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Summary | Auto-fills the title of a new topic with a configurable timestamp (default YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss) the moment the composer opens. |
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Preview | Theme Creator |
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Repository | GitHub - andysmith-ai/discourse-auto-timestamp-title · GitHub |
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Install Guide | How to install a theme or theme component |
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New to Discourse Themes? | Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes |
Install this theme component
Automatically fills the title field of a new topic with a timestamp as soon as the composer opens, so you never have to invent a name for a quick note. The format is configurable, and by default it only touches an empty title.
It fires only when you start a new topic — replies and edits are left alone. You can still edit or clear the title afterwards.
Settings:
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
title_format |
YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss |
Pattern for the generated title. |
overwrite_existing_title |
false |
Overwrite a title you’ve already typed. When off, the timestamp is only inserted while the title is empty. |
use_utc |
false |
Use UTC instead of the visitor’s local browser time. |
Format tokens (moment-style, case-sensitive): YYYY MM DD HH mm ss. Any other characters are kept literally — e.g. YYYYMMDDHHmmss → 20260723153000.
Note: Discourse’s default min topic title length is 15 characters. The default format above is 19 chars, so it works out of the box. If you pick a shorter pattern like YYYYMMDDHHmmss (14 chars), lower that site setting to match, otherwise the bare timestamp will fail validation on its own.
I can see this being super useful for diary-type categories, but it could really use a category restriction setting so it doesn’t run everywhere. Could you add an option for that when you have time?