Frequently asked questions

General

What is Mellow?

Mellow is an AI-powered mental health companion for Discord: supportive conversation, mood tracking, coping tools, and crisis screening, with a tone that adapts to your preferences and time of day.

Is Mellow a replacement for therapy?

No. Mellow is not a substitute for professional mental health care. It offers support, coping tools, and crisis resources, but not diagnosis or treatment. Always consult qualified mental health professionals for serious concerns.

How do I invite Mellow to my server?

Use the invite link. You can add it to a server, or install it as a user app for DMs. It only requests messaging permissions.

What commands does Mellow support?

See the

for the full list.

How much does Mellow cost?

Mellow is free to use.

Does Mellow need privileged intents?

No. Mellow runs with zero privileged intents. It cannot read your members' messages; it only sees DMs, messages that mention or reply to it, and text you give it through a command or the "Check on this message" context menu.

Privacy and data

Is my data private?

Yes. Mellow stores the minimum needed for its features. Sensitive fields (conversation content, check-in notes, ghost letters, journal entries, crisis details, feedback, reports) are encrypted per-field with AES-256-GCM. See the Privacy Policy and

.

What is context logging and should I enable it?

Context logging lets Mellow use your recent conversation history for more continuous responses. Turn it off with /preferences set context_logging:false.

Can I see what Mellow remembers about me?

Yes. /context view shows how much context is stored and your privacy settings.

How do I delete my data?

/context clear deletes your stored conversation history. Adjust what is kept going forward with /preferences set. For full account deletion, contact the team via the support server or [email protected].

What data does Mellow collect?

Only what its features need: your preferences, mood check-ins, coping tool usage, conversation history (if context logging is on), ghost letters, journal entries, and crisis events (if crisis detection is on).

Features

What is late-night companion mode?

It activates based on the timezone you set in /preferences set or /timemode, and gives calmer responses during late hours. Check your current mode with /timemode.

How does crisis screening work?

Mellow classifies text you share as none, low, medium, high, or critical concern. For high or critical results it leads with a fixed, reviewed safety message plus hotline resources. It runs on /crisis analyze, the "Check on this message" context menu, DMs, and messages that mention or reply to Mellow. Screening your own messages automatically is opt-in (/preferences set crisis_detection:true).

What coping tools are available?

/coping provides breathing, grounding, affirmations, challenge, distraction, music, gratitude, journal, plan, streaks, and toolbox.

How do mood check-ins work?

/checkin mood: intensity: activity: note: logs your current mood (25+ options) with a 1-5 intensity. View trends with /insights and your activity with /profile.

Can I customize how Mellow responds?

Yes. /preferences set personality: accepts gentle, supportive, direct, playful, professional, or encouraging.

What are ghost letters?

Private unsent letters only you can read. Use /ghostletter write:.

Can I set custom check-in intervals?

Yes. /preferences set checkin_interval: takes a number of minutes.

Server management

How do I set up Mellow for my server?

1. Invite Mellow.
2. /guildsettings view to see defaults.
3. /guildsettings set to configure channels and features.
4. /guildcontext to set guild-wide AI context.

What permissions does Mellow need?

Send Messages, Use Application Commands, Embed Links, Attach Files, Add Reactions, Read Message History, Use External Emojis. Nothing else. Mellow does not use moderation permissions.

Does Mellow moderate my server?

No. Mellow is not a moderation bot. It has no auto-moderation, keyword filtering, or ban/kick/timeout commands. Its only server-safety features are optional crisis alerts and optional system logs.

Can I disable certain features?

Yes. /guildsettings set toggles check_ins, ghost_letters, crisis_alerts, system_logs, and context_logging per server.

Technical support

Bot not responding to commands?

• Check Mellow has Send Messages and Use Application Commands in the channel.
• Try the command in a DM to isolate server-specific issues.
• See the
  Troubleshooting guide

  Troubleshooting

  Solutions to common issues with Mellow.

  .

How do I get help?

• /support in Discord for resources, /help for commands.
• Support server.
• GitHub issues.
• [email protected].

Can I contribute?

Yes. Mellow is open source (Go). See the

.

AI and personalization

How does the personality system work?

Six styles set with /preferences set personality: - gentle, supportive, direct, playful, professional, encouraging.

Does the AI remember our conversations?

Only if context logging is on. /context view shows what is stored; /context clear deletes it.

How does timezone awareness work?

Set your timezone with /preferences set timezone: or /timemode. Mellow then adjusts its tone by time of day and schedules reminders in your local time.

Crisis and emergency

What should I do in a crisis?

If you are in immediate danger: call your local emergency number (911 in the US, 999 in the UK), or go to the nearest emergency room.

For mental health crises: use /crisis resources, contact a mental health professional, or reach out to trusted people. In the US, call or text 988. For other countries, see the international helpline directory.

Is Mellow available at all times?

Mellow is designed to be available around the clock, but it is not a replacement for emergency services. In life-threatening situations, always contact emergency services.

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Still have questions?

Browse the documentation, join the support server, or contact [email protected].