Where to Get Help or Join the Stan Community

Stan's community support is organized by audience and topic, and the right entry point depends on what you need. If you are stuck on an installation or modeling problem, the Stan Forums are the main place to ask. If you are contributing code or working on Stan itself, the Developer Wiki, the Forums' Developers category, and the Stan Slack channel are the relevant channels. If you prefer to learn on your own first, the documentation, tutorials, and case studies are the place to start.

Support for users at every level

The Stan Forums are described as providing support for all user levels and topics, from installing software, to writing Stan programs, to advanced Bayesian modeling techniques and methodology. That range means you do not need to be an expert to post — a question about getting Stan running is as much in scope as a question about a hierarchical model.

Before posting, it is worth checking the self-serve material, since many common questions are already documented:

• Documentation — reference material for the language and interfaces.
• Tutorials — guided walkthroughs for learning Stan.
• Case studies — worked examples of applied modeling.
• Prior Choice Recommendations wiki page — guidance on appropriate priors for use with Stan.

If your question is about which prior to use, that wiki page is the specific resource Stan points to, rather than a general forum search.

Developer resources

If your interest is in developing Stan rather than using it, the site lists three developer-oriented channels:

The Slack channel is explicitly described as being for informal developer discussions, so it complements rather than replaces the forum and wiki.

How to choose

• You have a usage or modeling question → Stan Forums.
• You want to learn on your own first → documentation, tutorials, and case studies.
• You need prior guidance → the Prior Choice Recommendations wiki page.
• You want to contribute or discuss development → Developer Wiki, the Developers forum category, or the Slack channel.

One practical note: the site separates user support from developer discussion, so posting a development question in the general forum or a beginner installation question in the developer channels will likely get you a slower, less targeted answer. Match the channel to the question.