Discourse

Fair

Agent Native Score

Free TierAPI Key AuthOpenAPI Spec

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform and community forum software that enables threaded conversations, moderation, and community engagement. It provides REST APIs and webhooks for integration with external systems.

Categories: Community · Forums · Collaboration

#3 of 9 in Community · #6 of 71 in Collaboration

Checklist Breakdown

13 of 33 checks passed. 14 unscored.

Discovery 63%

Can an agent find and understand this tool without a web search?

✓ Published OpenAPI/Swagger spec

✗ Has llms.txt or llms-full.txt

✗ Has an MCP server (official or well-maintained)

✗ MCP server listed in a public registry

✓ API reference docs are publicly accessible

✓ Docs include runnable code examples

✓ Has a public changelog or release notes

✓ Has a public status page

Auth & Onboarding 50%

Can an agent create an account and get credentials without human intervention?

✗ Signup does not require CAPTCHA

✗ Signup does not require phone verification

✓ Supports API key auth (not only OAuth)

✗ API key obtainable without manual approval

✓ No mandatory billing info to start

✓ Can sign up without creating an organization

Pricing 100%

Can an agent operate autonomously without upfront payment or contracts?

✓ Has a free tier

✓ Usage-based pricing available

✓ No minimum contract or commitment

✓ Pricing page is public (no 'contact sales')

✓ Free tier sufficient for testing (not just a trial)

Agent Tooling Not yet scored

How well does the API work for non-human consumers?

— SDK available in 2+ languages

— Structured error responses (JSON with error codes)

— Idempotency support on write endpoints

— Pagination on list endpoints

— Webhook/event support

— Sandbox or test mode available

— Rate limit headers in responses

— Consistent REST resource naming

Reliability Not yet scored

Does the tool fail gracefully when an agent makes a mistake?

— Meaningful error messages (not just 500)

— 429 responses include Retry-After header

— Documented uptime SLA (99.9%+)

— Graceful degradation under rate limits

— Request IDs in responses for debugging

— API versioning supported

Reviewer Notes

Discourse has solid API documentation and OpenAPI support, making it moderately discoverable for agents. However, account creation requires human intervention—admin approval is needed for new user registrations, creating a blocker for agent signup. The REST API is well-structured and reliable, supporting post creation, category management, and user queries. The main weakness is the friction around programmatic account provisioning; while self-hosted instances can be configured more flexibly, the SaaS offering doesn't support agent-driven signup. Pricing is reasonable for community use but scales based on user count, which may not suit high-volume agent interactions.

Discourse

Let your agents find tools like Discourse