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The welcome message is the first message in every new ticket. It greets the member, tells staff what the ticket is about, and carries the Claim, Pin, and Close buttons. You build welcome messages as reusable designs in a visual designer, set one as the default for each kind of ticket, and can give any single button, dropdown option, form, or application a design of its own. Variables fill in details when the ticket opens: the member’s name, the ticket number, all of their form answers at once, or one answer at a time with form answer variables. It is for any server that wants tickets to open with its own wording and layout, and with the details staff need at a glance.
Welcome messages and designs work on every plan. On Free, a small “Powered by TicketCord.com” line is added at the end of each welcome message. The Quick Replies Dropdown and applications need Basic or higher, and your own Footer text inside a design needs Enterprise. To edit welcome messages you must be the bot owner, or hold a role granted dashboard access for the server.

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How welcome messages fit together

  • Designs are reusable messages built in the designer. A server can have up to 25.
  • Ticket type defaults decide which design each kind of ticket sends.
  • Per-button choices override the default for one button, dropdown option, form, or application.
Each way of opening a ticket belongs to one ticket type, which is a tab under Ticket type defaults:
Forms opened from a dropdown option use the Modal tab, not Dropdown. The Dropdown tab only covers options that open a ticket straight away.

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Creating a design

1

Open the Messages tab

Go to Dashboard → Bots, pick your bot, choose the server, and open Messages under the Messaging group. Below the DM Users on Join and When a ticket closes cards are Your welcome message designs (the library, with a counter out of 25) and Ticket type defaults.
2

Create the design

Click Create design, enter a Design name such as Support welcome, and click Create design again. The designer opens with a starter message: {ticketTitle} as a heading, {welcomeMessage} under it, and the Claim, Pin, and Close buttons.
3

Build the message

In the preview, add text, separator, gallery, and section blocks to up to three containers. A section is text with a thumbnail image beside it. Each container has an Accent color picker and Container settings with its Allowed mentions. The last container’s settings also hold the Footer. Above the preview, Control Buttons chooses which buttons the message carries and whether they sit Inside container or Outside container. You can also describe the message you want in the Assistant panel and let it build the design for you.
4

Add variables

Click inside a text block where the value should go, open Variables, and pick one. It is inserted at the cursor. With no text block selected, it is copied instead. The preview shows sample values, while the saved message keeps the variable.
5

Save

Click Save changes. Every ticket type and button that uses the design sends the new version in tickets opened from then on.
To change a design later, click Edit on its card in the library. Duplicate copies it as name (copy), and Delete removes it after a confirmation.

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Choosing which tickets use a design

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Set the default for a ticket type

1

Pick the ticket type

In Ticket type defaults, click the tab: Button, Dropdown, Modal, Application, or ModMail.
2

Turn on the custom message

Switch on Enable Custom Welcome Message. While it is off, that ticket type sends the built-in TicketCord message, unless a button has a design of its own.
3

Pick the design

Under Welcome message, choose a design. TicketCord default keeps the built-in message. Create new design… creates a design and sets it as this type’s default. Edit design opens the chosen design in the designer.
4

Save

Click Save changes on the save bar at the bottom of the page.
The card on each design in the library shows where it is used, for example “Default for: Modal, Application”, or “Not attached to any ticket type yet”.

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Give one button, option, form, or application its own design

Open Messaging → Panels & Embeds, open the panel, and click the button or dropdown option. Under When clicked:
  • Ticket: pick the design in Welcome message.
  • Form or Application: expand Routing and pick the design in Welcome message.
Server default uses the ticket type’s default from the Messages tab. Save the panel to apply the change.

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Which welcome message is sent

When a ticket opens, TicketCord uses the first of these that applies:
  1. The design picked in Welcome message on the button, dropdown option, form, or application that opened the ticket. This applies even when the ticket type’s Enable Custom Welcome Message switch is off.
  2. The ticket type’s default on the Messages tab, when Enable Custom Welcome Message is on.
  3. The built-in TicketCord welcome message.
A design that no longer exists is skipped, and TicketCord moves down the list. If a design renders nothing at all, for example because every block held only an empty form answer, the ticket type’s older message or the built-in message is sent instead.

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Settings

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Ticket type defaults (Messages tab)

When a member picks a quick reply, the Response Message is shown only to them.

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Designer

A design’s control buttons replace the ticket type’s own button settings whenever that design is used.

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Panel designer

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Variables

Type variables as {name} or pick them from Variables in the designer. Names are case-sensitive, and a name TicketCord does not know is shown exactly as typed. The Works on column lists the ticket types where a variable has a value. A design that uses a variable outside those types cannot be picked for them. The Variables panel also lists the close message variables, marked “close messages only”, because designs can be used as close messages too. In a welcome message they are shown exactly as typed. When a member’s labeled answers together are longer than 1,000 characters, {description} shows “The full responses are posted below.” and TicketCord posts every answer in full in separate messages right below the welcome message.

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Form answer variables

A form answer variable places one form question’s answer anywhere in a design, for example:
The part after form. identifies the question itself, not its position or its label. You never need to type or know it: you pick the question by its label and TicketCord inserts the right variable.

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Adding a form answer

1

Build the form first

In Panels & Embeds, set a button or dropdown option’s When clicked to Form or Application, add the questions, and save the panel.
2

Open the design

On the Messages tab, click Edit on the design’s card, or Edit design under the ticket type’s picker.
3

Place the cursor

Click in the text block where the answer should go, for example right after **Product:** .
4

Pick the question

Open Variables. The Form answers section at the top lists the server’s forms. Forms that use this design come first and are marked Uses this design, followed by Other forms. Each form shows its title, the panel it is in, and its questions by label. Click a question to insert its variable at the cursor.
5

Check the preview and save

In the designer preview, the variable shows as the question’s label in brackets, such as [Product]. A variable whose question no longer exists shows [Deleted question]. Click Save changes.
Everywhere else on the dashboard, such as the design cards and the ticket type preview, form answer variables show the sample text Form answer. A form counts as using this design when the design is picked in its own Welcome message, or when the form has no design of its own and this design is the default on the Modal tab (or the Application tab, for applications) with Enable Custom Welcome Message on.

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What it shows

Mentions such as @everyone and code block formatting in an answer are shown as plain text, the same as in {description}, so an answer can never ping anyone.

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When it is empty

A form answer variable shows nothing when:
  • The ticket was opened through a form that does not have that question. One design can serve several forms, and each variable only fills from its own question.
  • The question was optional and the member left it blank.
  • The question was deleted from the form.
  • The ticket came from an application built in the old panel editor (see Supported forms).
A text block that contains nothing but an empty variable is left out of the message. Text you wrote around the variable, such as **Product:**, is still shown.

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Reordering, renaming, and deleting questions

Reordering the questions or renaming a question’s label never moves or breaks its variable, and the designer preview shows the new label. Deleting a question makes its variable empty. A new question gets a new variable, even if it has the same label as a deleted one, so insert it again. Duplicating a button that has a form copies the form with the same questions, so one variable fills from either copy. The Form answers list shows each such question once, under the first form.

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Length

All of a ticket’s form answers share 1,000 characters in the welcome message. This counts every answer the member gave, including questions your design does not place. When the answers together fit, each one is shown in full. When they are longer, short answers stay whole, the longest are shortened to the same length and end in ..., and TicketCord posts every answer in full in separate Form responses messages (Application responses for applications) right below the welcome message, so nothing is lost. In the designer, form answer variables count as 1,000 characters toward the message’s 4,000-character text limit, however many different ones you use. Placing the same variable twice counts 2,000, three times 3,000.

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Where they work

Form answer variables only have answers in tickets opened through a form or an application, which are the Modal and Application ticket types. A design that contains one cannot be used:
  • as the default for the Button, Dropdown, or ModMail tab,
  • on a button or dropdown option whose When clicked is Ticket, or
  • as a close message.
Pickers show such a design as “name (incompatible variables)” and do not let you choose it. If the design is already used in one of those places, the Form answers section warns “This design is also used where there are no form answers (another ticket type or a close message), so it cannot be saved with a form answer. Use a separate design for this form.” Duplicate the design and use the copy for the form.

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Supported forms

  • Forms and applications made in the panel designer, on buttons, dropdown options, and section buttons.
  • Older form buttons and dropdown forms from the previous panel editor.
Applications made in the old panel editor do not support form answer variables: they are not listed under Form answers, and their variables are always empty. Rebuild the application in the panel designer by setting When clicked to Application.

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Using the assistant

The Assistant panel in the designer knows your server’s forms and their questions, and prefers the forms that use this design. Ask it, for example, to “show the Product answer under a heading” and it inserts the matching form answer variable.

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What happens when a ticket opens

  1. The member opens a ticket. TicketCord picks the welcome message in the order described in Which welcome message is sent.
  2. Variables are filled in. Form answers are made safe to display and shortened if they pass the 1,000-character budget.
  3. The welcome message is posted. Staff pings configured for the ticket appear above it, then your containers, the control buttons, the quick replies dropdown, and the AI Help button when AI Help for Staff is on. ModMail tickets also get Alert, Subscribe, and Mute buttons. On Free, a “Powered by TicketCord.com” line is added at the bottom.
  4. TicketCord pins the welcome message, when the bot has permission to.
  5. For forms and applications, answers that were too long for the welcome message follow in full in Form responses or Application responses messages.
  6. Files from file upload questions are posted in the ticket after that.
If the finished message would pass Discord’s 4,000-character limit, the longest text blocks are shortened so the message can still be sent.

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Limits and gotchas

  • 25 designs per server. Designs cannot be renamed: duplicate the design, point your ticket types and buttons at the copy, and delete the original.
  • Size. Up to 3 containers, 10 items per container, and 4,000 characters of text across the whole message. A design can hold at most 28 components, counting containers, every block, and its control buttons, because TicketCord keeps the rest of Discord’s 40 for the pings, avatar, and buttons it adds when the ticket opens.
  • {separator} only works in text blocks. Inside a section it is shown exactly as typed.
  • The member is only pinged where the design says so. Include {user}, or {welcomeMessage}, which contains a mention. Unticking User mentions in Allowed mentions never stops the ping for the member or the staff pings TicketCord adds.
  • Changes apply to new tickets. Welcome messages already posted do not change.
  • Images must be HTTPS links on a supported image host, such as Discord’s CDN, Imgur, GitHub, Cloudinary, or Unsplash, or be uploaded in the designer (PNG, JPEG, GIF, or WebP, up to 8 MB). Other links are rejected when you save.
  • Footer text is Enterprise only. Saving a design on a lower plan removes its footer text.
  • Deleting a design. Ticket types that used it go back to their default message. Buttons keep the name, shown as “name (deleted)” in the panel designer, and use the ticket type default until you pick another design or create one with the same name.
A design shows form answers only where you place {description} or form answer variables. It never adds them on its own, and the Include form answers switch does not apply to designs. If a design used for forms has neither, staff do not see the answers in the welcome message. This also applies after you Convert to a design from a legacy message.

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Troubleshooting

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Common questions

How do I show just one form answer, like the product name, in the welcome message? Open the design in the designer, click in a text block, open Variables, and pick the question under Form answers. Its form answer variable is inserted at the cursor and shows only that question’s answer when a ticket opens through that form. Why is my form answer variable blank in some tickets? It only fills in tickets opened through the form that has that question, and only when the member answered it. Tickets from another form sharing the design, skipped optional questions, and deleted questions all leave it empty. Can several forms share one welcome message design? Yes. Place form answer variables from each form. Each ticket fills in the variables for the form it was opened through, and the others stay empty and are left out when they are alone in a text block. What happens to the variable if I reorder, rename, or delete a question? Reordering and renaming never break it, because the variable is tied to the question itself. Deleting the question makes the variable empty, and the designer preview shows [Deleted question]. Why was a long answer cut off with ”…”? All of a ticket’s form answers share 1,000 characters in the welcome message. When they are longer, the longest are shortened, and every answer is posted in full in Form responses messages right below the welcome message. Can I use a form answer variable on a normal Ticket button or in ModMail? No. Those tickets have no form answers, so the dashboard does not let you use a design with form answer variables there, or as a close message. Use a separate design for your forms. How do I give one button its own welcome message? In Panels & Embeds, click the button and pick a design in Welcome message. For a form or application, it is under Routing. It overrides the ticket type’s default even when Enable Custom Welcome Message is off. Do I need a paid plan for custom welcome messages? No. Designs work on every plan. Free adds a “Powered by TicketCord.com” line, the quick replies dropdown and applications need Basic or higher, and custom footer text needs Enterprise.

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