Indexing — Maintain your Forums

How it works

1. You add a forum to the index system with a display name (e.g. “Characters”).
2. StageHand creates or reuses an index post titled by default 📜 {name} Index (customizable).
3. The bot scans forum posts, builds sections (by tags, title pattern, author, etc.), and edits the index message.
4. New or updated posts schedule a refresh automatically.

Quick start — dashboard (recommended)

1. Open StageHand dashboard → Indexes.
2. Add index — choose the forum, index name, optional intro text.
3. Upload a thumbnail on the form if you want an image on the index post (stored on the bot host so it does not expire like Discord attachment links).
4. Enable Sort by tags and enter preferred tags (one tag name per line) if you want sections in tag order.
5. Save, then Refresh all indexes or run /index refresh in Discord.

Adding an index — /index add (admin only)

• forum — Forum channel to index.
• index_name — Name shown in config (e.g. Characters).
• sort_by_tags — Group entries under forum tags.
• preferred_tags — Comma-separated tag names, in order, when sorting by tags. On the dashboard, use one tag per line (clearer if tag names contain commas).
• index_thread_name — Title of the index post (default 📜 {index_name} Index).
• intro_text — Body of the first message on the index post.
• thumbnail — Image attachment on the command; saved to disk on the host.
• priority_tag — Entries with this tag appear at the top of their section with the tag emoji.
• exclude_tags — Comma-separated tag names; any matching tag omits that post from the index.
• sort_by_title_pattern — Group by a pattern in post titles instead of tags (requires title_grouping_pattern).
• title_grouping_pattern — date-number (e.g. 582 from SD1-582), date-suffix (full code separate), after- (text after last -), before- (text before first -), or a custom regex.
• sort_by_author — Group by the display name on each post’s first message.
• index_tag — Tag applied when creating the index post (required on forums that force a tag on new threads).

After add, StageHand refreshes immediately. If setup fails (e.g. missing tag), fix settings and run /index refresh.

Forums that require tags — /index set-tag

If the forum forces a tag on every new thread, set index_tag on add or use /index set-tag later. If StageHand cannot create the index post, it may post a tag picker in your server log channel (configure logging first); an admin picks the tag once.

Refreshing

• /index refresh — Refresh one forum or all indexes (admin only).
• Dashboard Refresh all indexes — Queues every configured forum on the server.

Large forums may take time because of Discord rate limits.

Other commands (admin only)

• /index list — All configured indexes.
• /index edit — Change settings for one forum.
• /index remove — Stop indexing a forum (does not delete the old index post).
• /index group-forums — Add or remove forums in a group index.
• /index group — Wizard to combine multiple forums into one index in a target channel.
• /index layered — Wizard for a hierarchical index (main tags → roles → sub-sections) across forums.

Character sorting

Enable use character sorting on add or in the dashboard when the index should follow the same ordering ideas as character forums. Works best when character forums and indexes are configured together.

Tips

• Copy tag definitions between forums with /move tags before you rely on tags in scene end or index setup.
• Do not paste Discord attachment URLs into config for thumbnails—they expire. Upload via dashboard or /index add attachment.
• If every entry lands in “Other”, re-check preferred tags (use one tag per line in the dashboard).