How to give a moderator dashboard access, not everything

Telegram's own administrator rights are coarse: if someone can delete messages, they can ban too. There is no way inside Telegram to say "let them look but not touch".

In the Scarabeus dashboard the rights are sliced finer, and this is a case where five minutes of setup pays off.

Where to set it up#

The Permissions section. Only the chat owner sees it.

The list contains the chat's Telegram administrators: the dashboard pulls it through the bot. The owner always has full access and is not configured in the list. If the list does not load, it usually means the bot is not in the chat or has lost its rights.

Under each administrator you can see exactly what has been opened to them.

The distinction matters: Telegram admin rights and dashboard access are different things. Being an administrator in the chat does not automatically open moderation settings, logs and appeals. Every item is granted separately and revoked just as separately.

What the permissions are#

Permission	What it opens
Moderation section	viewing and changing rules, punishment chains, exceptions
Members section	the member list, search, the member page
Statistics section	the summary tab and the charts
Log: moderation	rule matches and automatic punishments
Log: members	joins, messages, reactions and punishments in one feed
Punishments: ban, mute, kick	issuing punishments from the dashboard
Punishments: lift ban and mute	lifting punishments
Appeals	viewing and handling member complaints
Moderation alerts in Telegram	the bot writes to you when a punishment goes to review

The same permissions govern commands in the group: someone without the punishment permission will not ban with /b, even if they are an administrator of the chat.

Who should get what#

An on-duty moderator — members, both logs, punishments and lifting them. They do not need moderation settings: their job is to react, not to change the rules. As a bonus, an accidental edit to a punishment chain at three in the morning becomes impossible.

Whoever tunes the rules — the Moderation section and the moderation log. The log is mandatory here: without it they are editing rules blind and cannot see what those rules caught.

Handling complaints is best given to one person: appeals plus the moderation log so they can see the context of a punishment. The permission to lift punishments is needed too, if they are meant to see a decision through themselves.

An observer — statistics and, if needed, the logs. No punishments, no settings.

One permission deserves a separate mention: "Moderation alerts in Telegram". It is worth enabling for the people who will actually react quickly. If a punishment chain has a "send to administrators for review" step, the bot sends those cards to direct messages — and it helps if they go to the person on duty rather than to the entire admin list.

Worth remembering#

Revoking a permission takes effect immediately: the section disappears the next time that person opens the dashboard.

The Permissions section is part of the Base plan. On Limited, permission management is switched off and only the owner works with the dashboard.

What exactly you are letting a moderator configure is covered in the overview: how to protect a Telegram group from spam.