Discourse Automation

[Discourse]

This plugin is now bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately.

	Summary	Discourse Automation lets you automate actions through scripts and triggers. Customisation is made through an automatically generated UI.
	Repository Link	https://github.com/discourse/discourse-automation
	Install Guide	How to install plugins in Discourse

As this is an official plugin maintained by the Discourse team, support, bug, ux, and feature requests can be made in the respective categories here on Meta, and tagged with the appropriate plugin tag. Click on a link below to get one started.

 Support  Bug  UX  Feature

Features

• Easy automation of complex workflows
• Triggers automations at specific dates, periodically, or on specific events
• Provides automatically generated UIs to specify options for your automation

Configuration

Automations can be created and updated from Admin → Plugins → Automations, or directly from /admin/plugins/discourse-automation.

Available scripts

Guide	Script	Trigger(s)	Description
	Add user to group through custom field	Recurring First logged on	Adds a user to a group based on a Custom User Field
	Append last checked by	After post cook	Adds a ‘last checked by’ function to the bottom of the OP
	Append last edited by	After post cook	Adds a ‘last edited by’ note to the bottom of the OP
	Auto Responder	Post edited/created PM created	Given a series of keywords and associated replies, automatically respond with the corresponding reply
	Auto Tag topic	Post created/edited PM created	Automatically tag a topic
	Close topic	Point in time Stalled wiki	Automatically close a topic
	Create Post	Recurring Point in time	Creates a post
	Flag post on Words	Post edited/created	Flag a topic on creation/edition if it contains specific words
	Gift Exchange	Point in time	Simple implementation of the Secret Santa game
	Group Category Notification Default	Category created/edited	Automatically sets a group notification level for newly created subcategories
	Make banner topic	Point in time	Convert a topic into a banner notice
	Pin Topic	Point in time	Pin and Unpin a topic in the future
	Random Assign (Assign)	Point in time Recurring	Randomly Assign a topic
	Schedule a PM with data explorer results (Data Explorer)	Recurring	Send a regular PM with the results of a data explorer query
	Send Chat message (Chat)	Event started Recurring	Sends a Chat message to a Channel
	Send PMs	First accepted solution (Solved) User badge granted User added to group Stalled wiki Recurring User promoted API call User removed from group	Send PMs with support for placeholders
	Suspend User By Email	API call	Suspend a user for a specified duration
	Topic required words	Topic	Enforce the presence of at least one of the specified words in the posts of a topic
	Triage posts using AI (Official Discourse AI Plugin)	Post created/edited	Enhance the management and moderation of forum posts by automating the process of classifying posts
	User Global Notice	Stalled topic First accepted solution (Solved)	Displays a global notice on the site for a specific user
	User Group Membership through Badge	Recurring User first logged in	Automatically add users to a group based on their earned badges
	Zapier webhook	User promoted User added to group User badge granted User removed from group	Calls a Zapier webhook

Available triggers

Note that due to their nature, each script only supports certain triggers. For example it wouldn’t make sense for a script enforcing the content of a post to trigger when a user is added to a group.

All of the available triggers are mentioned in the “Available scripts” table above.

Most of the triggers are self-explanatory, but here are a couple that may need a little more detail:

Trigger	Description
After post cook	Triggers after a post is rendered for display
API Call	Triggers when a certain API endpoint is called
Stalled wiki	Triggers when a wiki hasn’t been edited for a while
Stalled topic	Triggers when a topic has not received replies after a certain time
Topic	Triggers when a reply is made to a topic

If you need any clarification on any others please feel free to ask below.

More scripts and triggers to come!

Custom Automations

You can also create custom Automations. Check out our developer’s guide for more information - Create custom Automations

Hosted by us? This plugin is available on our Business and Enterprise plans. Automation | Discourse - Civilized Discussion

[JammyDodger]

Just to note, I’ve updated the OP with a table of all the existing Automations and their accompanying triggers.

(I’m also hoping to add more guides too, as the one for ‘Add user to group…’ looks a bit lonely all by itself )

---

There are a couple more walkthroughs added for 'Append last edited by' Automation and 'Append last checked by' Automation.

And a brand new script, User Group Membership through Badges. That one is pretty hot off the press so if you try it out, let us know how you get on.

[Jagster (Jakke Lehtonen)]

Now I feel myself very very… not stupid, but close. Where can I build up automations? Under plugins I can only enable or disable Automation.

[simon]

After enabling the plugin, you should see new item here:

It might require refreshing the page to see it.

[Jagster (Jakke Lehtonen)]

Aaand now I feel myself really stupid

Thanks.

[simon]

I’ve been stuck on that one before

Replies to this topic should probably get set to auto delete after 30 days. At least this reply should.

[JammyDodger]

@simon

Replies to this topic should probably get set to auto delete after 30 days. At least this reply should.

We no longer do that for official plugin topics. Too much good information has been lost to the topic timers. We now curate them manually and split any significant discussions into separate tagged topics (as well as encourage people to start separate topics to begin with).

[JammyDodger]

Discourse Automation has now been bundled with Discourse core, so this plugin will no longer need to be installed separately.

Hosted by us? This change will not affect you in any way. If you are on the Business or Enterprise plans, you can continue to enjoy this plugin and not worry about a thing.

[mattdm (Matthew Miller)]

Is there an automation script that can change Category? I’d like to use it to make a more flexible “Schedule Publishing” system.

I’m imaging that the script would

• run periodically, and
• check for topics in a given category which have some marker in a reply (like, marked as solved or reply contains certain text, like “PUBLISH”).
• If the date of that reply (or “solved” status) is longer ago than a given offset (like, yesterday, or a week),
• delete all replies
• move to given category
• optionally, add configurable tags

A more sophisticated version might look for a date/time in the trigger reply, and publish if it is now after that date/time.

It also might look for the target category in that post (with script config for allowed target categories). And for that matter, tags.

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

This is doable, but nothing like this exists at the moment.

[patrickemin]

@joffreyjaffeux

Stalled wiki Triggers when a wiki hasn’t been edited for a while

Hi, I do not understand the use case for this trigger. It seems to be able to send a PM, but to who? Since a Wiki can be edited by several users. Thanks.

[joffreyjaffeux]

You decide in the UI who is going to receive the PM.

[Heliosurge (Dan DeMontmorency)]

Is there a way to create a custom script?

This topic the person is looking for a way to have PMs require moderation.

Is it possible to moderate all personal messages sent between users?

Hello, I was wondering if it’s possible to moderate all private messages sent between users on discourse? Thank you!

So I would imagine

• Trigger Create PM
• Automated flagging for review.

[JammyDodger]

@Heliosurge

Is there a way to create a custom script?

I believe so:

@Discourse

Custom Automations

You can also create custom Automations. Check out our developer’s guide for more information - Create custom Automations

Though it would require some dev skills.

[Heliosurge (Dan DeMontmorency)]

That is quite cool. Imagine the Op in topic I linked might consider sponsoring a script depending on how strongly they need that functionality.

Thanks Jammy for the speedy response. As always a wealth of knowledge.

[patrickemin]

@Discourse

Adds a user to a group based on a Custom User Field

Hi, I don’t get how this one is working, I have a custom user field which can take two values Yes or No (drop down). But when creating the automation I am asked only the name of the custom field, not its value. How do I trigger the automation to add this user to the group if I cannot test the value of the custom field? Thanks.

[Moin]

The value of the custom field has to match the group name. So if your question is “what do you like more?” And your answers are “dogs” and “cats”, the full names of the groups must be “dogs” and “cats”. You cannot call them “dog lovers” and “cat lovers”

There is a hint in the linked guide

@Discourse

Make sure to add a “Full Name” for each group, as the automation script uses this

but I didn’t understand at first either.

[patrickemin]

Ok I get it now, so my use case is not possible: having a custom field you can answer Yes or No because the group name should be Yes or No…

[hazenbiz (Hazen Ellwood)]

Can I “Auto Tag Posts” based on keywords within the post or post title? Seems like it can only auto tag things based on group or category, which is not super useful for my case.