This guide introduces Discourse theme components, and how to use ready-made ones to customize your site
Required user level: Administrator
Theme components are customizations that change surface elements of your forum design or add extra front-end features. Smaller and more targeted than full themes, they can generally (though not always) be combined with other theme components to create a bespoke forum design tailored for your community.
While it is more than possible to create your own custom theme components if you have the required skills, it’s much easier to use the existing ones whenever you can. You can change which columns are included in your topic lists, add extra navigation options, have a customizable banner, or even include a nifty dice-roller for your community to use in their game topics. We have a whole host of official ones maintained by the Discourse team as well as a category full of community-contributed ones as well, so there’s a lot to choose from. 
Here are our official ones to get you started:
Official Theme Components
These are the theme components maintained by the Discourse team - Official Theme Components
Topic List
- Add Category Column
- Add Likes Column
- Avatar Size and Shape
- Clickable Topic
- Featured Tiles
- Halloween Decorations 👻
- Hide Users Column
- Homepage Feature
- Show Original Poster Avatars
- Topic Author
- Topic Cards
- Topic List Excerpts
- Topic List Thumbnails
Right Sidebar
Categories
- Categories Tag Column
- Categories Tracking Toggle
- Category Banners
- Category Badge Styles
- Category Groups
- Category Icons
- Colorful Categories
- Custom Category Boxes
- Follow Category Button
- Gated Topics in Category
- Group Categories Page Override
- Hide Muted Categories
- Showcased Categories
- Topic Count in Category Boxes
Tags
Header and Footer
- Brand Header
- Custom Header Links
- Custom Header Links (icons)
- Easy Responsive Footer
- Header Submenus
- New Topic Header Button
- Thin Header
- Custom Logo Link
Navigation and Filters
- Compact Navigation
- Custom Top Navigation Links
- Header Categories Navbar
- Topic Status Filter
- Unanswered Filter
Banners
Search
Login and Signup
Users
Posts
- Auto-Linkify Words
- Change the Like Icon to 👍
- DiscoTOC - automatic table of contents
- Discourse Gifs
- Discourse Icon
- Discourse Mermaid
- Discourse OrgChart
- Discourse svgbob
- Inline PDF Previews
- Insert Video
- Placeholder Forms
- Raw Post Button
- Remove Name Suppression on Posts
- Reply Template
- Scrollable Post Content
- Share Link Shortener
- Social Share
Code and Codeblocks
- Codeblock Theme Picker
- Custom Code
- Customized Inline Codeblocks
- GitHub Status Indicators
- Unformatted Code Detector
Extra Features
Developer Tools
Other
- Add To Home Screen (iOS, iPadOS)
- Customize new topic button text
- Dark/Light Mode Toggle
- Discourse Docs Card Filter
- Google Fonts
- New PM Dropdown Button
- Optional Mobile Title Header
- Sidebar Theme Toggle
- Status Page (Atlassian)
- Topic Footer Buttons
You can also find lots more community-created theme components in our theme-component category.
Make sure you have a browse and see everything that’s available.
Last edited by @JammyDodger 2024-07-16T12:25:01Z
Last checked by @hugh 2024-09-13T06:20:57Z
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