This guide explains how Discourse tags work, how to configure tag settings, and how to manage tags across your site.
Required user level: Administrator
Managing tags in Discourse
Tags in Discourse provide a powerful way to organize and filter content beyond categories. This guide covers everything administrators need to know about configuring and managing tags.
Summary
- Configure tag settings in your admin panel
- Create, manage, and bulk modify tags
- Set up automatic tagging
- Use tag groups to organize related tags
Configuring tag settings
Tag settings can be found in your admin panel under the “Categories and Tags” area of your site settings.
Tagging is enabled by default. To disable tags, uncheck the tagging_enabled setting.
Key tag settings include:
- Maximum tags per topic (
max_tags_per_topic) - Maximum tag length (
max_tag_length) - Groups allowed to create tags (
create_tag_allowed_groups) - Groups allowed to tag topics (
tag_topic_allowed_groups) - Groups allowed to edit tags (
edit_tags_allowed_groups) - Maximum tag search results (
max_tag_search_results) - Tag sorting options (
tags_sort_alphabetically)
Creating and applying tags
Tags are created upon first usage. When composing or editing a topic, a user with tag creation privileges will see a tag chooser next to the category chooser.
Tags can also be adjusted when quick editing a topic title:
Categories, depending on their settings, can optionally limit which tags may be applied to topics in that category.
Filtering topics by tags
You can find the full list of tags on the /tags page on your site, along with a count of how often each tag has been used. Selecting a tag will present a list of topics that have had the tag applied.
To filter topics by more than one tag at the same time, use the following URL syntax:
https://discourse.example.com/tags/intersection/TAG1/TAG2
Managing individual tags
To manage a specific tag:
- Go to the
/tagspage on your site - Select the tag you would like to manage
- Select the wrench icon button to reveal options to rename, delete, and manage synonyms
Bulk managing tags
To modify tags across multiple topics at once:
- Visit any topic list filtered by tag
- Press the list icon bulk-select button at the top left of the topic list
- Manually select topics or use the “Select All” option
- Use the wrench icon admin button that appears at the top-right of the topic list to open the Bulk Actions modal
- Choose from three tag options:
- Replace Tags - replace all existing tags with new ones
- Append Tags - add new tags while keeping existing tags
- Remove Tags - remove all existing tags
Advanced tag administration
Go to the /tags page and look for the tag admin button in the upper-right corner, or navigate directly to /tag_groups:
From here you can:
- Manage tag groups
- Upload tags in bulk
- Delete unused tags
Auto-tagging topics with watched words
The watched words feature can automatically tag topics based on specified words appearing in the content.
To set this up:
- Navigate to
/admin/customize/watched_words/action/tag - Add words or phrases that should trigger specific tags
This feature will not apply tags retroactively to existing topics.
Important considerations
- Tags apply to topics, not to individual posts within topics
- When users type something like #tagname in a post, they are creating a link to that tag, not applying the tag to their post
- Tag groups can be used to restrict which groups of users can use specific tags
Related Topics
- Tag Icons
- Discourse Popular Tag Sidebar
- Tag Banners
- Discourse Tag Sidebars
- Administrative Bulk Operations
Last edited by @jessii 2025-05-21T22:45:48Z
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