| Summary | Discourse Automation lets you automate actions through scripts and triggers. Customisation is made through an automatically generated UI. | |
| Install Guide | This plugin is bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately. |
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 | Adds a user to a group based on a Custom User Field | ||
| Append last checked by | Adds a ‘last checked by’ function to the bottom of the OP | ||
| Append last edited by | Adds a ‘last edited by’ note to the bottom of the OP | ||
| Auto Responder | Given a series of keywords and associated replies, automatically respond with the corresponding reply | ||
| Auto Tag topic | Automatically tag a topic | ||
| Close topic | Automatically close a topic | ||
| Create Post | Creates a post | ||
| Flag post on Words | Flag a topic on creation/edition if it contains specific words | ||
| Gift Exchange | Simple implementation of the Secret Santa game | ||
| Group Category Notification Default | Automatically sets a group notification level for newly created subcategories | ||
| Make banner topic | Convert a topic into a banner notice | ||
| Pin Topic | Pin and Unpin a topic in the future | ||
| Random Assign (Assign) |
Randomly Assign a topic | ||
| Schedule a PM with data explorer results (Data Explorer) |
Send a regular PM with the results of a data explorer query | ||
| Send Chat message (Chat) |
Sends a Chat message to a Channel | ||
| Send PMs | Send PMs with support for placeholders | ||
| Suspend User By Email | Suspend a user for a specified duration | ||
| Topic required words | Enforce the presence of at least one of the specified words in the posts of a topic | ||
| Triage posts using AI (Discourse AI) | Enhance the management and moderation of forum posts by automating the process of classifying posts | ||
| User Global Notice | Displays a global notice on the site for a specific user | ||
| User Group Membership through Badge | Automatically add users to a group based on their earned badges | ||
| Zapier webhook | 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


