This is a guide that explains the logic Discourse uses to determine which suggested topics appear at the bottom of the topic you are currently reading.
Required user level: Any
Suggested topics are topics shown at the bottom of the topic you are currently reading. For example:
How topics are included
The suggested topics list is populated in a few different ways:
Unread topics
The suggested topics list will show any unread topics that you are watching or tracking that are less than 90 days old.
Random topics
If there are fewer than 5 unread topics, or if you are viewing the site anonymously, random topics that are less than 365 days old will be added to the list.
Category prioritization
The suggested topics list first tries to load topics from the same category as the topic you are currently reading. If there are fewer than 5 topics from the category that can be added, topics from other categories will be chosen.
Configuration settings
Site admins can control the behavior of the suggested topics list with the following site settings:
-
suggested topics- The number of topics to show in the list (defaults to 5) -
limit suggested to category- Instead of just prioritizing the current category, only show topics from the current category in the list (checkbox, defaults to false) -
suggested topics unread max days old- Exclude unread topics from suggestions if they haven’t had any activity in the last n days. Based on last post/update. (default: 90 days) -
suggested topics max days old- Exclude random topics from suggestions if they were created more than n days ago. (default: 365 days)
Related topics
To have similar or related topics in the suggested list, you can use the Discourse AI - Embeddings plugin. When configured, this module adds a “Related Topics” section at the bottom of all topic pages, showing topics similar to the current one, helping users find related discussions.
Last edited by @yigit 2026-02-12T09:51:51Z
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