Review your work inbox¶
For how comments and notifications reach your attention, including repeated Work items and refresh limits, read Understand comments and work updates.
Use the HiveComms inbox to find items addressed to you and continue to the work they concern. The inbox groups attention into Work, Mentions and Alerts. It is separate from your work mailbox.
Availability: These steps follow the intended Final Screens. The inspected frontend is still a sample interface: it shows conversations in its work-inbox preview and does not establish connected lane selection, counts or inbox state changes. Exact read/unread and resolve/reopen controls still need their screen and implementation follow-up. Confirm the connected experience available in your workspace before relying on it.
For access changes, missing people or stale profile details, read Understand Messaging access and people updates.
Before you begin¶
Sign in to the correct workspace and check the workspace name. Your membership and product access affect the collaboration areas available to you. Access to an inbox item does not grant access to every linked record, participant or conversation.
If you are helping someone else, have them describe the missing item or operation through your approved support process. Your own inbox will not necessarily reproduce their results.
Open and focus the inbox¶
- Open HiveComms from the WorkOS navigation.
- Choose Collaboration, then Inbox in the collaboration panel.
- Under Inbox lanes, choose Work, Mentions or Alerts to focus on that category. The inspected populated example shows the Work lane; separate populated Mentions and Alerts journeys are not yet verified here.
- Read each item's title and short description. Check its source reference, displayed time and state before deciding what to open. A source reference identifies related work; it is not an instruction to approve or complete that work.
- Where the connected item provides a working reference or row link, open it to continue to the related record. Verify the record and workspace before acting there. If no link is available or the destination fails, use the recovery guidance below.
The final design separates inbox work items from a chat transcript. A work item can lead to a request or meeting rather than a conversation. The current frontend's sample conversation navigation does not yet prove that every reference will reach its intended record.
Read counts without losing track of work¶
The number beside a lane is an unread attention count. It counts active inbox entries without a recorded read time; it is not necessarily the number of displayed rows. A resolved item may remain in the list. An active item may already be read.
The inbox fetches a limited preview. A busy category can occupy much of that preview when several lanes are loaded together. Select the relevant lane to focus on it, but do not assume that repeating a page request reveals older entries: a complete paging journey has not been established. Use the original work area to find a known request or meeting, and report a missing reference when necessary.
Avoid interpreting an empty or failed view as proof that you have no outstanding business obligations. If a deadline matters, check the owning work record and its assignment directly.
Conversation badges follow different rules from these personal inbox counts. A conversation message can remain counted after you read it while another participant has not. A difference between the badge and the list does not by itself mean your read action failed. Check the actual message and its receipt, or the personal inbox entry, before repeating an action.
Read, unread, resolved and reopened¶
When the connected product offers these actions, their meanings are distinct:
| Action | Expected meaning | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Mark read | Record that the inbox entry is read. | Approval, completion or a conversation message read receipt. |
| Mark unread | Clear the inbox entry's recorded read time. | Reopening a resolved entry. |
| Resolve | Mark the inbox entry resolved. | Completing the business process to which it points. |
| Reopen | Make a resolved inbox entry active again. | Clearing its read state or restarting the business process. |
Opening a row is not documented as automatically marking it read. Do not rely on a highlight or navigation alone as proof of a saved state change. Exact action menus and confirmations are still under reconciliation, so there are no invented click steps for them here.
If an action appears to fail or its result is unclear, refresh the connected view and check the entry and the original work before repeating an opposite action. An old success message may not describe the latest state. If you cannot establish the result, give support the entry reference, workspace, approximate time and action attempted.
Recover when something is missing or unavailable¶
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| The inbox shows sample names or the same conversation after different selections | Treat the view as an unfinished preview. It does not demonstrate your saved work or prove that a selected item opened correctly. |
| The list is empty but its badge is not | Check the selected lane and refresh. Counts and previews are separate; use the original work area for a known item. Report a persistent mismatch. |
| A request or meeting link is empty, broken or opens the wrong place | Stop before taking an action. Find the original record through its owning area or ask an authorized colleague/support to reconcile the reference. Do not alter a link to bypass access. |
| An entry is resolved but the request still needs a decision | Follow the request's actual state and permissions. Inbox resolution is not the business decision. |
| A recently updated entry remains read | A later occurrence can preserve read state. Review the content and source record rather than assuming that every update creates an unread entry. |
| A loading or action error appears | Preserve your context and retry a read when appropriate. If the previous action's outcome is uncertain, establish its saved result before changing state again. |
| Messaging or a linked record is unavailable | Ask the workspace administrator to check active membership, base product access, basic/advanced collaboration access and permission on the particular record. |
When access changes¶
The intended limited-access screen explains that some collaboration areas require additional access. Current code requires basic HiveComms access, active membership and base WorkOS access for both one-to-one messages and official workstream updates. Advanced access is additional for groups, channels and discussions.
The current design's unconditional promise that official updates remain available needs correction or an explicitly implemented exception. A shared request or a previously visible badge does not by itself guarantee continuing access. Ask the administrator for the access needed for the actual work, and keep any time-sensitive handoff in your organization's approved channel while the issue is resolved.
To begin a direct/group/channel conversation or change its audience, see Start conversations and manage people. For discussions attached to business work, read Follow work in a workstream. For sending, files, message receipts and recovery, read Send messages, share files and understand receipts. Use Search HiveComms to find a conversation or work summary. For more context on counts, responsibilities and business limits, read Messaging and your work inbox.