🧵 Include Threads

The Include Threads setting extends a channel’s autodelete configuration to all of its threads — including forum posts (a forum post is technically just a thread), announcement-thread posts, and temporary thread channels. Each thread gets the same deletion rules as the channel it belongs to, without needing its own config.

✨ Premium: Including threads is a Premium feature. Turning it on requires an active subscription. Turning it off is always possible, even after your subscription ends - you’ll never get stuck with a cascade you can’t disable.

How to Enable It

1. Run /setup in the channel (select the channel via /forum-setup for forums, see Forum Setup)
2. Click “Include Threads” in the menu
3. If the channel currently has threads, you’ll be asked whether to also delete existing messages inside those threads:
   • Yes: existing messages in all known threads are scheduled for deletion according to your config
   • No: only new messages going forward are deleted

Every thread discovered later (created after enabling, or unarchived again in the future) is covered automatically — no manual action needed.

What It Does

When enabled:

• ✅ Messages inside all threads/posts of the channel are deleted exactly as the channel’s config rules dictate
• ✅ Newly created threads are picked up immediately - no restart needed
• ✅ Threads that get unarchived resume deletion automatically
• ✅ The channel’s own messages keep being deleted as before — the setting only adds thread coverage

When disabled:

• ❌ Threads are fully ignored by this channel’s configs (they can still be covered by their own per-post configs or a parent category config)

Running /setup Inside a Thread

If a channel has Include Threads enabled and you run /setup inside one of its threads, the setup menu shows a hint explaining that the thread is currently managed by its parent channel.

You can still create a config inside the thread anyway — it then applies in addition to the parent’s config (“stacked” configs). Only do this if you intentionally want stricter/different rules inside that one thread.

Forum Posts

For forums, Include Threads is effectively the switch that makes the forum’s config useful at all (a forum has no messages of its own - everything lives in posts). /forum-setup therefore turns it on automatically for you. See Forum Setup.

Permissions

Deleting messages inside threads uses the same permissions as normal:

• View Channel
• Read Message History
• Manage Messages

For full coverage of private threads and thread management features, the bot additionally asks for Manage Threads when you enable thread features. See Bot Permissions for details.

Limitations

Archived or never-seen threads

Threads that are archived or that the bot has never been told about (e.g. created while the bot was offline) can still be deleted inside — but the bot must first find them. When you enable Include Threads and confirm the backfill, the bot additionally searches the channel via the Discord API (including the archived threads listing, where your server’s permissions allow it).

• Public threads: covered automatically
• Private threads: only covered if the bot is a member of that private thread or has the Manage Threads permission
• Threads the bot can neither see nor join cannot be covered at all — Discord deliberately offers no API for them. The bot will never pretend otherwise.

Channel moves

If you move a channel into a category that has its own autodelete configuration, the moved channel also inherits the category’s rules (see Category Setup).

Troubleshooting

Threads aren’t being cleaned:

• Include Threads is a Premium feature - check your subscription status
• The bot needs Manage Threads for private threads; public threads work with the base permissions
• Run /setup and check whether the toggle shows as enabled

A thread stopped being cleaned after archiving:

• Unarchive it — deletion resumes automatically when the thread becomes active again
• Messages in archived threads can still be deleted as scheduled

Only some threads are covered:

• Archived posts from before the feature was enabled: rerun the backfill by toggling Include Threads off and on and confirming “delete old messages”
• Very old threads from before the bot existed in your server may need to be unarchived once to become visible

See also: Forum Setup · Category Setup · Post Rules · Troubleshooting