Beta Features
Why a feature might not appear on your server yet, and how to get access.
Overview#
Strelitzia ships new features gradually. Rather than switching something on for every server at once, a new feature is first given to a small group of servers, watched, fixed, and only then opened up to everyone. That means two servers running the same bot can genuinely see different things, and it is why a page, a command, or a sidebar entry you read about in these docs might not exist on your server yet.
Nothing is wrong when that happens. This page explains what each state looks like so you can tell "not rolled out yet" apart from "broken".
The Three States#
A feature that is not generally available will be in one of three states for your server.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Nothing at all | The feature is hidden. There is no dashboard page, no sidebar entry, and no slash command. As far as your server is concerned, it does not exist. |
| A "Beta Feature" notice | The feature exists and you can see it, but your server is not in the test group yet. The page loads and explains that access has not been granted. |
| A "Feature Unavailable" notice | The feature has been switched off for everyone, usually while something is being fixed. It will come back on its own. |
Hidden means genuinely hidden#
This is the state that causes the most confusion, so it is worth being blunt about it.
When a feature is hidden for your server:
- The dashboard page returns a normal "page not found", even if you type the URL directly
- The sidebar entry is not greyed out. It is simply absent
- The slash commands are not registered with Discord at all, so they will not show up when you type
/and Discord will tell you the command does not exist
That last point catches people out. If a guide mentions a command and Discord acts like you invented it, the most likely explanation is that the feature has not reached your server, not that the bot is broken or that you typed it wrong.
Once Access Is Granted#
When your server is added to a feature's test group:
- The dashboard page and its sidebar entry appear
- The slash commands register with Discord, which happens the next time the bot restarts, so allow a little time before assuming something went wrong
- The feature works normally, and may show a small beta marker in the dashboard
Beta features are real, working features being used by real servers. They are marked as beta because they are newer and more likely to change than the rest of the bot.
If Something Goes Wrong Behind the Scenes#
Gating is designed to fail in the safe direction. If the bot cannot reach the service that decides who has access to what, it treats every feature as generally available rather than hiding everything. A hiccup on our side will never blank out your dashboard or make your commands disappear.
How to Ask for Access#
Join the Strelitzia Discord server and ask. It helps to include:
- Your server's name and ID
- Which feature you are after
- Roughly how big your server is and what you would use it for
Test groups are deliberately small at first, so access is not always immediate, but asking is what puts you on the list.
Tips#
- Check the sidebar before assuming a bug. If the entry is not there, the feature has not reached your server; nothing you change in Discord or the dashboard will make it appear.
- After being granted access, give slash commands time. They register when the bot next restarts, so the dashboard page may show up before the commands do.
- Documented features are not promises of availability. These docs describe everything the bot can do; your server sees the subset that has rolled out to it.
- Beta means it can change. Settings and layouts in a beta feature are more likely to move around between releases than in the rest of the bot, so re-check them after an update.
- Report problems in beta features. That is the entire point of a staged rollout: feedback from early servers is what decides when a feature opens up to everyone.