taxonaut
Taxonaut replaces Drupal's default taxonomy list with a fast, interactive tree view — drag-and-drop, inline editing, search, undo, snapshots, and CSV import for managing large vocabularies easily.
Features
Drupal's built-in taxonomy term list works fine for small vocabularies, but becomes unmanageable once you have hundreds or thousands of terms across multiple levels. Taxonaut solves this by providing a modern, interactive tree view purpose-built for working with large hierarchical taxonomies.
Core functionality:
- Interactive tree view — collapsible hierarchy with lazy-loaded children, so even vocabularies with 100,000+ terms load instantly
- Drag-and-drop reordering — reorder terms within a level or move them to a new parent with visual confirmation
- Inline editing — double-click any term to rename it in place, no page reload needed
- Add terms from the tree — create child terms directly where you need them without leaving the page
Organization tools:
- Term merging — merge duplicate terms with automatic entity reference reassignment across all content
- Bulk operations — select multiple terms to publish, unpublish, or delete at once
- Duplicate detection — automatically find terms with identical names across your vocabulary
- Weight normalization — clean up fragmented term weights to sequential 0, 1, 2, 3...
Safety and recovery:
- Undo/Redo — Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z with a full operation history, so mistakes are never permanent
- Snapshots — save a named backup of your vocabulary hierarchy before making big changes, restore with one click
Search and navigation:
- Server-side search — real-time search across all terms with full ancestry path display (Electronics > Smartphones > Apple)
- Navigate to result — click a search result and the tree expands the entire path to that term automatically
Import and export:
- CSV import — bulk import terms from spreadsheets with automatic parent matching by name
- JSON import — import structured term data
- CSV/JSON export — export your entire vocabulary for backup or migration
Keyboard shortcuts:
- / — focus search
- Escape — clear search
- Ctrl+Z — undo
- Ctrl+Shift+Z — redo
- Enter/Space — expand or collapse the focused term
Post-Installation
After enabling Taxonaut, no additional configuration is needed. Access the tree view from any of these entry points:
1. Taxonomy admin page (/admin/structure/taxonomy) — each vocabulary now has a Tree View link in its operations dropdown menu
2. Vocabulary tabs — when viewing any vocabulary's term list, a new Tree View tab appears alongside the existing List and Edit tabs
3. Direct URL — go to /admin/structure/taxonomy/{vocabulary-machine-name}/tree
All operations require the core Administer taxonomy permission. For more granular control, Taxonaut provides per-vocabulary permissions: Taxonaut: Manage terms in {vocabulary name}. Assign these at /admin/people/permissions.
Requirements
- Drupal 10.3 or higher, or Drupal 11
- PHP 8.1 or higher
- Core Taxonomy module (ships with Drupal)
No additional contributed modules are required. Taxonaut ships with SortableJS (MIT license) bundled in the module for drag-and-drop functionality — no external library installation needed.
Recommended modules
Taxonaut works with any Drupal admin theme. It has been tested with:
- Claro (core default admin theme) — full support
- Gin (popular contributed admin theme) — full support
For large-scale taxonomy imports, consider pairing Taxonaut with:
- Feeds — for automated, recurring imports from external sources
- Migrate — for one-time migrations from other systems
Similar projects
- Taxonomy Manager (https://www.drupal.org/project/taxonomy_manager) — the long-standing taxonomy management module. Taxonaut differs by focusing on single-vocabulary management with lazy loading, a modern UI with inline editing, undo/redo, snapshots, and CSV import/export.
- Enhanced Taxonomy Manager (ETM) (https://www.drupal.org/project/etm) — a newer module with tree view and AI features. Taxonaut is a simpler, lighter alternative focused on core taxonomy management without additional dependencies.
- Taxonomy Manager Lite (https://www.drupal.org/project/taxonomy_manager_lite) — a minimal module for cleaning up unassigned terms. Taxonaut provides a more complete management solution with full CRUD, hierarchy editing, and bulk operations.
Supporting this Module
Taxonaut is free and open source. If you find it useful, you can support development by:
- Reporting bugs and feature requests in the issue queue (https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/taxonaut)
- Contributing code improvements via merge requests
- Sharing the module with other Drupal site builders