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Syntax for discussion category forms

In this article

You can use YAML syntax to define the fields in your discussion category forms.

Note: Discussion category forms are currently in limited public beta and subject to change.

About YAML syntax for discussion category forms

You can create custom discussion category forms by adding a YAML form definition file to the /.github/DISCUSSION_TEMPLATE/ folder in your repository. If you're new to YAML and want to learn more, see "Learn YAML in Y minutes."

The name must correspond with the slug for one of your discussion categories. For example, the template for the "Announcements" category should be .github/DISCUSSION_TEMPLATE/announcements.yml.

For each field, you can define the input type, validation, and a default label.

When a community member fills out a discussion form, their responses for each input are converted to markdown and added to the body of a discussion. Community members can edit their discussions that were created with a discussion form and other people can interact with the discussion like a discussion created through other methods.

This example YAML configuration file defines a general discussion category form.

YAML
title: "[General] "
labels: ["General Introduction"]
body:
  - type: markdown
    attributes:
      value: |
        This is text that will show up in the template!
  - type: textarea
    id: improvements
    attributes:
      label: Top 3 improvements
      description: "What are the top 3 improvements we could make to this project?"
      value: |
        1.
        2.
        3.
        ...
      render: bash
    validations:
      required: true
  - type: markdown
    attributes:
      value: |
        ## Markdown header
        And some more markdown
  - type: input
    id: has-id
    attributes:
      label: Suggestions
      description: A description about suggestions to help you
    validations:
      required: true
  - type: dropdown
    id: download
    attributes:
      label: Which area of this project could be most improved?
      options:
        - Documentation
        - Pull request review time
        - Bug fix time
        - Release cadence
    validations:
      required: true
  - type: checkboxes
    attributes:
      label: Check that box!
      options:
        - label: This one!
          required: true
        - label: I won't stop you if you check this one, too
  - type: markdown
    attributes:
      value: |
        ### The thrilling conclusion
        _to our template_

Top-level syntax

The configuration file for a discussion category form must contain a body key, and the body must contain at least 1 non-Markdown field.

YAML
body:
- type: input
  id: suggestion
  attributes:
    label: Suggestion
    description: "How might we make this project better?"
    placeholder: "Adding a CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md file would be a great idea."
  validations:
    required: true

You can set the following top-level keys for each issue form.

KeyDescriptionRequiredType
bodyDefinition of the input types in the discussion form.RequiredArray
labelsLabels that will automatically be added to discussions created with this template.OptionalArray or comma-delimited string
titleA default title that will be pre-populated in the discussion submission form.OptionalString

To add fields to your form, include an array of form elements in the body key. For a list of available elements and their syntaxes, see "Syntax for GitHub's form schema."