Installing Plugins in Discourse 101 for super-super dummies

[nathank (Nathan Kershaw)]

This is well written and about as simple as it can be:

Install plugins on a self-hosted site

This guide assumes that you have a self-hosted standard installation. We only support the standard method of install here, so these instructions assume you have a standard install. This guide only applies to self-hosted Discourse instances. If you are using a managed hosting service, the available plugins are controlled by your hosting provider. For example, on our hosting these specific plugins are available by hosting tier. As of mid-2025, many p…