Permissions, intents, and bit fields

Discord packs many boolean capabilities into numeric bit fields. Altkit provides BitField subclasses that accept readable flag names, raw values, existing instances, and arrays of resolvables.

Permissions

Guild members and channels expose resolved Permissions instances:

const permissions = channel.permissionsFor(member);

if (permissions?.has('SEND_MESSAGES')) {
  await channel.send('The member can send messages here.');
}

The v14-compatible name PermissionsBitField is an alias of the fork's Permissions implementation.

Check multiple permissions

const required = ['VIEW_CHANNEL', 'SEND_MESSAGES', 'ATTACH_FILES'];

if (!permissions.has(required)) {
  console.log('Missing:', permissions.missing(required));
}

has() requires all supplied bits. any() succeeds when at least one supplied bit is present. Both normally treat ADMINISTRATOR as granting all permissions; pass false as the second argument when checking raw bits without that override.

BigInt values

Permission flags are bigint values:

const { PermissionsBitField } = require('@altkit/discord');

const bits = PermissionsBitField.FLAGS.VIEW_CHANNEL | PermissionsBitField.FLAGS.SEND_MESSAGES;

const permissions = new PermissionsBitField(bits);
console.log(permissions.bitfield); // bigint

Do not mix JavaScript number and bigint in bitwise operations. Serialize a permission bit field as a decimal string when passing through JSON:

const serialized = permissions.bitfield.toString();
const restored = new PermissionsBitField(BigInt(serialized));

Channel overwrites

Guild-level permissions come from roles. Channel permission overwrites then allow or deny bits for a role or member. channel.permissionsFor(member) resolves the effective result and is usually safer than manually combining overwrites.

When creating an overwrite:

await channel.permissionOverwrites.edit(member, {
  VIEW_CHANNEL: true,
  SEND_MESSAGES: false,
});

The logged-in account must have the necessary permission and role hierarchy to make the change.

Gateway intents

Intents select categories of gateway events:

const { Client, IntentsBitField } = require('@altkit/discord');

const intents = new IntentsBitField(['GUILDS', 'GUILD_MESSAGES', 'DIRECT_MESSAGES', 'MESSAGE_CONTENT']);

const client = new Client({ intents });

Altkit's default client options currently include every defined intent. Explicit intents can still make an application's event requirements clearer and may reduce unnecessary event traffic.

The v14-compatible IntentsBitField export aliases Intents.

Other flag classes

The same bit-field pattern appears in message flags, user flags, application flags, attachment flags, guild-member flags, role flags, system-channel flags, and others. Each class defines its own FLAGS map.

if (message.flags.has('IS_VOICE_MESSAGE')) {
  console.log('Received a voice message');
}

Common mistakes

• Mixing numeric enum values with permission names from a different version.
• Comparing the entire bitfield when only one flag matters.
• Forgetting channel overwrites or role hierarchy.
• Using number for permission values that require bigint.
• Assuming the account can perform an action merely because a cached permission calculation says so; Discord remains authoritative.

Useful API pages

• BitField
• Permissions
• Intents
• PermissionOverwrites
• MessageFlags