# Let staff claim tickets (/tickets/claiming)







Claiming lets one staff member take a ticket as theirs, so two people do not answer the same member. They press **Claim** on the ticket's welcome message, or use `/ticket claim`. Each panel decides whether claiming is on and what it does to the rest of the team.

<Steps>
  <Step>
    ### Open the panel [#open-the-panel]

    Open your [dashboard](https://tickety.top/dashboard) and pick your server. In the sidebar, under **Tickets**, click **Ticket Panels**, then click the panel.

        <img alt="A panel on the Ticket Panels page" src="__img0" />
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ### Turn claiming on and pick what it does [#turn-claiming-on-and-pick-what-it-does]

    On the **General** tab, scroll to **Ticket Settings**.

        <img alt="Claiming System and Ticket Visibility" src="__img1" />

    1. Under **Claiming**, make sure **Claiming System** is on. It is on to start with.
    2. Open **Ticket Visibility** and pick what happens to the others once someone claims a ticket:
       * **Support Team keeps full access to the ticket**: nothing changes for anyone.
       * **Only the claimer has access to the ticket**: support roles and the admin role are removed from the ticket. This is the default.
       * **Support Team can view the ticket but not write in it**: support roles and the admin role can still read, but not write.

    When the ticket is unclaimed, everyone gets full access back. In a panel using **Threading Mode**, this setting does nothing: threads cannot change access.
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ### Save [#save]

    Press **Save Changes** in the bar at the bottom of the page. Visibility applies to the next claim, even on tickets that are already open.
  </Step>
</Steps>

The **Claim** button also has its own switch, on the **Messages** tab. See [Change the close, claim and request close buttons](/tickets/ticket-buttons).

## Limit how many tickets one staff member can claim [#limit-how-many-tickets-one-staff-member-can-claim]

This limit is for the whole server and counts open tickets from every panel together.

1. In the sidebar, under **Tickets**, click **Configuration**, then click **General Settings**.
2. Under **General Settings**, set **Max Claimed Tickets per Staff Member**: how many open tickets one staff member can have claimed at the same time. It starts at 0, no limit. The most you can save is 100.
3. Press **Save Changes** in the bar at the bottom of the page.

A staff member at the limit must close or unclaim one of their tickets before they can claim another. The limit applies to the **Claim** button, `/ticket claim` and the **Claim** button on the dashboard's ticket management page. An automation that claims a ticket for someone at the limit skips that step.

## It did not work? [#it-did-not-work]

<Accordions>
  <Accordion title="Claiming Disabled">
    "Claiming is disabled for this panel." **Claiming System** is off. Turning it off also stops the Claim buttons already sitting in open tickets.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Already Claimed">
    Someone else has the ticket, or you already claimed it. If it is yours, you get an **Unclaim** button to hand it back.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Claimed by Someone Else">
    Only the claimer can unclaim. Members with the admin role or Manage Channels get a **Force Unclaim** button instead.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Claim Limit Reached">
    You already have as many claimed tickets open as **Max Claimed Tickets per Staff Member** allows. Close or unclaim one of them, or ask an admin to raise the limit.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Not Claimed">
    You pressed unclaim on a ticket nobody has claimed.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="You need one of the following to access this feature">
    Only staff can claim: the admin role, this panel's support roles, or members with Manage Channels.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Missing Permissions when claiming">
    To change who can see the ticket, Tickety needs Manage Channels and Manage Roles in the ticket channel.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="New tickets have no Claim button">
    The **Claim Button** switch on the **Messages** tab is off.
  </Accordion>
</Accordions>