Give every new member a role

Autorole gives a role to everyone the moment they join — a "Member" role that unlocks channels, or a colour that says "not verified yet". The logic is tiny; the two things that actually matter are enabling the right privileged intent and putting the bot's role in the right place.

Built on the discord.js bot guide. It's the same join event as Welcome new members, so the two combine naturally.

Turn on the Server Members intent first

The bot can't act on a join it never hears about, and join events are a privileged intent.

⚠️ Heads up — this is a privileged intent. In the Discord Developer Portal: your application → Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents → turn on Server Members Intent → save. The code requests GatewayIntentBits.GuildMembers; with the toggle off, the bot crashes at login with Used disallowed intents.

The code

The complete index.js. Put the role's ID in .env as AUTOROLE_ID (Developer Mode on → right-click the role in Server Settings → Copy Role ID):

require('dotenv').config();
const { Client, Events, GatewayIntentBits } = require('discord.js');

const client = new Client({
  intents: [
    GatewayIntentBits.Guilds,
    GatewayIntentBits.GuildMembers,
  ],
});

client.once(Events.ClientReady, (c) => {
  console.log(`Listening as ${c.user.tag}`);
});

client.on(Events.GuildMemberAdd, async (member) => {
  if (member.user.bot) return; // skip other bots if you like
  try {
    await member.roles.add(process.env.AUTOROLE_ID);
    console.log(`Gave the auto-role to ${member.user.tag}`);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(`Could not add the role to ${member.user.tag}:`, err.message);
  }
});

client.login(process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN);

Your .env:

DISCORD_TOKEN=your-token
AUTOROLE_ID=123456789012345678

Save and restart.

The parts that matter

• GatewayIntentBits.GuildMembers is why the join event arrives at all — it pairs with the portal toggle above.
• Events.GuildMemberAdd fires once per join; member.roles.add(id) grants the role.
• if (member.user.bot) return skips other bots so they don't get the human "Member" role. Delete the line if you want every account to get it.
• The try/catch turns a permission or hierarchy failure into a readable console line instead of an unhandled crash — useful because the two classic failures (missing permission, role too high) both throw here.

Permissions and intents

⚠️ Heads up: The most common autorole failure isn't the code — it's role order. A bot can only grant a role that sits below its own highest role. In Server Settings → Roles, drag the bot's role above the auto-role. If the console logs "Missing Permissions", this is almost always why.

Making it yours

• Welcome and role in one handler. Since Welcome new members uses the same GuildMemberAdd event and the same intent, add member.roles.add(...) to that handler and do both at once.
• Verification flow. Give a "Unverified" role on join, then swap it for "Member" after they click a button or pass a check.
• Several roles at once. Pass an array: member.roles.add(['id1', 'id2']).
• Re-role people who were here first. GuildMemberAdd only fires for new joins. To backfill existing members, loop over guild.members.fetch() once — but that reads the whole member list, so use it sparingly.

Troubleshooting

• Used disallowed intents at startup — the Server Members Intent toggle is off. Turn it on and restart. See Bot appears offline.
• Console logs "Missing Permissions" — the bot lacks Manage Roles, or its role is below the auto-role. Fix both in Server Settings → Roles.
• New members get no role and there's no error — the intent isn't really enabled, or AUTOROLE_ID is wrong. Re-copy the role ID.
• It worked for a while then stopped — someone moved a role above the bot's, or the auto-role above the bot's. Check the role order again.

Next steps

• Welcome new members
• Self-assign roles with buttons
• Store data for your bot