Let punished users ask staff to take another look. A user opens the server's appeal page at https://dreamliner.site/server/<guild id>/appeals, signs in with Discord, picks one of the infractions on file for them (or a manual appeal if the server allows it), and fills in a form the server built. The appeal goes to a Discord review channel with Approve, Deny and Needs info buttons. It can also be browsed and decided on the dashboard's View Appeals page.

Banned users aren't members, so nothing on the appeal page requires being in the server. The bot only needs to still be in it.

Appeals is free and is turned on per server like every other plugin.

#How an appeal moves

code

pending ──► approved          (punishment lifted, if the type's auto_reverse is on)
   │  ▲ ──► denied            (cooldown starts)
   ▼  │
needs_info  (staff asked a question; the user answers on their appeal page)

pending / needs_info ──► withdrawn   (by the user)

Approve opens a modal with an optional note and a Lift the punishment checkbox, pre-ticked from the type's auto_reverse. Lifting does one of the following:
- Ban, tempban, or a manual appeal: unbans the user, if they're still banned, and records an unban case.
- Mute or tempmute: removes the timeout and records an unmute case.
- Warn, kick or softban: revokes the case, marking it inactive.
The result ("Unbanned", or "Couldn't unban: missing Ban Members") is saved on the appeal and shown to reviewers.
Deny asks for a reason. It's required when review.require_deny_reason is on, and is sent to the user.
Needs info asks the user a question. They answer on their appeal page, which puts the appeal back to pending and updates the review message.
Note (in Discord, or "Add note" on the dashboard) adds a staff-only note to the appeal's timeline, and posts it in the appeal's discussion thread when there is one. The user never sees notes. It stays available after a decision.
Lifting needs the same power as lifting it directly: Ban Members or the Infractions unban permission for bans, Moderate Members or the mute permission for timeouts, and Moderate Members or the warn permission to revoke a case (Manage Server always can). Without it, untick Lift the punishment to approve without changing anything.
Nobody can decide, question, or add notes to their own appeal. Staff looking at their own appeal on the dashboard don't see the staff notes about it.
Decisions are atomic. If two staff members decide at once, the first one wins and the second is told it was already decided.

Each decision DMs the user (if decisions.dm_user is on) with a link to their appeal page. When an approval unbans someone and decisions.invite_on_unban is on, the DM also carries a single-use, 24h invite back.

#Appeal button on infraction DMs

When the plugin is on, dm_button.enabled is set and the infraction type is appealable, the DMs that /warn, /mute, /kick, /ban, /tempban, /softban and Automod send carry an Appeal link button. It opens the appeal page with that case already picked.

Ban and kick DMs are sent before the action, while the bot still shares a server with the user, so they actually arrive. If the action then fails, the case is removed again.

#Who can appeal what

An infraction is appealable when all of the following hold:

its type is enabled under types;
min_wait has passed since it was issued;
it's still inside its window;
it hasn't already been appealed limits.max_per_case times;
there's no open appeal for it;
no denied appeal for it is still inside limits.deny_cooldown;
it's active, or the type has allow_inactive. Kicks and softbans are one-off, so they never count as inactive.

The page shows every case with the reason it can't be appealed yet, e.g. "Appealable in 2 days".

A user can't appeal at all if they:

are in limits.blocked_users;
have a role in limits.blocked_roles (only checked while they're still in the server);
have an account younger than limits.min_account_age;
already have limits.max_open_per_user appeals waiting.

Manual appeals (manual.enabled) cover punishments with no case on file, such as a ban made by hand or by another bot. With manual.require_ban on, only users who really are banned can file one.

Your own options (custom_options, up to 10) let a server take appeals for things Dreamliner never punished, for example a Minecraft server ban. Each option has:

an id, which stays the same when the title is renamed;
a label and a description;
a form, chosen with form_id;
require_ban: only users banned from this Discord server can pick it;
lift_discord_ban: approving the appeal also unbans them here.

Both switches are off by default. That suits an appeal about somewhere else: approving it records the decision and DMs the user, and staff lift the punishment themselves. Each option keeps its own history (the same per-appeal limits as a case). Appeals sent through an option keep its title even after the option is renamed or deleted.

Drafts: while someone writes an appeal, their answers are saved in their browser. They're kept for each server, Discord account and option. Picking the same thing again restores the draft, and sending the appeal clears it. Drafts expire after 30 days.

#Forms

Up to 10 forms, each with up to 20 questions. Each infraction type, and manual appeals, picks a form with form_id; an empty form_id uses the first form. Forms are filled in on the website, so they can use:

text, short or paragraph, with min_length and max_length;
single-choice selects and radio groups;
checkbox groups;
a single checkbox, e.g. "I've read the rules";
text blocks.

Every answer is checked again on the bot before the appeal is saved.

#Autopilot

The Autopilot button on the Appeals page sets the whole plugin up from a short conversation:

the review channel and ping roles;
which punishments can be appealed, when, and whether approving lifts them;
manual appeals;
complete appeal forms with their questions;
limits, decision DMs, the page copy and look, and the Appeal button on punishment DMs.

Anything not discussed is left as it is. Forms work differently: when Autopilot writes forms, they replace the existing ones, and each punishment type is pointed at one of them. Blocked users and uploaded backgrounds are still set by hand. The result fills in the page, ready to review and save. The wizard is appeals_setup (bot: src/core/ai/wizards/appeals.ts).

#Configuration

Dashboard-managed: everything below is edited on the Appeals page of the website's config editor, which has a live preview of the public page.

yaml

plugins:
  appeals:
    enabled: true
    config:
      accepting: true                 # pause new appeals without losing the setup
      page:
        headline: "Appeal a punishment in {guild}"
        body: "Sign in with Discord to see what's on file for you…"
        guidelines: ""                # markdown, shown above the form
        inherit_accent: true          # use the server's public accent color
        background: none              # none | color | url (https only) | asset (uploaded) | guild_banner
        background_asset_id: ""       # set by the dashboard's upload button
        show_moderator: false         # keep staff anonymous to appellants
        show_case_reason: true
        link_on_server_page: true     # "Appeal a punishment" link on /server/<id>
      types:
        ban:      { enabled: true, form_id: "", min_wait: "", window: "", allow_inactive: false, auto_reverse: true }
        tempban:  { enabled: true }
        softban:  { enabled: false }
        kick:     { enabled: false }
        mute:     { enabled: true }
        tempmute: { enabled: true }
        warn:     { enabled: true, min_wait: "24h", window: "90d" }
      manual:
        enabled: false
        require_ban: true
        label: "Something else"
      custom_options:
        - id: minecraft
          label: "Minecraft server ban"
          description: "Banned on play.example.net? Appeal it here."
          form_id: ""                 # empty uses the first form
          require_ban: false          # they don't need to be banned on Discord
          lift_discord_ban: false     # approving doesn't touch Discord
      forms:
        - id: "00000000-0000-4000-8000-0000000a9fe1"
          name: "Appeal form"
          questions: [ … ]
      limits:
        max_per_case: 2
        deny_cooldown: "30d"
        max_open_per_user: 1
        min_account_age: ""
        blocked_users: []
        blocked_roles: []
      review:
        channel_id: "123456789012345678"
        ping_roles: []
        thread: true                  # a discussion thread per appeal
        require_deny_reason: true
        show_history: true            # list the user's other cases and appeals
      decisions:
        dm_user: true
        approve_message: "Your appeal in **{guild}** was approved. {lifted}"
        deny_message: "Your appeal in **{guild}** was denied."
        needs_info_message: "The staff team in **{guild}** has a question about your appeal…"
        invite_on_unban: true
        invite_channel_id: ""
      dm_button:
        enabled: true
        label: "Appeal"

Durations use 30m, 24h, 7d or 2w; an empty string means none.

The decision messages support {user}, {guild}, {case}, {type}, {reason} and {link}; the approve message also supports {lifted}, which describes what was lifted.

#Permissions

Flag	Grants
`can_review`	Approve, deny, or ask for more info (Discord buttons and the dashboard)
`can_view`	Read the dashboard's View Appeals page

Both are granted to the built-in Moderator role by default. Server managers (Manage Server) can always view and decide.

#Uploaded backgrounds

The dashboard can upload a PNG, JPEG or WebP (up to 4MB) as the page background. The bot decodes and re-encodes it as a PNG at most 2000px wide, stores it under data/guild-assets/<guild>/appeals/, keeps the 10 newest per server, and serves it publicly at /api/appeals/<guild>/background/<asset id> (appellants are often banned, so it can't require membership).

#Rate limits

Submitting, replying and withdrawing are limited to 5 a minute per user on the bot, on top of the website's per-IP limits and the bridge's per-user limits (see src/bridge/rateLimit.ts).

#Logs

Appeal events go to the Logs plugin under Appeals: appeal_submitted, appeal_approved, appeal_denied, appeal_info, and appeal_reversal_failed (an approval whose unban or untimeout failed).

#Other places appeals show up

The dashboard's Cases modal lists the appeals filed against a case.
A public case page (/case/<token>) shows an Appeal this case button when the case type is appealable.
The server's public page shows an Appeal a punishment link when page.link_on_server_page is on.
Appeals you filed or reviewed are included in your data export. Like cases, they stay with the server when you erase your account.