We’re building a new Boards feature that makes it easy to organize topics and ideas in lightweight standalone cards using configurable, drag-and-drop kanban-style[1] boards, all with a purpose-built management UI and per-board access control.
Up until now, the closest thing to this in the Discourse ecosystem was the Kanban theme component. Boards is a fresh implementation that’s bundled directly into Discourse core and replaces that configuration-heavy approach with a full plugin. It has a dedicated interface for creating and managing boards, cards that stay in sync with their underlying topics, cards that don’t need a topic at all, per-board permissions, and more.
Boards is available on the Business and Enterprise plans, for users on Discourse hosting.
An overview of Boards
Boards lets you organize your topics visually into columns that clearly communicate their status and priority so you can share your product roadmap or collaborate on projects with your team.
Start at /boards, create a board, drop in a few columns, and start moving cards — either by dragging cards between columns or by pulling topics in from around the site.
Cards, columns, and boards
- Boards contain columns and cards, and have their own URL (
/boards/<slug>/<id>), access list, and optional category/tag constraints. - Columns are the stages of a board. Each column can have a title, icon, and color; a tag binding so matching topics flow in automatically; a sort order; and optional move-to actions.
- Cards come in two flavors:
- Topic cards are backed by a real topic — the card title and tags track the topic, and moving the card can update the topic itself.
- Floater cards are standalone: give them a title, notes, tags, and an assignee, with no topic behind them.
Staying in sync with topics
Topics on boards can be edited in either place and stay in sync.
- On any public topic, an Add to board button lets you place it into a board and column directly from the topic.
- Every membership shows up as a pill on the topic — click it to jump straight to the card.
- If a board is scoped to categories/tags (its constraints), matching topics appear automatically. Removing the tag or moving the topic out of scope removes its card on its own.
- If moving a card would break the board’s constraints, you’ll be prompted to fix it by picking a permitted category/tag before the move goes through.
- “Move to” actions mean a column can change the topic’s category, assign/unassign it (via the Assign plugin), or open/close it whenever a card lands there.
Access control
Each board uses a similar access control list system to categories. Permissions are granted per user or group, and boards can optionally be readable by anonymous visitors.
- View: read-only access to the board.
- Edit: move cards around, add/remove floater cards.
- Manage: configure columns, constraints, style, and access.
Who can create boards at all is controlled by the boards_manage_board_allowed_groups setting (admins & moderators by default).
The board view
Boards are designed to let you organize your topics easily.
- Drag & drop to move cards between columns and reorder them, with horizontal auto-scroll while you drag.
- Columns sort by priority (manual drag order) or recency (recently active first).
- Boards update in real time for everyone viewing them.
- Board and card URLs render as rich oneboxes when linked in posts.
- Keyboard shortcuts (
h/l,j/k,Shift+h/l,Shift+j/k,Enter,Esc) are also available for you to move cards without the mouse.
Previewing Boards
For now, this is considered an experimental feature! We’re welcoming your feedback, which will help us make improvements and roll this out further.
To try it out, go to Upcoming changes at /admin/config/upcoming-changes, find the Boards enabled item, and update the Enabled for… field to Everyone opt your site in.
Once enabled, you can visit /boards on your site and click New board to create your first board. Give it a name, set who can view/edit/manage it, and optionally constrain it to categories/tags. From there, open any eligible topic and use the Add to board button to pull it in, or create floater cards from the board itself.
We would love to hear where Boards fit in your community. Give them a try and share your questions or your feedback below! 