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Project Summary
We are planning on updating the categories in the editor’s element browser (both the slash menu and view more modal) to make discovering app macros & other elements easier for users. We wanted to give the developer community a heads up and open up discussion for feedback.
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Publish: 21 July 2026
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Discuss until: 28 July 2026
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Resolve by: 4 August 2026
Problem
We want to improve the discoverability of all elements within the editor’s element browser (both the slash command menu, and the view more modal). Today:
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The slash menu version of the element browser is one long, continuous list without clear categories or grouping to help users browse it.
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The view more modal version of the element browser does show categories, however, the categories themselves are outdated, and don’t well enough reflect our offerings.
Element browser - Slash menu
Element browser - View more modal
Proposed Solution
We plan to:
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Update the set of categories we have to better capture our shared offerings.
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Update the slash menu to actually show the categories.
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Update the view more modal to show the new categories.
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Cosmetically modernize the slash menu and view more modal.
Existing category names
- Rovo
- Formatting
- Confluence content
- Navigation
- Admin
- Reporting
- Development
- External content
- Media
- Visuals and images
- Communication
Proposed new categories names
- Recommended (This category will be curated by Atlassian, and have 5 items max, always showing the next category above the fold).
- Structure (contains elements like Action item, Table, Status)
- Media (contains elements like Image, video, or file, Link, Emoji)
- Embed (contains elements like Google Drive, Figma, Dropbox)
- Text formatting (contains elements like Bullet list, Heading 1, Quote)
- Rovo (contains elements like Ask Rovo)
- Data and charts (contains elements like Database, Jira work items, Child items)
- Block templates (contains Block templates)
- Other elements
Examples of new categories in the slash menu
Examples of new categories in the view more modal
How would this affect apps?
Only apps using macros would be impacted by this change. Furthermore, no work is required in response to this change (unless you’d like your app macros mapped to a different category - read on to learn more).
Apps using macros today can define a categories property (string[]) that lists out all of the relevant categories a macro is using. The value of this property determines where the macro will be shown in the view more modal version of the element browser. For example, if a macro’s categories field included media and development, that macro would show up in both of those sections in the view more modal. See documentation on categories here: Macro.
When we move to the new categories listed above, we will map existing categories to the new categories. See the table below for proposed mapping.
| Macro with these existing categories | Would be shown in this new category |
|---|---|
| Formatting Confluence content Navigation Admin |
Structure |
| Reporting Development |
Data and charts |
| Media Visuals and images Communication |
Media |
| External content | Embed |
| No categories listed | Other elements |
We will also make any new categories applicable to app developers (i.e. excluding Atlassian-native categories like Recommended, Rovo, and Block templates) valid inputs within the categories property. This would add the following valid inputs for the categories field.
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structure -
embed -
text-formatting -
data-and-charts
Recommended, Rovo, and Block templates will not be made into valid inputs as they are Atlassian-native categories. Media is already an existing category, and Other elements will be reserved for apps with no categories listed.
If you would like your app to appear in a different category than it would be mapped to by default, you can update your category before the rollout.
Timelines
Our goal is to release the above changes to categories by the end of September 2026.
Asks
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Do you have any general feedback on the new category mapping?
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In the future, to further clean up the element browser, we are considering only allowing app macros to live in one category (vs. multiple categories today). Do you have any feedback on this idea?
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Is there anything else we’re missing that may impact apps?