Mentions and Notifications

Mention a teammate or Hamster in a conversation and send the right person back to the message in context.

Overview

The mention picker lets you address a member of the current workspace or the Hamster AI with @. Human mentions are stored as structured targets, not recovered later by guessing from message text.

In a group thread, the composer prompts you to mention Hamster when you want the AI to respond.

When a message mentions a teammate, Hamster adds that person to the thread as a collaborator when needed and queues an in-app notification. The notification links to the relevant Brief, Blueprint, Method, Initiative, or Chat thread and focuses the authored message.

Mentioning Someone

  1. Type @ in a message composer.
  2. Continue typing a teammate's name or email, or hamster, to filter the picker.
  3. Choose the intended target and send the message.
  4. For a teammate mention, Hamster attempts to add that person to the thread before delivering the notification.
  5. The recipient opens the notification to return to the originating surface and message.

The picker is account-scoped. Invite someone to the workspace before trying to mention them.

Mention Targets

TargetBehaviour
@hamsterRoutes the message to the Hamster AI.
@teammateAdds the selected workspace member as a collaborator when needed and queues an in-app mention notification.
Mixed targetsHamster can respond while selected teammates receive their own notification jobs.

Mentioning a teammate from an Initiative's chat works the same way as other document-backed chats. The notification returns to that initiative and focuses the relevant message.

Notification Delivery

Mention notifications are asynchronous and best-effort:

  • One delivery job is queued per mentioned person and authored item.
  • Delivery retries transient queue failures.
  • A recipient who is currently active in the thread does not receive a redundant in-app notification.
  • Participant enrollment is idempotent; mentioning an existing participant does not create a duplicate.
  • Failure to add one participant or enqueue one notification does not fail the original message or other recipients.

Human-authored mentions use the selected structured targets. AI-authored @handle text is resolved against the current workspace members. AI-authored mention notifications are emitted for document-backed conversations, not plain core-chat or internal routine-run threads.

Mention Email Preferences

Mention notifications can also reach you by email. Turn the Email switch on or off for Mentions from teammates (on by default) and Mentions from Hamster (off by default) in Preferences. Email settings are saved per workspace.

The destination depends on the conversation:

ConversationNotification destination
BriefBrief page and authored message; child replies also focus the child thread
BlueprintBlueprint page and authored message
MethodMethod page and authored message
InitiativeInitiative page and authored message
Core ChatAccount home, thread, and authored message

The page opens the surrounding thread and focuses the referenced item. The notification body contains the author, thread title, and a bounded preview of the message.

Other In-App Notifications

The notification center also receives account activity and asynchronous outcomes, including:

NotificationRecipient
Brief ready for reviewSelected brief participants
Alignment voteBrief owner, excluding self-votes
First human reply in a child threadAuthor of the parent message, excluding self-replies and AI-authored parents
Initiative owner assignmentNewly assigned owner, excluding self-assignment
Plan generation completed or failedUser who started generation
Cloud Agent delivery completed, incomplete, or failedUser who started delivery

Notification severity is one of Info, Warning, Error, or Success. Severity describes the outcome; it is not a separate semantic event type.

Slack DM Mirroring

If the recipient can use a connected Slack installation, Hamster mirrors eligible in-app notification inserts to a Slack DM on a best-effort basis.

  • The Slack message uses the same human-readable body as the in-app notification.
  • When the notification has a link, the DM appends View in Hamster.
  • Hamster resolves the Slack user through a verified identity binding or matching email.
  • The mirror does not add notification-specific emoji, native Slack mentions, or custom templates.
  • Slack API or identity-resolution failures do not roll back the original Hamster action.

Notification Center

The notification center splits notifications into two tabs. Primary holds teammate activity directed at you and work that needs you, such as teammate mentions, assignments, review requests, and deliveries waiting on you. Updates holds automated progress and results, such as mentions from Hamster, plan generation, and Cloud Agent delivery results. A tab shows its unread count when it has unread notifications. Mark as read marks everything in the open tab as read.

  • Marking a notification as read clears its unread state while leaving it available.
  • Dismissing a notification removes it from the notification surface.
  • Notifications are account-scoped, so switching workspaces changes the visible list and unread count.