Discourse Boards

[mcwumbly (Dave McClure)]

	Summary	Discourse Boards lets you organize topics and standalone cards into configurable, drag-and-drop kanban boards[1] with per-board access control.
	Install Guide	This plugin is bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately.

As this is an official plugin maintained by the Discourse team, Support, Contribute > Bug, Contribute > UX, and Contribute > Feature requests can be made in the respective categories here on Meta. Click on a link below to get one started.

Support Bug UX Feature

Discourse Boards allows you to organize topics and tasks on visual boards that you can use for anything from sharing your product roadmap with your community to collaborating on projects with your team or specific groups that you choose.

Each board can be configured with its own columns, constraints, and access controls. Boards can be made public or private to specific groups and individuals.

Card can be backed by topics or standalone as lightweight cards and can be dragged and dropped to reorder them within a column or moved between columns.

Discourse Boards is available on the Business or Enterprise plans.

Use cases

• Roadmaps
  Order cards by priority to rank features (suggested → planned → shipped), and let members like/comment on the underlying request topics.
• Team collaboration
  Turn a category (or tag-filtered set of topics) into a kanban workflow for collaboration among specified groups and individuals like To do → In progress → Done, dragging topics through stages.
• Standalone task lists
  Create floater cards for quick items that don’t warrant a forum topic — an idea, a chore, a back-burner note — with assignees so a team knows who owns what.

Features

• Purpose-built board UI: create and configure boards in-app at /boards, no theme component or code required.
• Topic-backed cards: any topic can become a card. Card title, tags, position, and even category/status stay in sync with the topic.
• Standalone cards: create standalone cards (title, notes, tags, assignee) that don’t need a topic behind them.
• Drag-and-drop: move cards between columns and reorder them within priority-sorted columns, with horizontal auto-scroll while dragging.
• Automatic column rules: bind a column to a tag so matching topics flow into it automatically, and configure “Move to” actions (change category, assign/unassign, open/close) that update the topic when a card lands there.
• Flexible sorting: each column sorts manually by priority (drag order) or by recency (recently active first).
• Board constraints: scope a board to specific categories and/or tags. Out-of-scope topics never auto-appear, and constraint changes preview how many cards would be removed.
• Per-board access control lists (ACLs): grant view, edit, or manage per user or group (the same access-control system used for categories), including optional anonymous view.
• Topic integration: an Add to board button on topics and clickable board-membership pills that jump straight to the card.
• Live updates: boards update in real time when changes are made by others.
• Assign & status awareness: assignees (via the Assign plugin) and open/closed status render on cards and re-sync when they change.
• Oneboxes: board and card URLs expand into rich oneboxes in posts.
• Keyboard shortcuts: navigate, open, and even move cards without touching the mouse.
• Admin dashboard stats: boards activity feeds total_boards, created_boards, viewed_boards, active_boards, active_users, and participating_users.

Key concepts

• Board: a collection of columns and cards, with its own URL (/boards/<slug>/<id>), access list, and optional category/tag constraints.
• *Column: a stage in a board. Columns can have an icon, a color, a tag binding, a sort order, and optional “move to” actions.
• Card: an item in a column. Topic cards mirror a Discourse topic, floater cards are standalone (title, notes, tags, assignee) with no topic behind them.
• Constraints: restricting a board to specific categories and/or tags. Topics outside the constraints won’t auto-appear.
• ACLs: Per-board access control. View, edit, or manage, granted per user/group (a similar access-control system to the one used for categories).

Getting started

1. Go to Admin > Plugins, find Boards, and enable the plugin.
2. Visit /boards on your site and click New board.
   
   
3. Give the board a name (a slug is auto-generated) and choose who can view / edit / manage it.
4. Optionally pick constraints, one or more categories and/or tags the board is scoped to.
5. Choose a card style (detailed or simple), then click Save.

Adding and organizing cards

• From a topic: open any public topic and hit the Add to board button in the topic footer, pick a board, then a column.
  
  
• From the board: use the column’s + to create a floater card (no topic — add a title, notes, tags, and an assignee).
  
  
• Drag & drop moves cards between columns and reorders them (in priority-sorted columns). Moving a topic card to a column whose move-to actions change category/tags/status/assignee will update the topic itself.
• If a moved topic would violate the board’s category/tag constraints, you’ll be prompted to apply a constraint fix (choose a permitted category/tag).
• If the board’s Require confirmation setting is on, moves that trigger a topic change ask for confirmation first.

Every board a topic lives within appears as a pill on the topic; click it to jump straight to the card.

Configuring columns

Open a column’s settings to set:

• Title, icon, color: Choose a preset swatch or any hex color
• Tag: Topics tagged with this tag appear in this column (and move with it)
• Default sort: Priority (manual drag order) or Recency (recently-active first)
• Advanced: Move to category, Assign to…, Status (open/close) automatically applied to the topic of any topic card that lands in this column

Managing boards

The board’s settings let you rename, change constraints, style, and access, and delete. Tightening constraints warns you how many existing topic-cards will be removed (with a constraint preview before you save).

How topic card sync works

• If a board has constraints, matching topics are automatically represented as cards, one card per matching tagged column.
• Removing the tag, or moving the topic out of scope, removes its card(s) automatically.
• Manually placed cards in untagged columns are preserved as long as no tagged column matches.
• Assignments (via the Assign plugin) and topic status changes are reflected on the board.

Access control

• Who can create and manage boards is set by boards_manage_board_allowed_groups (default: admins & moderators).
• Each board has its own ACL: view, edit, manage. For example, grant a group view for read-only visibility, edit to move cards, and manage to reconfigure the board. Anonymous users can only ever get view.
• Boards can be shared publicly by granting the anonymous group view (if your site allows anonymous browsing), otherwise board readers must match the ACL.

Note: moving a topic card performs edits on the topic itself (category, tags, status, assign) and requires the actor to have the corresponding topic permissions; assigning requires the Assign plugin and can_assign.

Keyboard shortcuts

On /boards: h/l navigate board cards. On a board: h/l move between columns, j/k move between cards, Enter opens a card, Esc clears. Shift+h/Shift+l move a card to the adjacent column; Shift+j/Shift+k reorder within its column.

Settings

Name	Description
boards_enabled	Enable the Boards plugin across the site. Disabled by default.
boards_manage_board_allowed_groups	Groups allowed to create, manage, and delete boards (access to the “New board” button and board settings). Defaults to admins and moderators; administrators are always included.

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1. Kanban board

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