Notifications
The bell in the header is where LiveContext tells you what needs your attention: failed production runs, approvals, expired credentials, tasks, invitations and credits. Some of these alerts can also reach you by email or in a connected chat app.
The notification bell
The bell sits at the top right of every page, on desktop and on mobile. It always gets every notification, whatever your delivery settings. Two markers on the icon tell you something without opening it:
- A red dot: you have unread items in the inbox.
- A pulsing blue dot (when nothing is unread): one of your automations is due to fire within the next 5 minutes.
Click the bell to open it. It has four tabs: Inbox, Triggers, Activity, and Shared. When the inbox is empty, the bell opens on Triggers if you have armed automations, and on Activity otherwise.
Inbox
The inbox lists things that happened and may need you, newest first. Repeated events about the same item are grouped into one row with a count, for example “3 failed runs” on one workflow.
| Row | Raised when | Clicking opens |
|---|---|---|
| Failed run | A run of a production workflow fails, is cancelled, or times out. Test runs from the editor do not count. | That run |
| Workflow stopped on its spending cap | A production workflow hits its spending cap. | The workflow, or its run |
| Scheduled agent failing | A scheduled agent keeps failing on its unattended runs. | The agent |
| Pending approval | A production run waits on a User Approval node. The row goes away once the approval is resolved. | The workflow run |
| Expired credential | A connected account can no longer be refreshed. | That credential in Settings |
| Disabled trigger | A trigger was switched off. | The matching tab of Public Access |
| Task assigned | A task is assigned to one of your agents, or to you as assignee or reviewer. | The task board |
| Task awaiting your review | A task you must decide on reaches In Review. | The task board |
| Agent request waiting for you | A run of one of your agents (schedule, webhook, task) left a permission request, a service to connect, or a question (schedule and webhook runs only) in its conversation. A request an agent leaves in a chat while you talk with it counts too, once it has gone unanswered for two minutes (whether or not you are still on the page). Like every row, it shows to the whole workspace. The row goes away once the request is answered. | That conversation |
| Agent with nobody to ask | An agent run started by another agent, or running as a workflow step, needed someone to authorize a tool and could reach nobody. | The agent |
| Organization invitation | You are invited to join a workspace. | Your invitations |
| Credits running low, Out of credits | Your credit balance is low or empty. | Billing |
| New trophy | You unlock a trophy. | Your trophies |
| New app from a creator you follow | A creator you subscribed to publishes a new app. | Its marketplace page |
| New subscriber | Someone subscribes to you. | Their profile |
Act from the inbox
- Click a row to open what it is about.
- A row for a pending approval has two buttons: Open goes to the run, Review opens the pending approvals in a dialog so you can decide without leaving the page you are on.
- Hover a row and click Delete to remove it.
- Mark all read clears the unread count. Use Previous page and Next page to browse older items.
Triggers
Triggers looks ahead: it lists your armed automations (workflows, applications and agents with a live production trigger), with a countdown to the next run for schedules and when each one last ran. Chips filter by trigger kind; the tab opens on Schedule each time, and clicking the active chip shows every kind. A badge marks an automation that is disabled or capped by its spending cap.
Hover a row and open its menu. The run actions appear on scheduled rows only:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Run now | Runs it immediately. The scheduled run still happens. |
| Run instead of the scheduled run | Runs it immediately and uses up the run that was coming. |
| Disable workflow | Stops all of its production triggers until you choose Reactivate workflow. The label follows the resource (agent, interface). |
| Open in the agenda | Opens the agenda on the day of the next run, with the schedule highlighted. |
The two run actions are unavailable on an automation blocked by its spending cap. For moving an occurrence or seeing the week ahead, use the Agenda.
Activity
Activity shows the last 50 edits in the active workspace, with who made each one and when. Filter by kind: Workflow, Application, Interface, Agent, Skill, or Table. Click a row to open that resource.
Shared
Shared lists every public link in the workspace (a disabled one is marked Disabled): Conversations, Applications, Chat endpoints, and Form endpoints. Each row shows how often the link was opened, and has Copy public link, Open public link, and Revoke link. Revoking cuts access for anyone who has the URL. The same links are managed in Public access.
Alerts in your browser
While a LiveContext tab is open, even in the background, your browser can alert you when something needs you: a short sound, a browser notification (the system banner of Windows, macOS or Android), and the number waiting in front of the tab title, for example “(2) LiveContext”. Clicking the notification brings the tab back and opens the row, as the bell would, in the workspace the row belongs to. When you are already looking at LiveContext, only the sound plays: the bell in front of you shows the row.
They are off until you turn them on. The first time something that needs you arrives, a small card under the bell offers to turn them on (on the browser you signed up with, not during your first day, which the welcome tour and the onboarding already fill); Turn on asks your browser for permission to show notifications. Not now brings the card back after 7 days, then 30 days, and never after a third time. You can also turn them on in Settings > Overview > Notifications, on the Browser alerts row; once they are on, its Options link offers:
- Sound: the chime, on or off. Browsers only let a page play sound once you have clicked in it, so a tab you never clicked shows the notification without the chime.
- Alert me for: What waits for my answer (pending approvals, agent requests and tasks, the default) or Everything that needs me (also failed runs, expired credentials and credit alerts: the rows of the home page's Needs you block).
- Send a test: shows what an alert looks like on this browser, offered once the browser allows notifications.
These choices are saved in this browser only: each computer or phone has its own. Alerts follow the workspace the tab is on, and nothing is sent once every LiveContext tab is closed. A tab in the background is told at once; if its live connection drops, it still checks every minute. Phones pause the tabs you are not looking at, so there the alert comes when you are back. With several tabs open you get one alert, not one per tab, and a row that keeps coming back (a workflow failing every minute) alerts at most once every 5 minutes. The bell still gets everything. Signing out closes the notifications LiveContext left on your screen.
Alerts by email and in chat apps
Beyond the bell, seven kinds of alert can be sent to you by email, to a connected chat channel, or both. Choose per kind in Settings > Overview > Notifications, with the options Email and channel, Email, Channel, or Bell only.
| Kind | Covers | Sent | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Failures | A production workflow you own failed or stopped on its spending cap, or a scheduled agent keeps failing. | Right away | Email and channel |
| Credits | Your balance fell to 20% of your monthly grant or less, or below 1 credit (out: workflow steps are refused from there). Checked every 15 minutes, sent once per level (low, then out) per cycle, and only to accounts that spent credits in the last 7 days. Never sent with unlimited credits (the self-hosted default). | Right away | Email and channel |
| Account issues | A credential expired or a trigger was switched off. | In the daily summary | |
| Tasks | A task was assigned to you or waits for your review. | In the daily summary | |
| Creators you follow | A creator you subscribed to published a new app. | In the daily summary | |
| New subscribers | Someone subscribed to you. | In the daily summary | |
| Orbi's check-in | Orbi's daily report on what needed you, when you switched the daily check-in on (Agents > Settings). Nothing is sent on a day nothing is new. In a workspace shared with others, it is never posted on the team's channel: it comes by email when your plan includes email alerts. | At the hour you chose | Channel, else email |
Messages are written in your language and time zone. The rules keep them few: one message when a workflow breaks, at most one reminder a day while it stays broken, and one when it works again. You never get more than 10 alerts on one medium in any 24 hours; beyond that, further alerts wait for the next daily summary, and extra reminders and “working again” messages are dropped. Orbi's check-in report does not count toward those 10, and never waits on them.
Choices apply to the workspace you are in, except Credits, Creators you follow, and New subscribers, which apply in all your workspaces. Channel alerts go to the workspace's default chat channel, so everyone in that chat can read them. Those three are the exception: their channel alerts go to your personal workspace's channel. Orbi's check-in is one person's report, so in a workspace shared with others it never goes to the channel. If no channel is connected, the channel options are unavailable; see Channels to connect one.
The same page shows Where channel alerts go: the default chat, the service, and the bot that sends the messages. When several chats are connected, a member who can edit the workspace can choose Send the alerts to another chat. The chosen chat becomes the workspace default, so approvals and agent questions that follow the default go there too. The rules that limit alerts are behind How alerts are limited, next to the page title.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The channel options cannot be picked, with “No chat channel is connected to this workspace” | The active workspace has no chat channel connected. | Follow Connect a channel, then come back and choose Channel or Email and channel. |
| A kind shows “With this choice nothing leaves the app: the bell still shows it.” | The saved choice can no longer be delivered: your plan no longer includes alert emails, the channel was disconnected, or it is the default on a Free plan with no channel. | Pick an option that is available, connect a channel, or upgrade to a plan that includes alert emails. |
| Email options are unavailable, with “Email alerts are included from the Pro plan.” | On the cloud Free plan, only Credits, Creators you follow, and New subscribers alerts are emailed. | Upgrade to a paid plan, or use Channel. |
| A failed run does not appear in the inbox | Only runs of a production workflow (a pinned version) raise a notification. Test runs from the editor do not. | Pin a version to production (see Triggers). |
| Run now and Run instead of the scheduled run are unavailable, with “Blocked by the spending cap” | The automation has reached its spending cap. | Raise the cap or change how it resets. A cap that never resets stays blocked until you do. |
| Channel alerts never arrive although chats are connected | None of the connected chats is the workspace default, or the default chat is switched off. Both cases are stated under Where channel alerts go. | Choose Send the alerts to another chat, or make a chat the default in Settings > Channels and switch it on. |
| A test from Browser alerts plays the sound but no notification appears | Your operating system hides the browser's notifications (Do Not Disturb, Focus, or notifications turned off for the browser in the system settings). | Allow notifications for your browser in the system settings, or turn the focus mode off. |
| Browser alerts says notifications are blocked | You refused them when the browser asked, or blocked them in its site settings. A page cannot ask again. | Click the icon at the left of the address bar, then Site settings > Notifications > Allow, and reload the page. When the site is not listed there, allow notifications in the browser's own settings and for the browser in your system settings. |
| Alerts stop arriving after a burst of failures | No medium sends more than 10 alerts in any 24 hours. | Check the bell, which always gets everything. The rest arrives in the next daily summary. |