Project Overview

The Overview is a project's home page. It answers the question you usually open a project with, "does anything need me?", and then gives you a way back into your conversations, a private scratchpad and a short record of how the project is moving. When you open DevSpec it takes you to the last project you used; the Overview is the first item in that project's sidebar.

What's on the Overview

The project Overview reads top to bottom in two parts, split by a line labeled For the record.

Above the line is what you might act on now:

1. The masthead: the project's name, its vision (or its description if there's no vision yet), and one sentence saying how many things are waiting on you: "Nothing needs you.", "1 thing needs you." or "3 things need you."
2. Notices, only when something needs setting up or fixing: your code being read for the first time, a broken connection, an empty balance, unfinished setup, or an invitation to bring your team in.
3. Needs attention: the things waiting on you, grouped. It's hidden when nothing is waiting.
4. Sessions: start a new session or jump back into a recent one.
5. Scratchpad: your private notes for this project.
6. Still to Discuss: the open questions raised in the project's sessions.

Below the line is the record of how the project is doing:

1. Goals: the project's current goals and how far along each one is.
2. Project pulse: a short account of what the project has recently achieved.

The masthead count, Needs attention and the Scratchpad are personal: each person sees their own.

See what needs you

On the project Overview, the masthead counts what's waiting on you ("3 things need you.") and Needs attention lists it. The list covers this project only: messages and questions addressed to you, the tasks you created or are assigned to, and a few things the whole team should know about, such as a failed deploy.

Rows fall into three groups. Each group shows four rows, then Show N more, and the group labels appear once more than one group has something in it.

The most urgent rows come first, and among equally urgent rows the one that has waited longest is at the top.

The count includes everything waiting on you. When there is more than fits in the overview, Needs attention shows a shortlist and links to the rest in Tasks and your notifications.

Click a row to go where you deal with it. Opening a row that came from a notification marks that notification read. To set a row aside without acting on it, use the × at its right. A dismissed row stays hidden while nothing about it changes, and comes back if the item moves on, an agent fails again, or the count changes.

For the same kind of list across every project, use the Notifications page. See Notifications and messages.

Setup and health notices on the Overview

Near the top of the project Overview, DevSpec shows a notice only when there's something to wait for or fix. A healthy, set-up project shows none.

Reading your code. While a repository is being indexed for the first time, a card shows how many files have been read. You can start a session straight away; Dev answers questions about the code as soon as indexing finishes. When it's done, the card changes to Your code is indexed with a Start a session button, and you can dismiss it. See Code indexing.

Something is broken. If a connection the project relies on stops working (a repository, database, logs or deployments), or the organization's balance reaches $0 (Out of funds), a card names the problem, with a Resolve button that takes you to where you fix it. Problems that aren't blocking anything don't appear here.

Continue setting up. Until a project's required setup steps are done, its Maintainers see a Continue setting up card showing progress and the next step. Continue setup takes you back to the setup guide. A Maintainer can dismiss the card for everyone once a repository is connected. If you've created an access token for your agent but it hasn't connected yet, you'll also see Connect your tools, with Go to Agent setup. See Connect your agent.

Invite your team. While you're the only person in the organization, the Overview suggests bringing a teammate in, so you can plan, review and hand work to an agent together in the same session with Dev. There's no charge per person. Invite your team opens the project's Members page, and the card disappears once someone else joins. See Organizations, members and roles.

Start or continue a session from the Overview

The Sessions card on the project Overview is the quickest way into a conversation. New session starts one; DevSpec asks whether to start with Dev, start the conversation on your own, or bring in one of your agents. Below it are the most recently active sessions, each with how long ago it was last used, and All sessions opens the full list.

On a phone, New session is hidden: use the floating Start a new session button at the bottom of the screen instead, which lets you switch between Talk and Type. See Voice.

Sessions are where your team, Dev and your agents talk work through together. For how they work, who can see them and what they cost, see Sessions.

Keep private notes in the Scratchpad

The Scratchpad on the project Overview is a place for your own working notes: what you're holding in your head for today, and things to come back to. It's private to you and belongs to this project, so each project has its own. Teammates can't see it, and neither can Dev or your agents.

Notes sit in two lists that you manage yourself:

• Now: what you're working on.
• Later: things you're parking.

Nothing moves between them on its own and nothing expires. When you're ready for your parked notes, Promote Later → Now (shown when Later has notes) moves all of them into Now.

To work with notes:

• Type in the empty row at the bottom of a list ("What's on your mind…" or "Park for later…"). A note saves when you click away, and the card shows Saving… then Saved. A fresh empty row appears after each save.
• Press Esc while editing to go back to the last saved text.
• Clear all of a note's text to delete it, or use the trash icon.
• Give a note a color (Rose, Amber, Green, Blue or Violet). The colors mean whatever you want them to.
• Drag a note by its handle to reorder it, or to move it between Now and Later.

Dragging, and the color and trash controls that appear when you hover over a note, need a mouse, so use a desktop browser for those. On a phone you can still add and edit notes, and clear a note to delete it.

Still to Discuss on the Overview

Still to Discuss on the project Overview collects the open questions raised in all of the project's sessions: things someone brought up that the room hasn't settled. DevSpec keeps the list up to date as people talk. Inside a session you can also add points yourself, mark them Discussed and reopen them.

The heading shows how many are open. Newest questions come first, five at a time, with Show N more for the rest. Switch between Open and Discussed at the top of the card. Each point shows a note on what's undecided and a link to the session where it came up.

Discuss on an open point lets you pick where to talk it through: the session it came from, an existing discussion, or a new session. For a new session, you can ask Dev or an agent, or start the discussion and bring someone in later. See Sessions.

Track goals from the Overview

Under For the record on the project Overview, the Goals card shows up to eight of the project's current goals, in the order set on the Goals page. Each one shows a progress bar, how many of its linked tasks are done and in progress, and its target date if it has one. Progress comes from the work linked to the goal, so it moves as items are built and verified, with nobody updating it by hand. Click a goal or View goals to open the Goals page.

With no goals yet, the card reads "No goals yet: give DevSpec one to orient work around." with Add a goal. Achieved and dismissed goals don't appear here. See Goals.

Project pulse: what the project has been doing

Project pulse, at the bottom of the project Overview, is a short record of what the project has recently achieved, so anyone can catch up on the shape of things at a glance. It appears once the project has some activity.

It lists up to 12 recent outcomes, newest first, each labeled with what happened:

• Implemented and Verified: tasks that were built, and items that reached Done.
• Published: decision records, plans, guides, runbooks and other artifacts.
• Goal achieved.
• Decision made and Decision updated: decisions and conventions the team recorded as memories.

Click any row to open it. Routine activity, such as new items being created, doesn't appear.

Once there's enough recent activity, DevSpec also writes a headline above the list with up to three themes, summing up what the work adds up to. It's rewritten as new outcomes come in. Writing it is background work, charged to your organization's balance. See Billing, usage and limits.

Full history opens the project's Changelog, the full list of finished work. See Changelog.

What did I miss?

When you've been away, three places bring you up to date.

The project Overview. Open the project: the masthead says how many things are waiting on you, Needs attention lists them, and Project pulse shows what the team has achieved recently.

A session. Type /catchup in a session's message box to see what happened there while you were away. Only you see the result. DevSpec runs it for you the first time you open a session that already has history, and when a lot has happened since you last looked. /summary gives you a private recap of the whole conversation. Both are charged to your organization's balance. See Sessions.

The Notifications page. Notifications, in the sidebar or through View all notifications in the bell, covers every project you belong to. Its Needs action tab holds what's waiting on you, and Waiting on you groups unanswered mentions and replies by who sent them. See Notifications and messages.