A NodeBB plugin that adds internal staff notes and topic assignment to forum topics. By default only administrators can see and manage notes and assignments; you can optionally allow global moderators and/or category moderators in the plugin settings. They are completely invisible to everyone else.
Version: 1.2.0 · NodeBB: 4.10+
- Internal Notes — Add, view, and delete private notes on any topic. Notes are stored per-topic and include the author and timestamp.
- Topic Assignment (User or Group) — Assign a topic to a specific user or an entire group. All members of an assigned group receive a notification.
- "Assign to myself" — The first option in the assignment modal lets the current user instantly assign the topic to themselves.
- Open/resolved status — Mark an assignment as resolved instead of unassigning it, so the record of who handled a topic is kept. Resolved assignments show a green badge and stay resolved until staff reopen them.
- Assigned topics page —
/assignedlists the topics assigned to you or your groups, with Open, Resolved and All tabs. - Stale-assignment reminders — Optional daily summary of your open assigned topics that have gone quiet.
- Email notifications — Assignment, reminder and internal-note notifications can be delivered by email.
- Permission-based visibility — Notes, assignment badges, and the thread tool buttons are completely invisible to regular users. By default only admins can see them; you can enable global moderators and/or category moderators in the plugin settings. No DOM elements are rendered for unprivileged users.
- Right sidebar placement — On topic pages, "Internal Notes" and "Assign Topic" buttons are shown in the far-right sidebar (
component="sidebar/right"). A widget is also available for themes that use a different layout. - Admin settings page — Configure who can access notes and the stale-assignment reminders (ACP > Plugins > Internal Notes & Assignments).
cd /path/to/nodebb
npm install nodebb-plugin-internalnotesThen activate the plugin from the Admin Control Panel > Extend > Plugins.
Where the buttons appear: On topic pages, the Internal Notes and Assign Topic buttons are automatically placed in the far-right sidebar (the thin vertical bar on the right edge of the page). No widget setup is required. If your theme does not have this component, you can add the Internal Notes & Assign Topic widget to the Global Sidebar in ACP > Appearance > Widgets as a fallback.
Navigate to ACP > Plugins > Internal Notes & Assignments to configure:
- Allow global moderators — Enable to let global moderators view and manage internal notes and assignments (default: off; only admins have access).
- Allow category moderators — Enable to let category moderators view and manage internal notes in their categories (default: off).
- Stale-assignment reminders — Daily summary notification to each user about open topics assigned directly to them with no activity for N days (default: off, 7 days). Configure the hour of day and timezone (IANA name, e.g.
Europe/Berlin; empty = server time). Group assignments are not included.
Assignment, stale-reminder and internal-note notifications can be delivered by email: users choose this in Settings > Notifications, and admins can set the site default in ACP > Settings > User.
- Navigate to any topic as a user who has access (admin, or global/category moderator if enabled in settings).
- In the far-right sidebar (the vertical bar on the right edge of the page), click Internal Notes to open the notes side panel, or Assign Topic to assign the topic.
- View all existing notes for the topic
- Add new notes (supports Ctrl+Enter to submit)
- Delete notes
- See current assignee (user or group) and unassign
- Mark an assignment as resolved or reopen it; resolved assignments stay resolved until reopened by staff
- Assign to myself — one-click self-assignment (first option)
- User tab — search and select any user by username
- Group tab — search and select any group by name
Go to /assigned to see topics assigned to you directly or to one of your groups. The page opens on the Open tab; switch to Resolved or All to see the rest.
To add an Assigned link to the site menu, add it in ACP > Settings > Navigation.
NodeBB v4.10.0 or newer (the reminders use the core cron module added in 4.10.0). NodeBB v3 and older are not supported.
- Tested on NodeBB 4.12.0.
- The 1.2.0 assignment workflow runs in production on NodeBB 4.13.2.
- The core APIs used were checked against NodeBB 4.14.10 and 4.15.2.
The right-sidebar button placement (injection into component="sidebar/right") is only tested with the default theme nodebb-theme-harmony v2.1.36. Other themes may need the Internal Notes & Assign Topic widget in ACP > Appearance > Widgets.
- DEVELOPMENT.md — Local setup, linting, and publishing to npm.
- TECHNICAL.md — Database keys and API endpoints.
MIT