Topics

A topic is a container for related radars, such as a client, a project or a team. After reading this page you can create a topic, put radars into it, and share it without handing out more than you meant to.

What a topic is

A topic groups radars. That is all it does by default. A topic might hold a board, a decision log and a discussion that all belong to one project.

• A radar can be in one topic at a time, or in none.
• A topic holds at most 200 radars.
• The drop box and smart radars can never be in a topic. The drop box is your private inbox, and a smart radar is a saved search with no blips of its own.
• Radars appear grouped by topic in the sidebar.
• You can search and build dashboard queries by topic, for example topic:"Product work". The filter follows the topic's current radars, and normal radar permissions still apply. See Search syntax.

Note: Sharing follows the radar, not the topic. This is the one idea to hold on to. The New topic dialog says it in so many words: "A place to keep related radars together. It groups them — it does not share them."

Create a topic

There are three places to do it.

1. Open Topics in the sidebar and choose New topic.
2. Or choose New topic at the top of the Radars screen.
3. Or, while creating or editing a radar, choose the New topic button under the Topic menu, type a name and choose Create topic.

In the New topic dialog you give it a Name, an optional Tagline and a colour, then choose Create topic. A new topic has no other people in it and shares nothing.

To change the name, tagline, description or colour later, open the topic and choose its settings button. The dialog is called Topic settings.

Put radars into a topic

Filing a radar needs manage access to both the radar and the topic. The radars you can file are the ones you own, or hold the owner role on.

From the topic:

1. Open the topic from the sidebar or the Topics screen.
2. In the Radars section, choose Add existing to pick one of your radars, or New radar to create one that starts inside the topic.
3. In the Add a radar to dialog, choose a radar. It moves in at once. Choose Done when finished.

From the radar:

1. Open the radar and choose Settings.
2. On the Identity & behaviour tab, use the Topic menu. No topic takes the radar out of its topic.
3. Choose Save changes.

The New radar dialog has the same Topic menu.

To take a radar out of a topic, choose Take out beside it on the topic page. The radar is not deleted, and people it is shared with directly keep their access. If the topic's switch is on, people who reached the radar only through the topic lose it.

If a radar is already in another topic, the Add a radar to dialog shows "moves out of" followed by that topic's name. A radar is only ever in one topic.

Filing a radar changes where it is listed. It never changes the radar's own list of people. Everyone you had shared the radar with keeps exactly the access they had.

Sharing a topic is not sharing its radars

There are two separate things you can give someone, and the topic page keeps them apart.

The grouping. When you add a person to a topic, they can see the topic's name and the radars in it that they have already been given. They cannot see anything else in it. A person who has only been shared one radar inside a topic does not see the topic at all.

The radars. Access to the radars inside comes only from the radar's own sharing, or from the topic's share-everything switch.

The share-everything switch

On the topic page, the Sharing section holds one button. It reads Share every radar in it when the switch is off and Stop sharing radars through this topic when it is on.

• Off (the default). Being in the topic grants no radar access. Radars are shared one at a time. The page says so: "Being in this topic grants no radar access."
• On. Everyone in the topic can reach every radar in it, including radars added later. Each person gets the topic role they were given. A viewer can read the radars. An editor can capture into them.
• Before you turn it on, the page states how many people and how many radars it will reach. If other people are in the topic, you confirm in a dialog titled Share every radar in this topic? and choose Share them.
• Turning it off takes back exactly what the switch gave, and nothing else. Anyone you shared a radar with directly keeps it.
• It never gives management. The switch can grant reading or capturing. It never lets anyone delete a radar, publish it, share it onward, style it or add a webhook. Those stay with the radar's owner.
• Strongest access wins. A person's access to a radar is the strongest of three things: owning it, a direct share on that radar, and the topic switch. A viewer on the topic with an editor share on one radar is an editor on that radar.
• Moving a radar into a topic with the switch on gives everyone in it access immediately. The dialogs warn you before you do it. When a radar leaves a topic with the switch on, anyone who reached it only that way loses it at once.

Only the topic's owner can turn the switch on or off. Because it changes who can read what, it is a decision for a person. Agents cannot flip it. An agent also cannot share a topic that has the switch on, or file a radar into a topic that has the switch on and other people in it. The refusal tells the agent to ask you to do it from the topic's own screen.

People and roles

The People section of the topic page lists everyone with a grant, with their role.

• owner: whoever created the topic. Only the owner can rename it, add or remove people, add radars, flip the switch, or delete the topic. Ownership of a topic cannot be handed to a second person.
• editor: a topic role that matters only when the switch is on. It lets the person capture into the topic's radars.
• viewer: the default role. When the switch is on, it lets the person read the topic's radars.

To add someone, type an email address under People, choose an Access level (viewer or editor), and choose Add person.

• If they already have an account, they are added and told by email and in the app. The page confirms with "was added. They can see the grouping, not the radars." when the switch is off.
• If the address has no account, you invite them by email. They show as "invited" until they accept. Agents cannot invite new people. A person has to do it.
• With the switch off, the role decides nothing yet. The page notes: "The role decides what they would get if this topic is ever set to share its radars."

To remove someone, choose the remove button beside their name. A pending invite shows Withdraw invite. With the switch on, removing a person also removes the radar access the topic gave them. Access they were given on a radar directly stays.

If you are not the owner, the topic page shows Your access, and says whether you reach every radar because it is shared throughout, or only the radars you have been given.

Note: The radar count on a topic is the number of radars you can read, not the number it holds. A person added to a topic with five radars they have not been given sees 0. This stops the names of private radars leaking.

Delete a topic

Choose Delete topic at the bottom of the topic page. You have to type the topic's name to confirm.

• The radars are not deleted. They keep everyone they are shared with and stop being grouped.
• If the switch was on, anyone who reached a radar only through the topic loses that access immediately.

Working with an agent

Agents can read and organise topics with list_topics, read_topic, create_topic, update_topic (rename, recolour, archive), set_radar_topic and list_topic_members. delete_topic, remove_topic_member and revoke_topic_invite also exist and need radars:manage. share_topic works only on a topic with the switch off, and only for people who already have an account. There is no tool for the switch. The scopes are listed in the MCP reference.

Next

• Sharing and roles for sharing a single radar
• Templates and lanes to choose what kind of radar goes in a topic
• Dashboards to show a topic's work in one view
• What your agents can see