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Discourse Zapier integrationAutomate Discourse with Zapier.

The Discourse Zapier integration gives you 1 trigger and 2 actions, and nothing else. It is a small kit: catch new posts on your forum, publish posts from another tool, and call the Discourse API for the rest. Here is what each piece does and what it costs.

See the 3 operations

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Overview

What the Discourse Zapier integration actually does

The Discourse Zapier integration links your forum to the other apps your team uses, without code. Zapier watches Discourse for new posts and passes them on, or it writes posts into Discourse when something happens elsewhere. You build the link once, then it runs on its own.

Three results people usually build with it. A support inbox that hears about the forum: New Post pushes every fresh post to Slack or to a ticket tool, so nobody has to refresh the forum. A product changelog that writes itself: Create Post publishes a post when a release note is approved in your project tool. A custom move the menu does not offer: API Request (Beta) calls Discourse directly with your existing login.

What Zapier does not do here matters just as much. There is a single trigger, on posts, and no search step, so a Zap cannot look up a topic or a user before it acts. Reacting to anything other than a new post is out of reach here: API Request (Beta) is an action, so it can act on the forum but never start a Zap. And since New Post is checked on a timer, a fresh post can wait a few minutes before the Zap sees it.

If you want to compare, the same forum is covered on our Discourse n8n integration page and on the Discourse Make integration page.

Vocabulary

Zapier words you will meet on this page

Seven terms, one line each. Once explained, the page uses them without a reminder.

Zap
The automation you build in Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time that trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event that starts the Zap, here a new post on your forum. Once the Zap is switched on, Zapier waits for it.
Action
What the Zap does after it starts: the step that writes, sends or moves something for you, like creating a post.
Task
The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap finished successfully. The number on your plan is a count of these.
Polling vs instant
A polling trigger is checked on a timer and Zapier keeps only what is new. An instant trigger is reported by the app the moment it happens.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets your condition, and quietly stops it otherwise.
Connection
Your Discourse account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every step of every Zap that touches the forum.
Cost

What a Discourse Zap really costs

Short version: the forum check is free, the actions are not.

  • Free plan100 tasks a month
  • Free plan Zaps2 steps: 1 trigger, 1 action
  • Premium appNo
  • New Post checkPolling

Watching Discourse for new posts never costs a task, however often Zapier looks. Each action that succeeds counts as one task, and in a Zap with two actions, both count. An action that fails is not billed. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only: one trigger, one action. Add a filter and the Zap becomes multi-step, which needs a paid plan. Discourse is not a premium app, so it works on the free plan.

Connect

Connect Discourse to Zapier in three steps

  1. 01

    Open your connections

    In Zapier, go to the Apps page of your account, then click + Add connection. This is where every account you link to Zapier is kept, so the forum login you add here can be reused later.

  2. 02

    Pick Discourse

    Search for Discourse by name in the dialog that opens and select it, then click Add connection. A new tab opens on the sign-in page of your forum, where the next step happens.

  3. 03

    Sign in and allow access

    Log in to Discourse with the account the Zaps should act as, then grant Zapier access. The connection is saved and every future Discourse step can reuse it.

First Zap

Your first Discourse Zap: new posts, filtered, sent to an API call

GoalPass only the new forum posts that meet your condition to a Discourse API call you define.

  1. 01

    Build the trigger

    Start a new Zap, pick Discourse as the app that starts it and New Post as the event, then choose the Discourse connection you added earlier.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent posts of your forum, so you can pick a real one and map its fields in the next steps.

  3. 03

    Add the filter

    Click the plus icon and choose Filter. Fill in the three boxes: the field to look at, the rule, and the value to compare with. Use a text rule on text. This step makes the Zap multi-step.

  4. 04

    Set the API call

    Add Discourse again with API Request (Beta). Pick the HTTP Method, type a URL on a domain tied to Discourse, and decide with Stop on error whether a failed call halts the Zap. Test the step and read what came back.

  5. 05

    Publish

    Click Publish. From now on, the Zap checks your forum on your plan's interval, and only the posts that pass the filter reach the API call.

Triggers

The Discourse trigger

1 event starts a Zap when something happens in Discourse. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.

1

New Post

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new post is created.”

Starts a Zap each time someone writes a post on your forum. The Zap receives the post text and its details, ready to be sent to a chat, a spreadsheet or a ticket tool.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
your support team lives in Slack and wants to see community questions without opening the forum all day.
Watch out
a busy forum produces many posts, so add a filter before the action, or each post becomes a task.
Actions

The Discourse actions

Discourse gives you 2 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Create Post

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new post.”

Writes a post on your forum from data that arrived in an earlier step, with the content you map in. The field For Existing Topic? decides whether it joins a thread or stands on its own.

When to use it
a release note approved in Notion should appear on the forum's announcements without anyone copying it.
Watch out
Post Content is required, so map a field that is never empty.
2

API Request (Beta)

Action

In Zapier“This is an advanced action which makes a raw HTTP request that includes this integration's authentication.”

Sends a raw call to the Discourse API with the login you already connected, for anything the other two operations cannot do. You choose the HTTP method and the URL.

When to use it
a developer on your team knows the exact Discourse endpoint needed and wants it inside a Zap.
Watch out
the URL must point to a domain tied to Discourse, and Stop on error decides whether a failure halts the Zap.
When it breaks

When a Discourse Zap breaks

Zapier ties no help article to Discourse, so the traps below are the ones every Zap shares.

Most broken Discourse Zaps fail for one of four reasons, all of them shared with every other Zap.

  • Old posts never come through

    A Zap only reacts to posts written after you publish it. The threads already on your forum stay where they are; moving them is a separate job.

  • The Zap feeds itself

    If a Zap creates posts on the same forum its New Post trigger watches, each new post starts it again and your task count drains fast.

  • A migration floods the trigger

    After a bulk import of threads, the trigger may suddenly see a huge batch of posts at once. Zapier's flood protection can then hold that batch back.

  • The same post twice? No

    Zapier remembers which posts it has already seen on a polling trigger, so the same post never starts the Zap a second time.
Need help

Need help automating Discourse with Zapier?

A person reads every message.

FAQ

Discourse and Zapier: common questions

01Is the Discourse Zapier integration free?
Yes, on the free plan, because Discourse is not a premium app. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and Zaps of two steps, one trigger and one action. That covers New Post to a chat message, or a form entry to Create Post. As soon as you add a filter or a second action, the Zap becomes multi-step and needs a paid plan. No price is quoted here because Zapier's grids change often; check the pricing page before you choose.
02How many tasks does a Discourse Zap use?
One task per action that succeeds, and nothing for the trigger. Zapier can check your forum as often as your plan allows without spending a single task. If your Zap sends each new post to Slack, ten posts cost ten tasks. If it also logs each post in a spreadsheet, the same ten posts cost twenty, because every successful action counts on its own. A failed action is not billed, so a broken step does not drain the plan.
03Does the Discourse trigger work in real time?
No. New Post is a polling trigger: Zapier asks Discourse for new posts at a fixed interval. On the free plan that interval is 15 minutes, on Professional it drops to 2 minutes, and on Team and Enterprise it is 1 minute. On paid plans you can also run a check by hand from the editor. You cannot switch the trigger to instant yourself, because the app decides the type, not Zapier.
04What does it take to connect Discourse to Zapier?
A Discourse account that can sign in to your forum, and access to whatever the Zap should touch. You add the connection from the Apps page of Zapier, search for Discourse, sign in on the tab that opens and grant access. If a Zap will post into topics you did not create, the account needs write access to them. Once saved, that connection is reused by every Discourse step of every Zap you build.
05Why can Create Post fail on an existing topic?
Check the rights of the connected account first. Create Post asks whether the post goes into an existing topic, and if you answer yes, the account Zapier signed in with must be able to write there when it does not own that topic. A connection that works for new topics proves nothing about older ones. Test the step with a real topic before publishing, and make sure Post Content is mapped to a field that is never empty, because the action requires it.
06What if the Discourse operation you need is not listed?
Use API Request (Beta). It sends a call to the Discourse API with the login you already connected, so you can reach things the two standard operations cannot, as long as the URL stays on a domain tied to Discourse. It is an advanced action: you write the HTTP method and the URL yourself. The Stop on error setting decides whether a failed call halts the Zap. A successful call still counts as one task, like any other action.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Discourse?
It depends on your criteria, not on a ranking. On Zapier, Discourse exposes one polling trigger, two actions and no search step, and it works on the free plan for a simple two-step Zap. If you need to react to more than new posts, or to look something up before acting, compare the operations each tool offers for Discourse before choosing. Also weigh the tool your team already uses: rebuilding working automations elsewhere has a cost of its own.
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