A Notification is an in-app or email alert delivered to you when something in Catalio needs your attention. Notifications appear in the bell icon and on the Notifications page, and can also be sent to your registered email address based on preferences you control in Settings → Notifications.
Every notification belongs to your current Organization. You only see and manage notifications for the organization you are working in.
Notification Types
Catalio sends alerts for seven kinds of platform events:
| Type | Triggered When |
|---|---|
| Repository sync | A connected Repository finishes a sync and surfaces new Components |
| Mention | Another user mentions you in a comment or discussion |
| Comment | A new comment is posted on a Catalio entity you own or follow |
| Announcement | A system-wide announcement is published by an admin |
| Proposals pending | One or more Change Proposals are awaiting your review or approval |
| Component requirement suggestions | AI-suggested requirements are surfaced for a Component |
| PRD enrichment | PRD enrichment from an uploaded document or attachment completes |
Each type has its own preference controls so you can choose how — and whether — you want to be notified.
Delivery Channels
Each notification can reach you through one or both channels:
In-app — Appears in the bell icon dropdown and on the Notifications page (/notifications). When you have an open browser tab, new notifications appear in real time without refreshing the page.
Email — Sent to your registered email address. Email delivery respects quiet hours (see below) and your digest settings.
A single event can notify you in-app only, by email only, or through both channels, depending on your preferences for that notification type.
Your Preferences
Configure delivery at Settings → Notifications. For each notification type above, you can turn in-app and email delivery on or off independently.
Default behavior leans toward in-app alerts for ambient events (repository sync, mentions, announcements) and both in-app and email for events that usually need a response — especially change proposals awaiting review.
Additional settings:
| Setting | What It Controls |
|---|---|
| Real-time in-app delivery | Whether new notifications appear immediately in the bell while Catalio is open (when off, you still see them after a refresh) |
| Email digest frequency | Roll up email notifications into a periodic digest instead of sending one email per event |
| Quiet hours | Suppress email during a configured overnight or off-hours window |
Quiet Hours
When quiet hours are enabled, email notifications generated during your configured window are held back. In-app notifications still arrive in the bell — you can read them the next time you open Catalio — but no email is sent during the window.
The window can wrap midnight (for example, 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM). Times are evaluated in UTC today.
Quiet hours apply to direct email delivery. Digest settings control whether suppressed emails accumulate into a roll-up separately.
Reading and Managing Notifications
Notifications start unread and move to read when you open them or mark them read. There is no “mark unread” action — once read, a notification stays read, but you can still find it on the Notifications page.
- Mark as read — Clear a single notification from your unread count.
- Mark all as read — Clear every unread notification in your current organization at once. The bell badge resets immediately.
Filter the Notifications page by All or Unread to focus on what still needs attention.
Each notification includes a title, a longer body, and usually a link that takes you directly to the related requirement, proposal, repository, or other source.
What You Control
You manage only your own notifications. Other users cannot read, update, or clear your inbox. Notifications are created by platform events and background jobs — not by other users editing your preferences.
Relationships at a Glance
| Related Concept | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Users | Each notification has exactly one recipient |
| Organizations | Notifications are scoped to the organization you are working in |
| Change Proposals | Generate proposals-pending notifications when they enter the review queue |
| Repositories | Generate repository-sync notifications when a sync completes |
Best Practices
Leave proposals-pending defaults alone unless you are flooded.
Those defaults are the only ones that ship with email enabled. Pending proposals block forward motion on an Initiative — if you mute them, your inbox quiets down but delivery slows. If volume is a problem, switch to a daily email digest rather than muting outright.
Use quiet hours instead of muting categories.
Quiet hours preserve in-app delivery while suppressing email outside working hours. Muting a category turns off both channels permanently — that is rarely what you want.
Mark all as read at the end of a working session.
The bell badge is most useful when it represents actual new attention items. The Notifications page has a one-click Mark all as read button for exactly this.
Follow the links in each notification.
Most notifications deep-link to the source entity — the requirement that was commented on, the proposal awaiting review, the repository that just synced. Following the link is faster than navigating through the entity tree.
Next Steps
- Configure your Settings — Learn how user preferences and profile fields work
- Review Change Proposals — Understand the main source of proposals-pending notifications
- Connect a Repository — Trigger repository-sync notifications when code lands
Pro Tip: If a teammate is missing notifications they should be receiving, check three things in order: (1) their notification toggles for that type, (2) whether quiet hours are active during the event window, and (3) whether an email digest has rolled the event into a pending batch rather than sending immediately.
Support
- Documentation: Continue exploring core concepts to understand what generates each notification type
- In-App Help: The AI assistant can explain why a specific notification was delivered or suppressed
- Email: support@catalio.ai
- Community: Share notification-tuning patterns with other Catalio users
