1/ Admin UX matters.
We’re working on a small but powerful improvement: making it much easier for admins to create and manage categories directly from the navigation menu.
Here’s what we've been up to 👇
2/ Today, creating categories often means diving into deeper admin pages.
We want to bring that closer to where admins actually work: the navigation menu itself (sidebar or header dropdown, depending on your setup).
3/ We’re making it easier for admins to:
- Create new categories right from the nav
- Access and adjust which categories show up in the nav via a clearer, more direct entry point
No more hunting through buried settings just to tweak structure — the functionality was always there, but now it’s much easier to get to.
4/ Concretely, you’ll see two actions in the navigation menu (for admins):
New category → opens /new-category
Edit categories → opens a menu to update which categories appear
5/ The wording for “Edit categories” adapts to your navigation style:
- If you’re using the sidebar: “Edit sidebar categories”
- If you’re using a header dropdown: “Edit nav categories”
Clear language, fewer clicks.
6/ There’s also a small but important polish item we’re eyeing: improving hover states (like fixing that missing border on hover that’s been bothering folks internally). Tiny details, big difference in feel.
7/ This is part of a broader effort to:
- Make it easier to create and manage categories
- Reduce friction in admin workflows
- Help communities evolve their structure over time
9/ All of this is available now! if you’re on the latest version of Discourse, you can start taking advantage of it today. We’ll keep iterating on the self-serve admin experience.
8/ If you’re running a community platform, your information architecture should be easy to change, not a chore. Bringing category creation and editing into the navigation is one more step toward that.