Creating your Squad

What is a Squad?

A Squad is a developer-focused group where members can come together to learn, interact, and engage on topics that matter to them. Think of Squads as tailored online communities specifically for developers. Squads facilitate knowledge sharing, discussions, and peer interactions, making them ideal for teams, projects, communities, or niche interests.

A Squad can be Public or Private:

• Public Squads: Open to all developers and discoverable in the Squad Directory. Public Squads enjoy additional benefits like wider exposure and being featured in categories.
• Private Squads: Invite-only, ensuring more controlled membership.

Key features of Squads

Squads offer several interactive features to create an engaging experience:

Create a Squad: Customize your Squad with a unique name, handle, image, description, and select a category for Public Squads.

Invite Members: Bring in developers to discuss, share resources, and collaborate.

Post & Share Content: Depending on settings, posting can be open to everyone or restricted to moderators. Share articles, create polls to gather squad opinions, and enjoy full Markdown compatibility for rich discussions.

Rules: Every Squad starts with a default set of rules. Admins can edit them, and members see them on the Squad page and next to the post composer.

Search: Search the Squad's posts from the search button in the Squad header.

Moderation Tools: As an admin, you have tools to manage posts, comments, and member interactions. Everything lives under Manage on the Squad page.

Integrate with Work Tools: Kickstart collaboration by integrating your Squad with work-related tools, such as Slack. This makes setup seamless and enables stronger team alignment.

How to create a Squad

Starting a Squad is easy. Follow these steps:

1. Start a New Squad: In the left sidebar, click the "New Squad" button or find it in the Directory.
2. Name Your Squad: Choose a name and handle that captures the focus of your Squad.
3. Add an Image: Upload a profile image for your Squad, such as a logo or icon.
4. Write a Description: Explain the theme, objectives, and member expectations for your Squad.
5. Select a Category (Public Squads Only): Choose a category that best fits your Squad from options like Languages, Web, AI, Career, and more.

Squad visibility: Private vs. Public

When creating a Squad, select the desired visibility:

1. Private Squads: Accessible only by invite, with content visible only to members.
2. Public Squads: Open and discoverable in the Squads Directory, allowing developers to join freely.

Public Squads must select a category during setup. Categories like Web, Mobile, AI, and Fun help users discover Squads that align with their interests.

Squad stack & tools

Squads can showcase the technologies, frameworks, and tools that are central to the community. This helps potential members quickly understand what technologies the Squad focuses on.

Squad admins manage the stack right on the Squad page:

1. Go to your Squad page
2. Find the Stack & Tools card in the sidebar (on smaller screens, open the About tab)
3. Add technologies relevant to your Squad's focus

Each item links to its tool page on daily.dev.

For example, a React Squad might add React, TypeScript, and Next.js to their stack, while a DevOps Squad might showcase Kubernetes, Terraform, and AWS.

For additional guidance, see Moderating your Squad.

Squads for companies

If you run a Squad for a company, it can become a Verified Company Squad. Verified Squads carry a badge, are discoverable from day one, and can show your website, links, and products with no ads. Your company can get one through business.daily.dev.