discourse-upcoming-changes - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: discourse-upcoming-changes description: Use when adding a new upcoming change feature flag to Discourse - handles site settings, translations, images, and code access patterns

Adding Discourse Upcoming Changes

Overview

Upcoming changes are feature flags that allow gradual rollout of new Discourse features. They require a site setting, translation, optional image, and can be targeted to specific groups.

When to Use

Use when:

Adding a new feature that needs gradual rollout
Creating an experimental/alpha/beta feature flag

Checklist

0. Gather Required Information

REQUIRED: Before adding the site setting, use AskUserQuestion to gather missing information. Only ask questions for information the user has NOT already provided. The user can always type a value directly via the "Other" option.

Batch 1 (ask first, max 4 questions):

Question	Header	Options
Status	"Status"	"conceptual" (Planned, hidden) / "experimental" (Very early) / "alpha" (Internal) / "beta" (Broader)
Impact Type	"Impact"	"feature" (New functionality) / "other" (Non-feature change)
Audience	"Audience"	"all_members" / "staff" / "moderators" / "admin"
Image	"Image"	"No image needed" / "I'll provide the path later"

Note: For Status, "stable" and "permanent" are available via "Other". For Audience, "developers" is available via "Other".

After Batch 1: Gather any remaining information before continuing:

If the flag name was not provided in the original message, ask for it
If the user selected "I'll provide the path later" for Image, ask for the image path
Ask if they have a Learn More URL to link to

1. Add Site Setting

IMPORTANT: Do NOT read the entire config/site_settings.yml file - it's too large. Instead, use Grep to search for upcoming_change: to find existing examples and the right location to add the new setting.

Add to config/site_settings.yml in the appropriate section (often under experimental:):

enable_your_feature_name:
  default: false
  hidden: true
  client: true
  upcoming_change:
    status: "<status from question>"
    impact: "<type>,<audience>"
    learn_more_url: "<URL from question>"

Status options: conceptual, experimental, alpha, beta, stable, permanent

Impact format: <type>,<audience>

Type: feature or other
Audience: admin, moderators, staff, all_members, developers

Learn more URL: Add learn_more_url: "https://..." for documentation link. This should generally be a Discourse Meta URL in the format https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/999999 . If the user pastes a topic URL with a slug, remove the slug and replace with a - as shown.

Optional: Add allow_enabled_for: to restrict which "Enabled for" dropdown options the admin can choose. Accepts any subset of everyone, staff, specific_groups. "No one" is always available. If everyone is included it must be the only value. Omit the key to allow all options (the default).

upcoming_change:
  status: "experimental"
  impact: "feature,all_members"
  allow_enabled_for:
    - staff
    - specific_groups

Value	Dropdown options
(omitted)	No one, Everyone, Staff, Specific group(s)
`[everyone]`	No one, Everyone
`[staff]`	No one, Staff
`[specific_groups]`	No one, Specific group(s)
`[staff, specific_groups]`	No one, Staff, Specific group(s)

Optional: Add include_css: true if you need to scope CSS to this change. When enabled for a user, a uc-<dasherized-setting-name> class is added to <body> so stylesheets can gate visuals on the change (e.g. enable_your_feature_name → body.uc-enable-your-feature-name). Omit it (the default) when the change has no CSS keyed on the body class — body classes are opt-in, not emitted for every change.

upcoming_change:
  status: "experimental"
  impact: "feature,all_members"
  include_css: true

2. Add Translation

Add to config/locales/server.en.yml under site_settings::

en:
  site_settings:
    enable_your_feature_name: "Description of what this upcoming change enables or modifies"

3. Add Preview Image

Ask user to provide an image, then process it using the skill's optimization script:

Copy image to destination:

cp "<source_image>" "public/images/upcoming_changes/<setting_name>.png"

Convert, resize, and compress using the skill's optimization script:
```
bin/rails runner ~/.claude/skills/discourse-upcoming-changes/scripts/optimize_upcoming_change_image.rb public/images/upcoming_changes/<setting_name>.png
```
This script:
- Converts any image format to PNG using Discourse's ImageMagick integration
- Resizes to max 1200px width using OptimizedImage.downsize
- Compresses with pngquant via FileHelper.optimize_image!
Final path: public/images/upcoming_changes/<setting_name>.png
- Filename must match the setting name exactly

4. Access in Code

Ruby - Check if enabled for user:

user.upcoming_change_enabled?(:enable_your_feature_name)

# Or with explicit user (nil for anonymous):
UpcomingChanges.enabled_for_user?(:enable_your_feature_name, user)
UpcomingChanges.enabled_for_user?(:enable_your_feature_name, nil)

JavaScript - Check setting value:

// In component/controller with @service siteSettings
this.siteSettings.enable_your_feature_name;

For Plugins

Plugins follow the same pattern with different file locations.

1. Add Site Setting

Add to plugins/your-plugin/config/settings.yml:

plugins:
  enable_your_feature_name:
    default: false
    hidden: true
    client: true
    upcoming_change:
      status: "experimental"
      impact: "feature,all_members"

2. Add Translation

Add to plugins/your-plugin/config/locales/server.en.yml:

en:
  site_settings:
    enable_your_feature_name: "Description of what this upcoming change enables or modifies"

3. Image

Images still go in core: public/images/upcoming_changes/enable_your_feature_name.png

Quick Reference

Item	Core Location	Plugin Location
Site setting	`config/site_settings.yml`	`plugins/<name>/config/settings.yml`
Translation	`config/locales/server.en.yml`	`plugins/<name>/config/locales/server.en.yml`
Image	`public/images/upcoming_changes/<name>.png`	Same as core

Status	Value	Description
conceptual	-100	Planned but hidden from upcoming changes
experimental	0	Very early testing
alpha	100	Internal testing
beta	200	Broader testing
stable	300	Ready for production
permanent	500	Permanent feature

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Missing `client: true`	Add it - required for JS access
Missing `hidden: true`	Add it - upcoming changes should be hidden
Image name mismatch	Filename must exactly match setting name
Image too large (>300KB)	Re-run the optimization script
Wrong translation key	Must be under `en.site_settings.`
Plugin using `site_settings.yml`	Plugins use `settings.yml` (no `site_` prefix)
Plugin missing `plugins:` key	Settings must be under `plugins:` key in plugins