The Discourse User Notes plugin allows staff members to share private notes about users, which are invisible to normal users. As an official plugin bundled with Discourse core, it requires no separate installation but must be removed from app.yml if previously installed as a standalone plugin to avoid route conflicts during rebuilds (tobiaseigen). Staff can add notes via the admin wrench or user profile, with settings controlling access and deletion permissions.
Users raised several issues and feature requests. Roi encountered build errors due to legacy plugin names (discourse-staff-notes) in configuration, which tobiaseigen helped resolve. Richie requested a modernized icon for the user note indicator and automatic notifications when notes are added. Moin noted the icon is currently an emoji, which varies by theme, suggesting a Font Awesome icon for consistency. Moin also suggested using automation plugins for notifications rather than built-in features. Additionally, Foriusz asked about automatic notes for suspensions, noting they are not currently generated despite documentation suggesting otherwise. dsaver inquired about API endpoints, and Overgrow clarified that notes are tied to posts, not topics.
When rebulding Discourse I get the following error:
rake aborted!
ArgumentError: Invalid route name, already in use: 'discourse_user_notes' (ArgumentError)
You may have defined two routes with the same name using the `:as` option, or you may be overriding a route already defined by a resource with the same naming. For the latter, you can restrict the routes created with `resources` as explained here:
https://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html#restricting-the-routes-created
raise ArgumentError, "Invalid route name, already in use: '#{name}' \n" \
I understood that discourse_user_notes is now included in the core. Did something go wrong in this process?
This plugin is now bundled with Discourse core as part of Bundling more popular plugins with Discourse core. If you are self-hosting and use the plugin, you need to remove it from your app.yml before your next upgrade.
@Roi sorry you had a poor experience today. Once you remove the plugin from your app.yml you will find the problem will go away and you will be able to rebuild.
Perhaps a silly question, but do you have discourse-staff-notes in your app.yml? That’s what I had in mine if I recall correctly. That’s the old name for the plugin.
Are you taking feature requests or suggestions for this plugin?
I have two
The first would be to update the icon that’s displayed next to the username:
It’s very dated in its design and its styling and doesn’t match the look or feel of the ultra modern Discourse, perhaps a more modern icon could be used here?
The second request would be to notify the staff / admin user group when a note is added to a user.
That could even be a selectable option in the control panel as it may not suit everyone’s use case.
The fact that it looks different depending on the emoji pack configuration is also somewhat confusing. I am used to such things looking the same in all forums that don’t use a custom icon set.
Furthermore, icons adapt to the color scheme, which emojis cannot do. I am also in favor of a change, perhaps to user-pen.
[Separate post in case someone wants to split both feature requests into their own topic]
I think this could already be achieved with the automation and data explorer plugin. The script could send a PM (but that could be very annoying) or it could post in a topic and you set the tracking status accordingly (watching/tracking) to receive notifications.
Hello, automatic notes on suspension and silence are still a thing?
“Notes can be added […], and certain staff actions (like suspension and silence) will automatically add a note.”
We can add notes manually but there’s no generated notes with suspension.
Users cannot see these notes, they’re only visible to staff.
This plugin is now bundled with Discourse core as part of 
, same but old? Must be the clue! Will try first thing in the morning. Thank you, will keep you posted.
