# Introducing the visual index editor for Discourse Doc Categories

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-the-visual-index-editor-for-discourse-doc-categories/415945>\
**Category:** Announcements\
**Tags:** doc-categories\
**Created:** [November 3, 2026, 4:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-the-visual-index-editor-for-discourse-doc-categories/415945 "2026-11-03T04:08:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![saquetim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/saquetim/32/116400_2.png) [@saquetim](https://meta.discourse.org/u/saquetim)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2026, 4:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-the-visual-index-editor-for-discourse-doc-categories/415945/1 "2026-11-03T04:08:40Z")

</div>

Doc categories can now build their sidebar index directly in the admin UI. The **index editor** is an upcoming change for the [Doc Categories plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/322376), and it removes the need to maintain a separate index topic.

## Two ways to source an index

Editing a category now has a **Doc index** tab with a mode selector:

- **Editor** builds the index in place, as sections holding links.
- **Index topic** is the existing behaviour, where a topic’s headings and lists become the index.
- **Disabled** turns the sidebar index off for that category.

Categories already pointing at an index topic keep working exactly as they do today.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/6/2/4/624813303b54d491eaaf130876e4048b6bd18a26.png)

## Building an index

A section holds links, and a link points either at a topic or at any URL you type. Each link can carry its own icon, and the editor warns you when two links resolve to the same place or two sections share a title.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/b/2/c/b2c355b9e5d3c8dddc3bc2e9148e7ddede09bf53.png)

You are also shown when topics in the category do not appear in the index, and you can add these topics in bulk:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/2/4/5/2457247bf36d618c6c71bfd0509a764dd21ecc80.png)

An **Auto-index** section fills itself from the category’s topics, so you can list the pages you care about by hand and let everything else collect in one place. It can resync on each save.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/b/9/3/b93c2570c1566c6abe235026862599bc3d7efced.png)

Sections and links reorder by dragging. Every drag handle is also an ordinary tab stop that opens a move menu, so the whole index can be rearranged from the keyboard. A batch mode handles multi-select, for deleting several rows at once or dragging a whole selection together.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/8/1/8/818bc35dac126d9a3fdde09e922aa2d3fa02aec8.png)

## Enable it on your site

The index editor is an experimental upcoming change. Enable **Doc categories index editor** at `/admin/config/upcoming-changes`. It affects doc categories only, and only what admins see while editing one.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/2/b/c/2bcbb4077fd7b02828b431a30430ab01bab0bb09.png)

## We’d love your feedback

Tell us how it holds up against a real index: whether building one here beats maintaining a topic, what is missing before you would move a category over, and anything that feels rough.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-the-visual-index-editor-for-discourse-doc-categories/415945)._