a channel you choose, and each category can be turned on or off independently:
- Messages — edits, deletions, and bulk deletions
- Members — joins, departures, bans and unbans
- Roles — created, deleted, changed
- Channels — created, deleted, changed
- Threads — created, deleted, changed
Keeping it readable
An audit channel that logs everything gets muted within a week, so three exclusions exist to keep the volume survivable:
- Ignore bots entirely — usually the single biggest source of noise.
- Exclude members holding particular roles.
- Exclude particular channels.
Not every exclusion applies to every event, and that is deliberate rather than an oversight: a role exclusion means nothing for a ban or an unban, because the person being banned is not the person acting.
Free
Audit logging is free on every server, with no card and no time limit. It is one of the features that exists so a server can get value from ScoutBot before deciding whether impersonation detection is worth paying for.