Three real use cases, one Moodle site

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An empty rule list

Before any rule exists, Moodle's normal theme selection applies to everyone, exactly as if the plugin weren't installed.

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Use case 1 — one platform, two companies

Picture a single Moodle instance used to deliver training for two separate client companies, Nimbus Robotics and Solaris Retail. Each has its own category, its own courses, and its own staff cohort. Neither company wants to see the other's branding — or the platform's own generic look — anywhere on the site.

Creating a rule starts from a plain form: a name, a condition, and an action (a theme, a logo, or both).

The condition builder is a small visual editor, not raw JSON — pick a condition type from a dropdown, and the rest of the row adapts. Here the admin sets up the rule for Nimbus Robotics: if the user is a member of the “Nimbus Robotics Staff” cohort, apply the “cigales” theme and the Nimbus Robotics logo.

A second, near-identical rule for Solaris Retail takes a few seconds to add.

The condition is tied to the person, not the page — so both rules stay in effect wherever that person goes on the site. Here are two real learners, logged in at the same time, on the exact same Moodle installation:

Diego · Nimbus Robotics Staff

Priya · Solaris Retail Staff

Neither of them sees the platform's own default look, and neither sees the other's branding — each just sees “their” site.

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Use case 2 — a distraction-free theme during exams

A different, unrelated course — “Data Analysis Certification” — is open to individual learners with no company affiliation. Sam Okafor, one of them, sees the platform's ordinary default theme:

For this use case the condition isn't about who the user is, but which course they're in — specifically, whether the course carries a given tag. The admin sets up a rule that switches to the plain “classic” theme whenever a course is tagged exam-mode, with no logo change:

Tagging a course is an ordinary part of editing its settings — no need to touch the rule again for every future exam window:

The moment that tag is saved, anyone viewing the course — Sam included — sees the plainer, distraction-free theme instead:

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Use case 3 — a lighter theme on phones

The same kind of condition works for the device someone is browsing from. This rule switches to “stream” — a theme built around a mobile-first, single-column layout — whenever the device type is detected as mobile:

Sam's desktop view is unaffected — the rule only matches mobile devices. On a phone, the same course now looks like this:

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Checking a rule before it goes live: the simulator

Rules act on real traffic the moment they're enabled, so it helps to check what a given user, course and device combination would actually resolve to — without having to log in as that user. The built-in simulator shows every rule's condition, whether it matched, and why:

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The full picture, and moving rules between sites

The rules list is where everything comes together — four rules, in evaluation order, each with its own theme, logo and enabled/disabled state:

The Export and Import buttons visible in the toolbar above let an admin download the full rule set as a single JSON file and load it into another site — useful for moving a working setup from staging to production, or keeping a backup before a big change. Imported rules always arrive disabled, so nothing starts affecting real traffic without a deliberate review first.