Following
Follow what matters to you and Archyl tells you in your inbox when it changes. You can follow:
- a C4 element: a system, a container, a component or a code element;
- an architecture decision (ADR);
- a whole project.
Follow or stop following
The Follow button (a bell) sits:
- in the header of an element's details panel;
- on each decision card;
- in the diagram toolbar, for the project.
Click it to follow; click it again to stop. A filled bell means you follow.
Owners follow automatically
The owners of an element follow it without doing anything, and so do the members of a team that owns it. To stop, click the bell like anyone else: Archyl remembers that you opted out, even though you still own the element.
What you are told
| What happens | Who is told |
|---|---|
| Someone changes a followed element or decision, or deletes it | Its followers, and the project's followers |
| Someone adds an element, a decision or a page to a followed project | The project's followers |
| Someone comments on a followed element | Its followers, and the project's followers |
| A change request that changes a followed element is opened, or gets a change touching it | The element's followers |
| A change request is opened in a followed project | The project's followers who cannot review it |
People who can edit a project already hear about every change request opened in it, so following the project adds nothing for them there.
A notification about a change lists the fields that changed. Clicking it opens the element in the diagram at its level, or the decision or page.
Keeping the noise down
- Moving an element or changing its style is not a change worth telling.
- Several edits of the same thing within an hour make one notification, as long as you have not read it.
- If you follow a project but not the element itself, you get at most one notification of each kind per hour for that project. Approving an AI discovery that creates hundreds of elements is one line, not hundreds.
- You are not told twice: a comment that mentions you, or a reply in a discussion you are part of, reaches you through that notification only.
- You are never told about your own actions.
Access
Following does not grant access. If you lose access to a project, you stop receiving notifications about it, even if you still follow it.
Current limits
- There is no page listing everything you follow yet; manage it from each element, decision or project.
- A documentation page cannot be followed on its own; follow its project.
- Notifications about followed items go to the inbox only, not by email.