discourse-mini-mod

Mini-mods can rearrange the shelves. Moderators can kick people out of the store.

A Discourse plugin that gives regular users the power to manage categories, tags, and topics — without requiring moderator or admin status.

It builds on Discourse's existing category group moderation feature by extending the permissions it grants.

The plugin also bundles two trust level 4 closed-topic restrictions as a separate, optional concern. These are independent of the mini-mod features and clamp down core Discourse's default behaviour of letting TL4 users reply on and reopen closed topics anywhere on the site. They live in their own Trust Level 4 section in the admin site settings UI. See docs/trust-level-4.md for the rationale and full design.

How it works

1. Create a group and add your users to it
2. Go to a category, press the wrench, then add the group to "In addition to staff, content in this category can also be reviewed by:"
3. Enable mini_mod_enabled in site settings
4. Those users can now manage categories they moderate

Optionally enable mini_mod_manage_all_categories to let them manage all categories and move topics between any categories. Enable mini_mod_manage_tags to let them create, edit, and delete tags.

Settings

The plugin's settings are split across two top-level sections in the admin site settings UI.

Mini-mod settings

These govern category group moderators (mini-mods). Visit /admin/site_settings/category/discourse_mini_mod.

Setting	Default	Description
mini_mod_enabled	false	Enable the plugin
mini_mod_manage_all_categories	false	Allow category group moderators to manage all categories and edit/move topics across all categories
mini_mod_manage_tags	false	Allow category group moderators to create, edit, and delete tags
mini_mod_can_post_in_closed_topics	false	Allow category group moderators to reply on closed topics in categories they moderate. Disabled by default — enable to grant; site staff are unaffected
mini_mod_can_reopen_topics	false	Allow category group moderators to reopen closed topics in categories they moderate. Disabled by default — enable to grant; site staff are unaffected

Trust Level 4 settings

Independent of the mini-mod features. These clamp down core Discourse's default behaviour of letting trust level 4 users reply on and reopen closed topics anywhere on the site. Visit /admin/site_settings/category/trust_level_4.

Setting	Default	Description
tl4_can_post_in_closed_topics	false	Allow trust level 4 users to reply on closed topics anywhere on the site. Disabled by default — enable to grant; site staff are unaffected
tl4_can_reopen_topics	false	Allow trust level 4 users to reopen closed topics anywhere on the site. Disabled by default — enable to grant; site staff are unaffected

See docs/trust-level-4.md for the full design rationale.

All settings require mini_mod_enabled to also be enabled (it's the plugin's master switch). Mini-mod settings additionally require Discourse core's enable_category_group_moderation. Tag management also requires tagging_enabled.

Permissions granted

Action	Default (per-category)	With manage all categories	With manage tags
Create categories	Subcategories under moderated categories, or top-level	All categories	—
Edit categories	Only moderated categories	All categories	—
Delete categories	Only moderated categories (must be empty, no children)	All categories (same constraints)	—
Edit topics	Only in moderated categories (core feature)	All visible topics	—
Bulk change topic category	To/from moderated categories	Any visible category	—
Move posts	In moderated categories (core feature)	In moderated categories (core feature)	—
Create tags	—	—	Yes
Edit/rename tags	—	—	Yes
Delete tags	—	—	Yes
Manage tag synonyms	—	—	Yes

Two additional capabilities are off by default but can be granted by enabling the corresponding site setting:

Action	Default	Granted by
Reply on closed topics in moderated categories	Off	mini_mod_can_post_in_closed_topics: true
Reopen closed topics in moderated categories	Off	mini_mod_can_reopen_topics: true

Closing open topics, archiving, pinning, splitting/merging, and every other moderation action remain available to mini-mods in their categories regardless of these settings.

Trust Level 4 restrictions

Discourse core treats trust level 4 (TL4) users as "trusted" and lets them reply on closed topics and close/reopen any topic they can see, site-wide. This plugin bundles two settings that clamp that down:

Action	Default	Granted by
Reply on closed topics anywhere on the site (as TL4)	Off	tl4_can_post_in_closed_topics: true
Reopen closed topics anywhere on the site (as TL4)	Off	tl4_can_reopen_topics: true

These restrictions are independent of the mini-mod features. They apply to any TL4 user regardless of whether they're in a category moderation group, and they only touch the reply-on-closed and reopen actions — every other TL4 grant in core (can_wiki?, can_rebake?, can_see_unlisted_topics?, etc.) is left alone. Site staff are unaffected. A user who is both TL4 and a mini-mod must clear both gates to act.

See docs/trust-level-4.md for the full design rationale.

See docs/ for detailed documentation, including a comparison of mini-mods vs moderators.

Installation

Add the plugin's repository URL to your app.yml:

hooks:
  after_code:
    - exec:
        cd: $home/plugins
        cmd:
          - git clone https://github.com/alltechdev/discourse-mini-mod.git

Then rebuild the container:

./launcher rebuild app