Hi everyone, I want to enforce a rule in my Discourse forum where, for a specific category only, users must attach a particular tag when creating a topic. Users can attach any number of tags, but one specific tag must be present; otherwise, the topic creation should be blocked with an error message…

I’m fairly sure you can do this with built-in tools. In the category settings, look at: [CleanShot 2025-08-25 at 13.21.39@2x] So you just need to make a tag-group, add the tag you want, and then select that group in the category you want it to be required.

Hi, I followed the steps. I created a Tag Group and added a single tag to it. In the category settings, under Tags > Required tag group, I selected this tag group. My expectation is: when creating a new topic in this category, at least one tag from the required tag group should be mandatory. …

@S.AAKASH_MUTHIAH Okay so it turns out this restriction does not apply to admins… So at least it’s working as expected for normal users, I’ve tested it and can confirm. We’re discussing internally how we will improve this further, either by applying it globally or making this behaviour at least c…

I personally would rather it not apply globally, the point of Admins is supposed to be you can override anything and this would make it impossible to override this specific thing. Unless you add a way to get around that, which just seems like a lot more work than leaving it as is. I mean Admins can…

@S.AAKASH_MUTHIAH were you able to resolve your issue? I think @chapoi ’s advice works for your use case. You just have to remember that you as admin are not impacted by it, as you are not impacted by other restrictions for non-admins.

How to enforce a required tag for topic creation in a specific category via theme JS (Blackout theme)?

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chapoi August 26, 2025, 8:53am 4

I think you’re right and you have uncovered a bug. I’m pinging the relevant team!

Topic		Replies	Views
Required tags should only be required based on type of user UX tags , tag-groups	11	150	December 27, 2025
Remove optional tag UX	9	1237	October 11, 2020
Topic can be created without tags despite category requiring tags Bug tags , tag-groups	4	120	September 24, 2025
The option to enforce tagging Feature	16	6078	April 11, 2018
Category with restricted tags now required for admins? Support	8	790	May 29, 2020

How to enforce a required tag for topic creation in a specific category via theme JS (Blackout theme)?

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