# Discourse — Open Source Community Forum Platform

> Discourse is a modern, open-source discussion platform built for civilized community conversations. It replaces traditional forums with real-time updates, dynamic threading, and built-in moderation tools.

## Install

Save as a script file and run:

# Discourse — Open Source Community Forum Platform

## Quick Use
```bash
# Install via Docker (recommended)
git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse_docker.git /var/discourse
cd /var/discourse
sudo ./discourse-setup
```

## Introduction
Discourse is a 100% open-source discussion platform built from the ground up for the next decade of the Internet. It serves as a mailing list, discussion forum, and long-form chat room, replacing aging forum software with a modern, real-time experience powered by Ember.js and Ruby on Rails.

## What Discourse Does
- Provides threaded discussions with real-time updates and infinite scrolling
- Offers built-in trust levels that automatically promote helpful community members
- Supports rich media embedding, oneboxes, and full Markdown formatting
- Includes comprehensive moderation tools with flags, review queues, and auto-silence
- Delivers email integration allowing users to reply and participate via email

## Architecture Overview
Discourse is a monolithic Ruby on Rails application backed by PostgreSQL for persistent storage and Redis for caching and background jobs via Sidekiq. The frontend is an Ember.js single-page application that communicates with the Rails API. The official deployment method uses a custom Docker container manager called Pups, which handles bootstrapping the entire stack including Nginx, Rails, Sidekiq, PostgreSQL, and Redis in a single container.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Deploy using the official Docker-based installer on a VPS with at least 2 GB RAM and 10 GB disk
- Configure SMTP credentials during setup for mandatory email delivery (replies, notifications)
- Set environment variables in containers/app.yml for domain, database, and plugin configuration
- Enable automatic HTTPS via the built-in Let's Encrypt integration in the setup wizard
- Install plugins by adding Git URLs to app.yml and rebuilding the container with ./launcher rebuild app

## Key Features
- Trust-level system that automatically grants permissions based on community participation
- Real-time page updates without refresh using MessageBus pub/sub
- Full-text search powered by PostgreSQL ts_vector with per-topic and per-category filtering
- Extensive plugin API supporting SSO, chat, AI moderation, and custom theme components
- Built-in backup and restore with optional uploads to S3-compatible storage

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **Flarum** — lighter PHP-based forum with fewer built-in features but faster initial setup
- **NodeBB** — Node.js forum with Redis/Mongo backend, smaller plugin ecosystem
- **phpBB** — legacy PHP forum, stable but lacks modern real-time features
- **Vanilla Forums** — commercial focus with an open-source edition, less community-driven
- **GitHub Discussions** — tightly coupled to repositories, not suitable for standalone communities

## FAQ
**Q: What are the minimum server requirements for self-hosting Discourse?**
A: A single container install requires 1 CPU core, 2 GB RAM (with swap), and 10 GB disk. For communities above 1,000 active users, 2 cores and 4 GB RAM are recommended.

**Q: Can Discourse integrate with existing authentication systems?**
A: Yes. Discourse supports DiscourseConnect (custom SSO), OAuth2, SAML, LDAP via plugins, and social logins for Google, GitHub, Twitter, and Facebook out of the box.

**Q: How does the trust level system work?**
A: New users start at Trust Level 0 with limited capabilities. As they read topics, post replies, and receive likes, they automatically advance through levels 1-4, unlocking abilities like editing posts, flagging, and wiki creation.

**Q: Is Discourse suitable for large-scale communities?**
A: Yes. Discourse powers communities with millions of posts. It supports CDN offloading, read-replica databases, horizontal Sidekiq scaling, and S3 uploads for large deployments.

## Sources
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse
- https://meta.discourse.org/docs

---
Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/052f0cf1-3b87-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: Script Depot