Create a category in Discourse

documentation admins
,
1

In this short how-to guide, you will learn how to create a category in Discourse. Categories are meant to hold a collection of topics that have similar subject matter. They include an abundance of configuration options you won’t find with the lighter-weight tagging feature.

By default, category creation is limited to admin users. Moderators can be given the ability to create categories by enabling the moderators manage categories and groups site setting.

There are 3 ways to start the category creation process:

  1. Open the hamburger menu at the top-right part of your screen and select the Categories option:

    image
    image597×842 44.6 KB

  2. Select the Categories navigation link above your home page/Latest topic list:

    image
    image851×302 21.5 KB

  3. Navigate to /categories aka your-site.com/categories directly


On the Categories page, select the :wrench: button near the upper-right of the page then select the :heavy_plus_sign: New Category option to start:

image

This should open the category creation page where you can create and configure your new category:

image
image1302×968 48 KB

The following two guides are particularly relevant when getting started with categories:

  1. How to create private categories using category security settings - control which user groups have the ability to see, create, and reply to topics in the category.

  2. How to reorder / adjust category listings and set fixed category positions - understand how to arrange your categories on the main Categories page (especially useful when the Categories page is set as your home page)


Creating a subcategory:

Creating a subcategory is similar to creating a category, just with an extra step. These steps will start from the Categories page using any of the methods listed above.

  1. On the Categories page, select the :wrench: icon and choose New Category.
  2. Enter the name for your subcategory.
  3. Under Parent Category select the category you’d like your subcategory to be nested under.
  4. Edit the category settings like the badge color, which groups can see/reply/or create posts, logo, etc.
  5. Save the changes

:exclamation: Any group that is allowed to access a subcategory must also be allowed to access the parent category

Last Reviewed by @tshenry on 2022-08-24T01:00:00Z

10 Likes