How to Build and Run a Sea of Thieves Discord Community With YourBot

Build a Sea of Thieves Discord around the voyage somebody wants to join: the sea, ship, available crew places, objective, and time commitment. Use YourBot’s Start Your Server to prepare the channels, roles, permissions, and supported services, then configure crew finding, Guild applications, events, temporary voice, and game updates.

That prevents an enthusiastic group from discovering too late that five people cannot join an ordinary Galleon crew, a Safer Seas learner has been recruited for High Seas PvP, or a custom event does not award the progression someone expected.

This guide follows Harborlight, a fictional 240-member community for cross-platform crews, new pirates, Guild members, Tall Tale enthusiasts, Hourglass players, and Custom Seas organizers. It provides two setup paths: a reviewed Start Your Server build and manual configuration of all ten YourBot services. Established Discords can retain their current layout and begin with the service sections.

Start With the Right Sea of Thieves Community Model

Sea of Thieves is a shared-world pirate adventure, but “join our server” can mean three different things: join a Discord, join a particular ship’s crew, or enter a hosted Custom Seas session. Make that distinction explicit.

Ship capacity is not community size

For ordinary sailing, a Sloop supports one or two pirates, a Brigantine supports up to three, and a Galleon supports up to four. These are crew limits, not suggestions to squeeze another Discord member aboard. Rare’s Crewing Up guide also distinguishes Open Crew matchmaking from invitation-based Closed Crews.

Do not equate a six-person Discord event with a six-person ordinary crew. Custom Seas has different configuration options; those do not increase normal High Seas ship capacity.

Choose High Seas, Safer Seas, or Custom Seas deliberately

High Seas is the shared world where other crews may cooperate, compete, or attack. A listing that says “fishing and treasure, avoiding fights” describes your crew’s intention; it does not disable PvP or bind strangers to your plan.

Safer Seas provides a single-crew experience without other player crews. It suits introductory sailing and supported story activities, but has progression and feature restrictions. Rare’s Safer Seas FAQ explains the model; its original reward figures were subsequently changed by the 3.2.2 update. Do not copy the launch-era 30% reward claim into current onboarding.

Custom Seas is the creative session toolset introduced in June 2026. Rare’s launch notes describe sessions with up to 24 players across six crews, adjustable ship configurations, host controls, and invitations or a Join Code. Ordinary gold and progression are suspended. Silver provides session scoring; the launch season also offered specific, time-limited Seasonal Deeds, which are not a standing promise of ordinary treasure rewards. See the official Season 20 explanation and publisher release notes on Steam.

For Harborlight, those become three clearly labeled experiences—not three competing definitions of the same LFG channel.

Keep cross-platform crews together

Sea of Thieves supports cross-platform play across Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Windows PC storefronts, including Steam, Microsoft Store, and Battle.net. Rare’s Battle.net release notes describe the shared player pool and unified friend invitations.

Use region, language, sea, ship, and session length as the main matching information. Platform remains useful for invitation troubleshooting and matchmaking preferences, rather than automatically splitting every group into isolated PC and console channels.

Players still need the appropriate game access and account setup. In particular, Rare’s PS5 account-linking guidance warns that the Microsoft account choice matters and cannot simply be swapped later. Your Discord should direct people to official account help, not handle their login credentials.

The Community We Will Build

Harborlight welcomes occasional crewmates as well as regular Guild members. Its recurring activities are beginner voyages, Tall Tales, treasure runs, fishing, Hourglass practice, and occasional Custom Seas races or challenges.

It can support several in-game Guilds without requiring every Discord member to join one. A self-selected Guild Interest role is different from officer-confirmed Guild membership. Likewise, the Discord role Event Host does not grant Custom Seas Session Owner powers.

As of September 20, 2026, Season 21 is live, following its September 17 launch. Its official announcement emphasizes recurring live events and continued Custom Seas improvements, including Layouts. Harborlight keeps those developments in dated posts and recipe revisions rather than creating a permanent category for every season. See Rare’s Season 21 announcement.

These are the ten built-in services. Start with the essential member journey, then activate optional activities when someone is ready to operate them.

1. Create the Foundation With Start Your Server

Sign in with the Discord account that owns the server, select it in YourBot, and open Start Your Server. Check the building as indicator when using a custom bot identity. The owner-only builder needs the relevant channel access and channel/role management permissions; its role must sit above the roles it manages.

Copy-ready community brief

Create or reorganize a Sea of Thieves Discord called Harborlight for about
240 members. It supports cross-platform crews, new pirates, Guilds,
Tall Tales, fishing, treasure voyages, Hourglass, and Custom Seas events.

Make the newcomer journey simple: read the rules, verify, choose sailing
interests, then find a compatible crew or ask for help.

Use High Seas, Safer Seas, Tall Tales, Fishing, Treasure Voyages, Hourglass,
Custom Seas, Learning, and Guild Interest as optional interests. Put Events,
Crew Alerts, and Game Updates in separate opt-in notification choices.
Keep Member, Mentor, Guild Officer, Event Host, and Moderator access separate.
Staff roles must not be self-selectable.

Ordinary Sloops hold up to two, Brigantines up to three, and Galleons up to
four. Do not give ordinary crews five places or use Tank/Healer/DPS slots.
Custom Seas attendance and crew configurations are separate from normal
ship limits. Every listing should identify the sea, ship, goal, available
places, language/region, communication preference, and expected duration.

Create one structured Group Finder listing channel, one coordination forum,
event signups, Guild recruitment, a sailing-help area, a recipe library,
opt-in story spoilers, game updates, private support, and staff logs.
Prepare temporary Sloop, Brigantine, and Galleon voice lobbies plus a
permanent social room.

Prepare Welcome, Sentinel, Tickets, Group Finder, Beacon Events,
Join-to-Create Voice, Announcements, Social Feeds, Analytics, and Giveaways.
Apply supported settings and identify what still needs manual setup.

Do not claim Discord membership grants a Guild invitation, Captaincy,
Custom Seas host rights, an in-game crew place, or game progression.
Do not collect Microsoft, Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, or Battle.net credentials.

Preserve existing channels, roles, and messages. Do not delete or rename
live channels in the first build. Stage additions for staff testing.

A compact channel plan

START HERE
  #welcome-and-rules
  #verify
  #choose-interests
  #contact-staff

HARBOR
  #announcements
  #sea-of-thieves-updates
  #general
  #screenshots-and-stories
  #sailing-help
  #tall-tale-spoilers       [Opt-in]

PLAY TOGETHER
  #crew-listings
  #crew-coordination       [Forum]
  #event-signups
  #guild-recruitment
  #custom-seas-recipes     [Forum]

VOICE
  Tavern
  Create a Sloop Room
  Create a Brigantine Room
  Create a Galleon Room

STAFF
  #staff-chat
  #application-review
  #private-support-log
  #moderation-log
  #event-planning

This plan deliberately avoids a permanent LFG channel for every Trading Company, platform, and ship combination. One structured board is easier to keep current than a dozen overlapping recruitment chats.

Review before applying

Inspect Channels, Roles, and Services. Use See it as for a newcomer, Member, Mentor, and Guild Officer. Confirm that an unverified member can reach help, an interest selection does not reveal staff notes, and story spoilers remain opt-in.

Review the proposed changes, keep deletions unselected, then inspect the build report. Download the snapshot. Structural undo does not restore deleted Discord messages. The server-builder guide explains these controls.

Announcements schedules and Social Feed subscriptions still require manual creation. Enabling those services does not publish Harborlight’s calendar or choose a game-news source. The following steps also work when you skip the builder and configure an existing Discord manually.

2. Welcome: Match Members With the Right Kind of Voyage

Open Welcome and configure button verification in #verify to grant a limited Member role. Keep the support destination accessible before broader community access.

In Role Menus, publish multi-select sailing interests. Someone can enjoy both Safer Seas Tall Tales and High Seas combat; there is no need to force a permanent identity choice. Separate those interests from optional Crew, Events, and Game Updates notifications.

Harborlight uses language and broad playing-region preferences for compatibility. Typical availability belongs in an application or listing, not an intrusive public questionnaire.

Welcome to Harborlight.

Read the rules, verify, and choose your sailing interests.
For a crew today, use #crew-listings. For a scheduled voyage or community
event, use #event-signups. New pirates can start in #sailing-help.

Tell your crew whether you want High Seas, Safer Seas, or Custom Seas.
Include the ship, goal, communication preference, and time you can stay.
Keep Tall Tale solutions and story endings in the spoiler area.

An optional Buddy System can pair newcomers with volunteers from a configured Mentor pool. Explain that this is a welcome contact, not guaranteed live coaching or official Rare accreditation.

Do not make ship ownership, Pirate Legend status, or a prestigious cosmetic a prerequisite for basic community access. Harborlight’s welcome process should help a beginner find an appropriate first session.

Test: join as a normal member, verify, select several interests, and check that staff records remain hidden. Confirm that Mentor and Guild Officer cannot be self-assigned.

3. Sentinel: Protect the Community Without Treating Every Sinking as Misconduct

Open Sentinel, select the moderation log and authorized moderator roles, and review spam, mention, invite, and link rules. Trial new detection rules in dry-run while moderators examine ordinary conversations and false positives.

Focus on fake Microsoft sign-ins, account sales, cheat advertisements, impersonation, harassment, and suspicious reward links. Rare’s Pirate Code and Community Code of Conduct also addresses discrimination, griefing, cheating, witch hunts, and stream sniping.

Keep these situations distinct: losing treasure to another crew, breaking Harborlight’s advertised custom-event rules, and harassing somebody outside the game. They require different responses. A High Seas listing cannot promise protection from strangers simply because the Discord prefers peaceful sailing.

Route reports and case appeals to the responsible moderators. Use Sentinel’s case workflow for enforcement records rather than maintaining contradictory case histories in several channels. Sensitive general staff contact can still enter through Tickets.

For streams and recordings, establish a community policy before play begins. Do not turn an innocent clip discussion into a public accusation campaign or encourage members to pursue another crew across platforms.

Test: use harmless messages to check rule detection, exemptions, logs, and the member appeal path. Keep human moderation available during testing.

4. Tickets: Separate Guild Recruitment, Sailing Help, and Sensitive Contact

Open Tickets and build distinct intake paths with separate staff teams.

Guild applications can use a form-only review queue. Ask for the public gamertag used for invitations, preferred language, usual playing times, favorite activities, and whether the applicant wants occasional crews or ongoing Guild participation. An officer reviews available places and sends the actual invitation in the game.

Accepting an application can start a Discord trial process, but it should not automatically grant Guild Officer or pretend to pledge a ship. Keep Guild Interest, Applicant, and confirmed Guild-specific access separate.

Learning requests should ask for the desired sea, ship size, one learning goal, available time, and communication preferences. A Tall Tale request also needs the tale name, the player’s own checkpoint information if relevant, and their spoiler preference. These are member-provided details, not data read from the game.

Sensitive staff contact belongs to moderators or another explicitly authorized team. Do not let every Mentor read player disputes because Mentors handle a different ticket panel.

Never request passwords, authentication codes, account recovery details, or screenshots containing sign-in tokens. A player struggling to link PS5 and Microsoft accounts needs Rare’s official guidance, not an unofficial staff login service.

Test: submit each type as a member and verify that only its intended team can access the record and transcript. Check acceptance, closure, and notification messages.

5. Group Finder: Create Ship-Sized Templates Manually

Open Group Finder, connect #crew-listings and the coordination forum, and review the configuration. Sea of Thieves is not in the inspected automatic game-detection keyword list. Create explicit templates instead of assuming the wizard generates appropriate ship sizes.

For Harborlight, start with Local visibility, a two-hour default expiry, one active listing per member, and a modest posting cooldown. These are recommended community settings, not Rare’s rules.

Create the first template

In the template editor’s Basic tab, configure:

Template Name: Sea of Thieves — Sloop Crew
Game: Sea of Thieves
Default Party Size: 2
Default Expiry (hours): 2
Description: Find a Sloop crewmate. State High Seas or Safer Seas, the goal,
region/language, available time, communication preference, and existing crew.

Leave Slots empty for general voyages. Helm, navigation, cannon work, repairs, and boarding can be discussed before departure without turning them into mandatory character classes.

Use separate template copies where default capacities differ. Do not leave the generic five-person default attached to an ordinary Sea of Thieves crew.

Publish the plan, not just “need one”

Sea: High Seas
Ship: Brigantine
Current crew: 2 of 3
Goal: Treasure voyages, then sell before logging off
Region / language: Europe / English
Time available: About 90 minutes
Communication: In-game chat or Discord; either is fine
Experience: Learning friendly
Combat expectations: Not seeking fights, but High Seas can involve PvP
Joining: Host sends the in-game invitation after we confirm the crew

Set the total target size, not the number of vacancies. Make sure existing teammates are represented accurately in the participant display. A third friend appearing only in the description can otherwise lead to overbooking.

For an invitation-based crew, the host selects the appropriate Closed Crew setup and sends game invitations separately. A YourBot Join button records interest or a place in the Discord listing; it does not reserve a seat in Rare’s session.

A replacement crewmate also needs to know whether the ship has already sailed, how long remains, and whether the original objective has changed. Update or close stale listings rather than letting “starting now” remain visible all evening.

Test: fill a two-place Sloop listing, check overflow behavior, leave, and let another test listing expire. Verify alerts, forum coordination, and the actual in-game handoff.

6. Beacon Events: Schedule the Voyage or the Entire Custom Session

Use Beacon Events for planned teaching, Guild evenings, and larger community activities. Group Finder supports scheduled listings too; Harborlight intentionally gives it individual crew recruitment while Beacon owns community event attendance.

Example: a teaching Galleon

Title: Harborlight — First Galleon Voyage
Category: Social
Date & Time: The organizer's chosen local date and time
Max Participants: 4
Signup Options: Guide — capacity 1; Learning — capacity 3
Destination: #event-signups

Choose Clear in the signup role tree instead of retaining an MMO preset. State the sea, expected duration, objective, and spoiler policy in the description. Count the guide inside the four playing places.

The editor’s Date & Time uses the organizer’s local timezone and converts it for Discord display. Confirm it from another member account. Configure reminders, the destination, and voice behavior deliberately.

Example: a Custom Seas race night

Harborlight’s proposed event uses six two-person Sloop crews: 12 participating players, not 12 people joining one normal ship.

Title: Harborlight — Custom Seas Sailing Challenge
Category: Social
Max Participants: 12
Signup Options: Participant — capacity 12
Description: Six two-person crews. Host assigns crews and configures the
session in-game. Practice/community event; no ordinary loot-farming promise.

Keep nonplaying staff outside the player signup pool, but count anyone who enters the game against its session limits. Use the waitlist for reserves. The host separately creates the Custom Seas session, checks the selected ship/crew configuration, and distributes invitations or the Join Code to accepted participants.

Avoid promising a race, scoring rule, or saved setup works until a host has rehearsed it. Rare provides Custom Seas guides and recipe sheets as practical starting points.

Test: verify caps, reserves, reminders, and time display. Rehearse the game session with a small staff group before opening registration for the full event.

7. Join-to-Create Voice: Match Rooms to Crews

Join-to-Create Voice supports multiple lobbies with separate defaults. Harborlight can use Sloop rooms capped at two, Brigantine rooms at three, and Galleon rooms at four, plus a permanent Tavern for social conversation.

In Configuration, set the temporary-room category, creator ownership, and delete-when-empty behavior. Review the owner panel and transfer settings. In Lobbies, configure each lobby’s label, category, and user limit. Use a simple name such as ⚓ {display_name}.

Choose category inheritance or an allowed-role setup intentionally. A temporary room is not automatically private. Members should understand whether other community members can see or join it and how an owner can lock, rename, limit, or transfer it.

For Custom Seas, assign one crew room per team and a separate organizer room where useful. Do not also let Beacon create unwanted duplicate voice channels for the same activity.

Sea of Thieves has its own voice and Pirate Chat tools. Keep a text-friendly option, and test the real console workflow before advertising automatic movement between Discord rooms as seamless. Crew-room capacity is a Discord setting, not a game invitation.

Test: create a room, admit a crewmate, transfer ownership, and confirm it remains while occupied and disappears when empty. Check access from an unrelated Member account.

8. Announcements: Publish the Plan Without Promising Game Rewards

Open Announcements, select #announcements, configure the timezone, and create Harborlight’s schedule manually. Use an opt-in Events role rather than mentioning everyone.

Harborlight this week

Tuesday: Beginner sailing
Thursday: Tall Tale crew night
Saturday: Custom Seas community challenge
Weekend: Guild voyages and fishing

See #event-signups for dated events and requirements.
Use #crew-listings for a crew today.
Check each activity's sea, ship size, and expected finish time before joining.

Let Beacon send event-specific reminders; use Announcements for the weekly overview. One start time should not generate three indistinguishable pings.

Rare’s Events Hub is the place to confirm current live-event windows. Enter a dated event after checking its requirements and timezone. A recurring Discord message must not imply that a past Gold & Glory bonus is active every weekend.

Keep crew availability, Rare maintenance, and YourBot availability separate. An event cancellation does not establish a game-wide outage.

Test: preview the message privately and check formatting, destination, timezone, and actual mentions before activating the public schedule.

9. Social Feeds: Add Sea of Thieves Through Steam News

Sea of Thieves does not have a dedicated tile in the inspected YourBot game catalog. The generic Steam source still supports it through Steam App ID 1172620.

Open Social Feeds, choose the custom Steam source, and configure:

Source: Steam
Steam App ID: 1172620
Destination: #sea-of-thieves-updates
Optional notification role: Game Updates

The inspected adapter requests publisher Steam Community announcements and uses a 900-second default polling interval. That is approximately 15-minute polling—not a delivery deadline or instant push notification. The game's official Steam announcements include Rare’s release notes and event posts.

This feed is useful to Xbox, PS5, and Battle.net members too: the announcements arrive in Discord regardless of how a member launches the game. It is not a complete mirror of every Rare support article, nor a live server-health or treasure timer.

Keep the destination read-only for ordinary members and discuss updates in threads. For a support notice absent from Steam, an organizer can share the official article manually. The same service can handle selected creator feeds, but those belong in an appropriate community destination rather than disguising them as Rare announcements.

Test: verify the App ID, channel permissions, and optional mention, then observe a new publisher announcement. Enabling Social Feeds alone is not a configured subscription.

10. Analytics: Measure Participation, Not Pirate Progress

Configure Analytics with Harborlight’s timezone, bots excluded, deliberate retention, and exclusions for private support, moderation, and automated-feed channels.

Review whether newcomers return, whether crew listings produce follow-up activity, and whether voice participation accompanies teaching nights. Compare these observations with actual member feedback rather than assuming every voice minute represents a completed voyage.

The built-in Discord metrics do not establish gold earned, Trading Company reputation, Guild contributions, Captaincy milestones, Commendations, Hourglass skill, or successful treasure hand-ins. A quiet solo sailor can contribute more to an in-game Guild than the most talkative Discord member.

Do not grant Guild Officer or Mentor access through message-count rewards. Staff trust, teaching ability, and game-side permissions deserve separate decisions.

Test: check an ordinary public interaction and an excluded channel, then review dashboard access and any public statistics cards for unintended exposure.

11. Giveaways: Keep Community Prizes Separate From Pirate Rewards

Open Giveaways, restrict hosting to approved organizers, and choose a public destination. State eligibility, the real prize, claim deadline, and fulfillment method.

Harborlight can use a legitimate store gift card or community merchandise that staff can deliver. It should not advertise exclusive partner cosmetics, Ancient Coins, or in-game gold without an actual authorized fulfillment method.

Rare’s Twitch Drops and live-event rewards are separate systems. A Discord drawing does not satisfy their viewing, account-linking, or gameplay requirements. Winners should never be asked to provide a Microsoft password, platform login, or authentication code.

Keep the process small enough for staff to handle responsibly. An optional prize should not delay the more important work of making crew finding and onboarding reliable.

Test: run a clearly labeled staff-only drawing with no real prize. Check entry, closing, winner announcements, and the claim instructions.

Let Sea of Thieves Handle Guilds, Captaincy, and Session Control

Harborlight is a community home, not a replacement for the game’s roster systems.

Guilds connect pirates under a shared identity and support pledged ships and collective progress. Captaincy concerns owned ships and their game-side features. A crew is the group sailing one vessel now. Those are different records, even when the same people appear in all three. Rare’s Guild introduction explains the relationship between Guild participation and pledged ships.

Keep a small Guild directory with the Guild name, officer contact, language, typical sailing window, activity preferences, and whether applications are open. Confirm actual available places in the game before promising an invitation. A large Discord can support multiple Guilds without forcing everybody into the same roster.

Likewise, agreeing in Discord to sail two High Seas ships does not place them on the same server. An Alliance is not a Discord-managed matchmaking reservation. For a deliberately controlled multi-crew event, use the supported Custom Seas workflow rather than promising to arrange ordinary matchmaking behind the scenes.

An event’s Session Owner configures permissions and commands in the game. A Discord Event Host role only controls the Discord access that you assign to it.

Make Progression, Spoilers, and Session Endings Explicit

A crew needs more than a start time. It needs a shared understanding of why it is sailing and when people expect to stop.

For High Seas, include the intended activity, appetite for combat, and whether the crew plans to sell before members leave. Do not guarantee that treasure survives the trip. For Tall Tales, name the story and agree on spoiler boundaries before the guide starts explaining puzzles.

Recheck travel assumptions too. The September 17 3.9.0 publisher notes describe a Season 21 experiment removing the Quest Table’s “Dive To” option for Voyages and Tall Tales, requiring crews to sail to those locations. Allow for that travel time instead of copying an older instant-start itinerary; keep the experiment distinct from Hourglass matchmaking.

For Safer Seas, distinguish available activities from full High Seas progression. Rare’s rewards revision increased base gold and reputation earnings to 100% while setting supported Trading Company progression at rank 25; it did not make every High Seas feature available there. Link the published rules when members are choosing a progression goal, and recheck them after relevant updates.

For Custom Seas, describe the session as practice, creativity, or an organized community challenge. Ordinary gold and progression are not its purpose. Rare’s Season 20 launch described specific, time-limited Seasonal Deeds with rewards applied on return to High Seas. That historical exception is not a current reward guarantee: check an active announcement before promising any special reward, and never advertise normal Commendation or reputation farming.

Build a short finishing routine into community voyages: confirm the next objective, check everyone’s remaining time, agree whether to continue, and close the Discord listing when the group is no longer recruiting. This makes short sessions welcoming instead of treating every member as available indefinitely.

Add a Custom Seas Recipe Library Only When You Need It

Harborlight can launch with the built-in services. A custom plugin becomes useful when tested event recipes and setup instructions keep disappearing into chat.

A Custom Seas Recipe & Session Brief Library would preserve reusable rulesets, setup notes, player requirements, and last-tested versions. It would not replace Beacon attendance, Group Finder recruitment, or Rare’s own session tools.

Start by checking the marketplace for a maintained solution. Evaluate its actual listing and capabilities rather than assuming a Sea of Thieves integration exists.

Season 21’s Layouts make this distinction particularly useful: a saved in-game arrangement is not the same thing as a written host checklist, player briefing, or revision history. The proposed library records that human context; it does not import or manipulate game saves.

Copy-ready Plugin Builder specification

Build a YourBot SDK plugin called Harborlight Custom Seas Library.
This is a Discord recipe and session-brief library, not a game integration.

Administrators configure Recipe Reviewer and Event Host roles, a public
recipe destination, and a private review destination.

A recipe stores: title, creator, source URL if provided, activity type,
minimum and maximum participants, planned ship/crew configuration,
required host setup, preset/layout reference entered as text, tested game
version, last-tested date, estimated duration, public rules, accessibility
and communication notes, spoiler level, and status.

Statuses: Draft, In Review, Approved, Needs Retest, Archived.
Examples of activity types: Sailing Challenge, Naval Practice, Treasure
Hunt, Screenshot Session, Social Event, or Custom.

Separate the public player briefing from private host notes. Only the
recipe author, assigned authorized reviewers, authorized Event Hosts,
and administrators may access private host notes. Enforce permissions
server-side for commands, dashboards, exports, and direct record access.

Do not create a second event RSVP system. Allow an optional manually
provided link to the corresponding Beacon event or Discord discussion.
Keep one approved recipe revision attached to each published session brief
so changes cannot silently alter rules after members have signed up.

Authors may submit changes. Reviewers approve revisions, request changes,
mark recipes Needs Retest, or archive them. Record who changed what and when.
Search/filter by activity, player count, communication needs, and status.
Do not fabricate working recipe codes or supported game configuration files.

Clearly label all setup details and test reports as community-maintained.
Ordinary gold, reputation, and Commendation rewards are not promised.
Any special official reward must link to a current Rare announcement and
state its eligibility window rather than being inferred from the recipe.

Never store temporary session Join Codes in reusable public recipes.
Do not collect Microsoft, Xbox, PSN, Steam, or Battle.net passwords,
account tokens, authentication codes, or game-control credentials.

Do not read the game client, create Custom Seas sessions, upload Layouts,
award currency, verify Guild membership, or query player progression.
Keep external network access disabled in version 1. Store links as text;
do not automatically fetch or execute submitted resources.

Isolate all records by Discord server. Include explicit retention and
administrator deletion controls, with audit records designed not to
reproduce deleted private notes indefinitely.

Suggest /sot-recipe actions for submit, browse, view, revise, review,
and archive using the supported SDK command format. Include a searchable
dashboard, private review view, and tests for authorization, revoked
reviewer access, cross-server access, revision handling, unsafe mentions,
and spoiler/private-note leakage.

Review, test, and continue through the SDK

Use Plugin Builder to review the plan, generated source, manifest, commands, and capabilities before relying on the result. Resolve validation findings and run a development installation with synthetic recipes. The documented development installs expire after 24 hours; they are a test stage, not a permanent operating arrangement.

Test as an author, ordinary member, unrelated Guild Officer, assigned reviewer, Event Host, and administrator. Remove a reviewer’s role and repeat the private-note checks. Test direct record requests and exports, not only whether a dashboard button is hidden.

A developer can continue the same project in Visual Studio Code. Open the complete generated folder, select a project Python environment, install yourbot-sdk and its declared dependencies, then run yourbot validate and yourbot dev. Follow the current SDK quick start; do not replace the project with an unrelated standalone bot.

Upload the tested version through the Dev Portal’s ZIP or supported GitHub workflow and follow the applicable review and installation process. Marketplace publication is a separate distribution decision. Passing validation proves neither correct privacy nor a working Custom Seas recipe; the Discord workflow and actual game session both need testing.

Run a Complete First-Week Member Journey

Before announcing Harborlight’s new setup, rehearse it with ordinary accounts. These are acceptance tests for your community, not assumptions about what an administrator sees.

Include one member who prefers text communication and one who joins without friends already in the Discord. Their experience reveals issues a staff-only rehearsal can miss.

For an established server, leave the previous workflow available during testing, then choose a clear cutover date. Disable duplicate announcements and recruitment posts only after the replacement works. Do not delete old conversations merely to make the sidebar look cleaner.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can one Discord serve Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, and Battle.net players?

Yes. Sea of Thieves supports cross-platform crews. Match members by sea, ship, language, playing region, and objective, while retaining platform information for invitations and troubleshooting.

Is a Guild the same as a crew?

No. A Guild is an ongoing in-game organization; a crew is the group sailing together now. Harborlight can support several Guilds and unaffiliated players without automatically synchronizing memberships.

Can more than four friends play together?

Not as one ordinary Galleon crew. For a controlled larger gathering, use Custom Seas and its current session configuration limits. A Discord event alone does not place several High Seas crews together.

Should a beginner choose Safer Seas or Custom Seas?

Choose by goal. Safer Seas supports a single-crew adventure with restricted progression. Custom Seas suits controlled practice and creator-defined activities, with ordinary progression suspended. High Seas provides the shared-world experience, including encounters with other crews.

Can YourBot create a Sea of Thieves session or track Guild reputation?

Not through the built-in workflows in this guide. YourBot organizes Discord participation. Crew invitations, Guild membership, ship access, session control, and pirate progression remain game-side. Any future integration would require a separately verified interface and security review.

Do we need the custom recipe plugin immediately?

No. Begin with onboarding, compatible crew listings, events, voice, safety, and support. Build the library when reusable instructions and revision management become a real operational need.

Build Around Compatible Crews and Clear Expectations

A useful Sea of Thieves Discord gets a Sloop sailor one compatible crewmate, gives a beginner a welcoming first voyage, and lets a host run a community event without confusing attendance with ship capacity or game rewards.

Start Your Server prepares the foundation. YourBot’s built-in services handle the Discord work around it. Rare’s tools remain responsible for sailing, Guilds, session configuration, and progression.

Start your community setup, test the first complete member journey, and extend the same bot with a focused Plugin Builder project when your pirates need more.