Notifications & Inbox

Overview

There is no notification server. Because every change in the workspace syncs to your device anyway, notifications are derived locally: a notifier runs one evaluation per applied change and decides whether it deserves your attention. Your read state is itself a private, user-owned node (InboxState), so the inbox follows you across devices without anyone else seeing what you’ve read.

The rules

Rules run in priority order — the highest matching reason wins:

mention > dm > assigned > reply > comment > room-mention > keyword

Three details keep this trustworthy:

Edge semantics — assignment notifies on the transition into being assigned. A re-sync or replay of the same change never re-notifies.
Own-change suppression — your own edits never notify you.
Tombstone suppression — deleted content doesn’t resurrect a notification.

Read state: watermarks + mention acks

Read state is the Zulip-style hybrid:

a per-channel watermark (“read up to here”) advances as you view a channel, clearing activity in bulk;
explicit mention acks track each mention individually, so a mention can’t be accidentally swept away by scrolling past it.

On top of that, inbox items can be triaged: done, saved, or snoozed.

Badges and alerting

Badging is two-tier so the urgent never drowns in the ambient:

a number counts things aimed at you — mentions and DMs
a dot means there’s other activity — replies, comments, room chatter

Channels can be muted, and a mention overrides the mute (you can silence a busy channel without becoming unreachable). Do-not-disturb windows suppress alerting overnight; items still accumulate in the inbox.

The Inbox

The Notifications tray (bottom panel) is the triage surface: reason-chip filters (mentions / DMs / assigned / replies…), done/snooze actions, and deep links that jump straight to the message, task, or comment in its own tab. The status-bar bell carries the two-tier badge.

Delivery to other surfaces

Because derivation is local, anything that syncs can notify. Push delivery to closed apps (Web Push, Electron, mobile) rides the hub and is in progress — see the roadmap.