Skip to content

Community Settings

Status: Complete

Community settings control the appearance, policies, and behavior of your community. Only Owners and Admins can edit these settings.

Editing Community Settings

Permission Required: Community Admin or higher

To edit community settings, open the community and navigate to the settings panel.

General Settings

Name

The community name is displayed in the community picker and at the top of the sidebar.

  • Length: 1--64 characters
  • Required: Yes

Description

An optional description shown in invite previews (when the community is discoverable) and in the community details.

  • Length: up to 2,048 characters
  • Required: No

Icon

The community icon appears in the community picker sidebar. Upload an image to personalize your community.

  • Formats: PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF
  • Max size: 10 MB

A banner image displayed in the community header area.

  • Formats: PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF
  • Max size: 10 MB

Policy Settings

Communities have configurable policies that control who can perform certain actions. Each policy can be set to one of three levels:

Policy value Who qualifies
everyone Any community member
moderator Moderators, Admins, and the Owner
admin Admins and the Owner only

Who Can Create Groups

Controls who can create new groups within the community.

  • Default: everyone
  • Options: everyone, moderator, admin

Who Can Create Invites

Controls who can generate invite links for the community.

  • Default: everyone
  • Options: everyone, moderator, admin

Discoverability

The discoverable toggle controls whether the community's name and description are shown in invite previews.

  • Enabled: Invite links show the community name, description, and member count.
  • Disabled: Invite links show "Private Community" with no description.

This does not affect whether the community is publicly listed -- Chatalot does not have a public community directory. Discoverability only affects what information is revealed through invite links.

Welcome Message

An optional welcome message displayed to new members when they join the community.

  • Length: up to 2,000 characters
  • Required: No

Community Theme

Communities can customize their visual appearance with a theme. When a user switches to a community that has a custom theme, the theme overrides the default colors.

Color Overrides

The following CSS color variables can be customized:

Key CSS Variable Description
accent --accent Primary accent color (buttons, links, highlights)
accentHover --accent-hover Accent color on hover
bgPrimary --bg-primary Main background color
bgSecondary --bg-secondary Secondary background (sidebar, panels)
bgTertiary --bg-tertiary Tertiary background (inputs, cards)
textPrimary --text-primary Primary text color
textSecondary --text-secondary Secondary/muted text color

All color values must be valid hex colors (e.g., #ff5500, #fff).

Custom CSS

Communities can inject custom CSS for advanced theming. The CSS is sanitized server-side before being applied.

Tip: Community themes only apply while you are viewing that community. Switching to a different community reverts to its theme (or the default).

Theme Limits

  • Maximum theme JSON size: 8 KB

Deleting a Community

Permission Required: Community Owner

Deleting a community permanently removes:

  • All groups within the community
  • All channels within those groups
  • All messages, files, and data associated with the community
  • All community memberships, bans, and invites

This action cannot be undone. Only the community Owner can delete a community.

Settings Reference

Setting Type Default Editable by
Name String (1--64 chars) Set at creation Admin+
Description String (up to 2,048 chars) None Admin+
Icon Image (PNG/JPEG/WebP/GIF, 10 MB) None Admin+
Banner Image (PNG/JPEG/WebP/GIF, 10 MB) None Admin+
Who can create groups Policy (everyone/moderator/admin) everyone Admin+
Who can create invites Policy (everyone/moderator/admin) everyone Admin+
Discoverable Boolean true Admin+
Welcome message String (up to 2,000 chars) None Admin+
Community theme JSON object (up to 8 KB) None Admin+

Next Steps