# Creating a link to start a new topic with pre-filled information
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/creating-a-link-to-start-a-new-topic-with-pre-filled-information/28074
**Category:** Using Discourse
**Tags:** how-to
**Created:** [April 29, 2015, 8:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/creating-a-link-to-start-a-new-topic-with-pre-filled-information/28074 "2015-04-29T08:13:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Discourse)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2015, 8:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/creating-a-link-to-start-a-new-topic-with-pre-filled-information/28074/1 "2015-04-29T08:13:45Z")
> đ This documentation explains how to create a link that starts a new topic in Discourse with pre-filled information.
>
> đ Required user level: All users
Sometimes you may want to provide users with a link that opens a new topic composer with certain information pre-filled. This can be useful for various use cases including bug report templates, feature requests, or standardized posts.
## Constructing the URL
### Base URL
To compose a new pre-filled topic with no extra information, you append `/new-topic` to your site URL, like so:
```plaintext
https://discourse.example.com/new-topic
```
Clicking on this will open up a blank new topic composer for any logged-in user (if not logged-in, youâll be prompted to signin/signup before then opening the composer).
### Additional Parameters
While a link to open a blank composer can sometimes be useful, the main strength of this feature is the ability to pre-fill the composer with extra information.
To do this, you can add parameters to the base URL:
```plaintext
https://discourse.example.com/new-topic?title=topic%20title&body=topic%20body&category=category/subcategory&tags=email,planned
```
This will open a composer window pre-filled with topic title, body, category and tags.
Breaking down the link / URL to show the available options, we have:
- **Base URL** : `https://discourse.example.com/new-topic`
- The `?` URL operator to add the different options
- **Topic title** : `title=topic%20title`
- The `&`, used each time when including another parameter
- **Body** : `body=topic%20body`
- The **category** and **subcategory** separated by a slash `/` if you want to include them: `category=category/subcategory`
- The **tags** separated by comma(s) `,` if you want to include multiple tags: `tags=email,planned`
Each of the parameters is optional and can be mix and matched depending on your desired end result.
As an alternative to using the category/subcategory name, you can specify a numeric `category_id` instead, like:
```plaintext
https://meta.discourse.org/new-topic?title=topic%20title&category_id=3
```
## Example
You can try this here on Meta:
```plaintext
https://meta.discourse.org/new-topic?title=topic%20title&body=topic%20body&category=support/wordpress&tags=wordpress
```
[https://meta.discourse.org/new-topic?title=topic%20title&body=topic%20body&category=support/wordpress&tags=wordpress](https://meta.discourse.org/new-topic?title=topic%20title&body=topic%20body&category=support/wordpress&tags=wordpress)
> â Though please donât actually create the topic đ For a more hands-on explore of the feature use our demo site, [try.discourse.org](http://try.discourse.org)
## Using Browser DevTools
Open the browser console (F12 â Console) and use the built-in `URLSearchParams` to build the URL â it handles all percent-encoding automatically:
```plaintext
const base = 'https://discourse.example.com/new-topic';
const url = base + '?' + new URLSearchParams({
title: 'My topic title',
body: `Body text here...
supports multi line`,
category: 'support',
tags: 'bug,urgent'
});
console.log(url); // copy this url
```
## Using a pre-filled URL with Featured Links
This feature also supports [Featured Links](https://meta.discourse.org/t/start-a-topic-by-pasting-a-link-like-reddit/54071), provided that the body parameter is not also included.
> âš The URL must be URL encoded for the link to work.
For example, to create a topic with the following URL `https://www.xkcd.com/556`, the link will be:
```plaintext
https://meta.discourse.org/new-topic?title=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.xkcd.com%2F556
```
## Best Practices
- w3Schools [HTML URL Encoding Reference](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.ASP) is a good resource to find what text characters are encoded as in the URL. If you have a lot of text to add, there is also a text-to-URL converter in the âTry It Yourselfâ section.
- Always URL encode the parameters to avoid issues with special characters.
- If youâre unsure about the category ID, you can check it by looking at the number in the category URL. (eg. [https://meta.discourse.org/c/documentation/using-discourse/126](https://meta.discourse.org/c/documentation/using-discourse/126))
- Test the pre-filled links to ensure they work as expected.
> âš It is not currently possible to have a pre-filled link that opens a composer to reply to a specific topic.
## Additional Resources
- [Creating pre-filled personal message links](https://meta.discourse.org/t/compose-a-new-pre-filled-personal-message-via-url/35984)
> Last edited by @sam 2026-03-18T04:18:54Z
>
> > **Check document**
> >
> > Perform check on document:
---
### Author:  [@supermathie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/supermathie)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/creating-a-link-to-start-a-new-topic-with-pre-filled-information/28074/52 "2024-09-10T19:48:05Z")
There is a LOT of technical heavy lifting happening here that makes this a little unacceptable to mortals; I bet we could make a âhelperâ webpage that allowed people to generate these links easily.
The equivalent of this might be a nifty little project for someone to implement:
```python
import urllib
site = 'meta.discourse.org'
title = '''My special checklist'''
category = 'todo'
tags = ['tag1', 'tag2']
template = '''\
# Important!
Do these things:
[] thing one
[] thing two
'''
query = urllib.parse.urlencode(dict(
title = title,
category = category,
tags = ','.join(tags),
body = template,
))
print(f'https://{site}/new-topic?{query}')
```
prints [this link](https://meta.discourse.org/new-topic?title=My+special+checklist&category=todo&tags=tag1%2Ctag2&body=%23+Important%21%0A%0ADo+these+things%3A%0A%0A%5B+%5D+thing+one%0A%5B+%5D+thing+two%0A)
---
### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2024, 10:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/creating-a-link-to-start-a-new-topic-with-pre-filled-information/28074/55 "2024-10-16T10:48:06Z")
Thanks for the idea! It inspired me to create [Prefilled composer link generator](https://meta.discourse.org/t/prefilled-composer-link-generator/326460)
---
### Author:  [@supermathie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/supermathie)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/creating-a-link-to-start-a-new-topic-with-pre-filled-information/28074/56 "2024-10-16T16:40:30Z")
Oh! Thatâs a great implementation idea. Good work!
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2026, 4:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/creating-a-link-to-start-a-new-topic-with-pre-filled-information/28074/57 "2026-03-18T04:20:35Z")
6 posts were split to a new topic: [Support creating pre-filled topic links](https://meta.discourse.org/t/support-creating-pre-filled-topic-links/398695)