Docs Concepts
Waiting on you
One deterministic, ranked list of everything that needs you, with the reason each item ranks where it does.
#What lands in the list
| Kind | Comes from |
|---|---|
question | An agent asked with ask_human. |
blocked | A ticket waits on you: failed too often, or its checks couldn't run. |
approval | Verified work waiting for your sign-off, or a criterion only you can confirm. |
brief | A discovery brief waiting for review. |
reroute | A pending reroute proposal. The tickets it touches are frozen. |
reroute-suggested | A sign the plan may need to change (for example a ticket blocked after its last attempt). |
policy | Finished work changed high-risk files without asking you. See policy.json. |
integration | Two agents' branches changed the same files. See Parallel work. |
overlap | Two active claims declared overlapping files. |
stalled | A claim whose agent went quiet. |
flag | A pull request or CI result that doesn't match what the agent claimed. |
hitl-ready | A ticket that needs a person and is ready to start. |
knowledge | Suggested or flagged knowledge entries to review. |
#How items are ranked
Each item gets a score from fixed rules, added in a fixed order so the reasons always read the same way:
| Points | For |
|---|---|
| Half the kind's weight (0–50) | Weights per kind, from attention.json. |
| +25 / +10 / 0 | Urgency: blocking, soon, fyi (questions; agents set it on ask_human). |
| +4 per held ticket, up to 20 | Tickets that can't move until it's handled, counted through blocking edges. |
| +15 | An agent sits idle waiting for it. |
| +1 per 15 minutes waited, up to 10 | Age. |
| −2 per extra question, up to −10 | Several open questions from one agent in a trail: fewer, batched questions rank better. |
Every item carries plain reasons, such as blocks 4 tickets, claude-02 idle for 12 min or marked blocking. Related items in a trail are grouped so you answer them together. Ties break by age, then id, so the order is stable.
#Interruptions
Only items scoring at or above the team's interrupt threshold (default 70) notify you actively, by browser notification or Slack. Everything else waits in the list and in the digest. Focus mode (an hour, from the header) and your quiet hours hold interruptions back but never hide the list.
- Team rules: attention.json.
- Your channel and quiet hours: Personal settings.
#Snooze and set aside
Later snoozes an item (30 minutes, 2 hours or until tomorrow, at most a week). fyi and policy items can be set aside. Both are stored in .teamtrail/.attention/state.json, which stays local.
#From the chat
list_inbox returns the same ranked items with their reasons, and /scout inbox lists them. Questions can be answered in the chat; everything else is decided in the Lookout. Teamtrail never answers or approves on your behalf.