If your server takes any kind of public traffic — a creator community, a public gaming server, a crypto project — you will get raid accounts. Freshly-created Discord accounts that join in groups of 20–100, dump spam or slurs in your channels, and vanish before your mods wake up.
The fix is not better moderation. The fix is a gate that stops them at the door. Here's the two-minute setup.
Step 1 — Create the verified role
In your Discord server, go to Server Settings → Roles → Create Role. Name it @Verified. Set the colour to whatever you like. Do not give it any permissions yet.
Step 2 — Gate your channels
For every channel you want protected, edit the channel permissions:
- Deny View Channel to
@everyone. - Allow View Channel to
@Verified.
New members who haven't verified yet will now see only the channel where the verification button lives. That's exactly what you want.
Step 3 — Configure Kovra
Open dash.kovra.xyz, select your server, and go to Guard → Verification.
- Verification channel — pick the channel where the button will live (we recommend creating
#verifyspecifically for this). - Verified role — pick
@Verified. - Minimum account age — start with 7 days. Tune up to 14 or 30 if you still see raids getting through.
Click Post verification message. Kovra drops an embed with a button into the channel.
Step 4 — Test it
Switch to your personal account. Join your own server. You should see only #verify. Click the button. If your account is older than 7 days, you instantly get the @Verified role and the rest of the server opens up.
If you want to test the rejection path, create a brand-new Discord account and join from there. Kovra will send an ephemeral message telling you the account is too young.
Why account age
Drive-by raid accounts are almost always freshly-created. The infrastructure behind them — bulk account creation via stolen phone numbers — can't easily produce accounts with 7+ days of history. A 7-day minimum stops 80% of raids with zero friction for real members (who almost all have accounts older than a year).
If you run a community where raids are a recurring problem (crypto, NFT, adult content), push the threshold to 14 or 30 days. Some real members will bounce — that's the trade-off. Most will sign up from their main account and verify instantly.
Stacking with Discord's screening
Discord has built-in member screening (the "I accept the rules" gate at join time). Use it. Kovra's verification gate runs after Discord's screening, so you get two layers:
- Discord's screening filters out bots that can't click "I agree".
- Kovra's gate filters out human-operated accounts under the age threshold.
Together they're the single highest-leverage anti-spam change you can make. Takes two minutes. Costs nothing (free tier). Prevents the 2am cleanup.