Handle Discord's channel obfuscation change (announced 2026-08-12, mandatory for all bots 2026-11-16) when listing or reading guild channels as a bot

Documented steps

1. Audit every place your bot enumerates or caches channels: GET /guilds/{guild.id}/channels over HTTP, and GUILD_CREATE / Channel Create / Channel Update payloads over the Gateway.
2. Know the new behavior: over HTTP, GET /guilds/{guild.id}/channels omits channels the bot cannot view entirely; over the Gateway, unviewable channels are still dispatched but with sensitive fields obfuscated - name becomes '___hidden___', sensitive fields are nulled or reduced, and permission_overwrites collapses to a single overwrite denying VIEW_CHANNEL for @everyone.
3. Detect obfuscated channels via the new CHANNEL_OBFUSCATED flag (1 << 17) on the channel's flags field instead of matching on the '___hidden___' name string.
4. Test before the deadline: opt in early by sending capability 1 << 15 in the Identify payload's capabilities field, or enable the 'Private Channel Obfuscation' toggle in the Discord developer portal for your app.
5. Handle access grants: when the bot gains VIEW_CHANNEL on a previously obfuscated channel, Discord dispatches a Channel Update event with full unobfuscated data - refresh your cache from that event rather than re-fetching everything.
6. Migration deadline: the behavior becomes mandatory for all bots on November 16, 2026. Official entry: https://docs.discord.com/developers/change-log ('Channel Obfuscation for Users and Bots', August 12, 2026).