Discourse

Discourse is an open-source, self-hosted community platform for hosting online forums and managing group discussions. The software is deployed as a server-side web application that administrators can run on their own infrastructure, providing full control over how and where the site is hosted and managed.

Users interact with the platform through a web browser on desktop or mobile devices, including support for iPadOS, Android, and iOS. The system focuses on structured conversations and community management, providing tools to organize topics and facilitate real-time communication among members. It is designed to handle large-scale community interactions while maintaining a focus on accessibility and adherence to W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Key features

• Creation of discussion topics for organized conversations
• Built-in chat for real-time communication
• Support for official and community-created themes
• Plugin system for extending platform functionality
• AI-powered chatbots via specific plugins
• SQL analysis tools through the Data Explorer plugin
• Support for all major modern web browsers
• Docker-based installation and development environment

The application uses a decoupled architecture consisting of a Ruby on Rails back end API that serves JSON and an Ember.js front end. Data is stored in a PostgreSQL database, while Redis is used for caching and handling transient data. For development and production setup, the software requires Ruby 3.4+, PostgreSQL 15, and Redis 7. The codebase is peer reviewed and distributed under the GNU General Public License Version 2.0, allowing the public to contribute via pull requests and bug reports.

Discourse is designed for community managers and organizations that require full control over their data and hosting environment.