Skip to main content
An action is a concrete next step Squad suggests off the back of an insight. Most are plain tasks (“message engineering for an estimate”, “confirm the SSO scope”). Some carry a chat prompt so you can start working them with Squad in one click. Turning an action into a brief is optional.
Actions

​
What an action carries

Every action has an ID like AC-12. You’ll see it on cards, in search, and at the top of the detail page.

​
Where actions appear

Actions show up in three places. Start, complete, or reprioritise one anywhere and every surface updates on its own:

Dashboard

The Prioritized Actions widget lists your highest-priority open actions across the workspace.

Actions page

The full list, reached from Actions in the sidebar.

Insight detail

Under Squad recommends, the actions relevant to that insight. The same AC- action can appear under several insights when it addresses the same need.

​
The Actions page

Tabs split the list into All, Suggested, In progress, Done, and Dismissed. Rows are sorted by priority (P0 → P1 → P2). Each row shows the AC- ID, title, the primary source insight (IN-) plus a +N count for additional linked insights, a priority chip, a status chip, and the owner’s avatar. Use the search box (Search actions or AC-…) to filter by title or ID. You can act on a row without opening it:
  • Change Priority or Status inline from the chips.
  • Assign an Owner from the avatar cell.
  • The arrow button on the right is Start with Squad (or Continue with Squad once the action is in progress). It only appears while there’s something to work.
  • The ⋯ menu holds the rest: Mark done, Snooze 3 days, Dismiss, Generate PRD / Generate decision brief, jump to the linked insight or brief, and Copy the AC- ID.
Click anywhere else on a row to open the action’s detail page.

​
The action detail page

Opening AC-12 gives you the Description, Why it matters, and a Notes editor you can type into freely. A right-hand Info panel lets you change Status, Priority, Effort, Category, and Owner, and shows what the action is Linked to. Use the link picker to add more insights or attach a brief; removing one insight leaves the action linked to the others. With the Linear integration connected, the panel also carries a Linear row. Click Link, paste an issue URL or an identifier like ENG-123, or search your issues and pick one. The pill that appears shows the identifier, the state Linear last reported, and a click through to the ticket, with its own remove button to unlink. One issue links to one Squad action or brief, and the state shown is as of the last event Linear sent rather than a live read. Two buttons sit below the panel:
  • Start with Squad (or Continue with Squad if the action is already in progress).
  • Create brief, which opens a menu to Generate PRD or Generate decision brief. This is hidden once the action has already produced a brief.
The ⋯ menu in the top corner mirrors the row menu.

​
Statuses and the lifecycle

An action moves through four states:
Freshly proposed by Squad, waiting on you.
You’ve started it (or set it yourself).
Completed. It drops off the dashboard and the open lists, and the dashboard’s Actions completed count ticks up.
Set aside as not worth doing.
The lifecycle is Suggested → In progress → Done, with Dismissed available at any point. Generating a brief is a command on the action, not a status.

​
Starting, finishing, and dismissing

  • Start with Squad opens the chat, seeds it with the action’s prompt (with the action referenced), and sends it. The action moves to In progress. Every action can be started. If it has no author-written prompt, Squad builds one from its title, description, and rationale.
  • Mark done completes the action.
  • Snooze 3 days hides it for three days.
  • Dismiss removes an action that isn’t worth doing. On an insight, dismissed actions collapse under a Show dismissed toggle so you can still see what was passed over.

​
Owners and assignment

Every action can have one owner. Click the avatar (on a row) or the Owner field (on the detail page) to open the member list, then pick someone, or choose Unassign to clear it. Unassigned actions show a dashed placeholder avatar. The owner’s face follows the action everywhere it appears.

​
Turning an action into a brief

When an action’s real job is a written artefact (a spec, a recommendation), Squad can draft it. Choose Generate PRD (product requirements) or Generate decision brief (a build/defer/research recommendation) from the row menu, the detail page, or the Squad recommends list. Squad drafts from the action plus all of its linked insights, deduplicating their evidence and using the 15 strongest signals across the set. It drafts in the background: the action shows a Building… badge, then a green BR- badge linking to the finished draft. If drafting fails, you’ll see a Failed badge. Each action produces at most one brief. Once it has, the generate options disappear and the menu offers Open brief instead. See Briefs for what happens next.

​
Squad recommends (on insights)

On an insight’s detail page, the Squad recommends panel lists the actions tied to that insight, sorted by priority, each with its AC- ID and priority chip. If an insight has no actions yet, you can trigger Squad to rank and propose some. The panel shows a working state while it thinks, then fills in as actions arrive. Dismissed suggestions hide behind a Show dismissed toggle. Before saving a recommendation, Squad checks open actions across the whole workspace. If a suggestion is semantically the same as an existing Suggested or In progress action, Squad links that existing AC- record to the current insight instead of creating or rewriting an action. Its title, description, rationale, owner, priority, notes, status, prompt, and snooze remain unchanged. Recently dismissed matches are suppressed for 30 days; completed actions do not block a fresh recommendation. Squad can prepare recommendations for several insights at once, but queues the final check and save per workspace so two insights cannot create the same action at the same time.

​
Cookbook

From insight to done. Open a high-scoring insight, read its Squad recommends list, and pick the action that matters. Hit Start with Squad to hand it to the chat with full context. Work it through, then come back and Mark done. The action leaves your open lists. Clear the deck each morning. Open the dashboard and scan Prioritized Actions top to bottom. Assign an Owner to the ones that belong to a teammate, Start the P0 you’ll tackle first, and Dismiss anything that’s no longer worth doing. Draft a spec from an action. On an action whose job is to write something up, choose Generate PRD (or Generate decision brief). Watch for the Building… badge, then click the green BR- badge when it turns up to open and edit the draft. From there it’s a brief with full version history.