Topics
A Topic is a case file for one ongoing matter — every thread about it, a timeline of what happened, what Zinley found out, and what's still pending. Open Topics from the sidebar.
Instead of hunting through separate calls and email threads, you follow one living card from start to done — and that includes your own planned work, not just what Zinley is chasing on your behalf.
Statuses and filters
Every topic sits in one of three states, and the tabs let you slice by who owes the next move. Search topics finds one by keyword, and Refresh pulls the latest.
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Active | In motion — something is happening. |
| Waiting | Parked until someone replies or a clock runs out. |
| Done | Wrapped up, kept for reference. |
Filter by All, Waiting on you, Waiting on them, or Done. When nothing needs you, you'll see "You're all caught up."
Reading a topic card
- A status dot and the topic title (e.g. "Zinley Email Audit — HTML report deployed").
- A one-line summary of where things stand.
- The people and channels involved — names plus the email address or phone number the matter runs on.
- The date of the latest activity and a status label like Done.
Inside a topic
Open a card and you get the whole file:
- Threads — every conversation attached to this matter, across channels.
- Timeline — the events, in order: who said what, what Zinley sent, what changed.
- Findings — research Zinley did on its own (a document it read, a source it pulled), with the insight it took away. Dismiss anything that isn't useful.
- Pending actions — the live to-dos: commitments someone made, decisions waiting on you, open questions, and your own intentions or scheduled runs.
Your own work lives here too
Topics aren't only about other people. Work you planned for yourself lands in a topic called Your own tasks, and those rows are what feed the Your day section of your Brief. Zinley shows them as plans you already chose — not as questions it's asking you.
Acting on a pending action
Each pending action carries its own controls:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Resolve | It's handled — close the loop. It clears here, in the Inbox, and in the Brief at once. |
| Snooze | Pause it for a set number of days, then bring it back. |
| Suppress | Stop surfacing it — you don't want to be asked about this one. |
| Pin | Star it so it stays put and isn't auto-tidied away. |
| Answer | Reply to the question Zinley asked, right on the item. |
Approving what Zinley proposes
When Zinley wants to do something that has a real-world effect — send an email, book something, commit you to a date — it stops and shows you the plan first: the reply it would send and the actions it would take.
- Approve — Zinley goes ahead and does it, then reports back on the same item.
- Reject — it drops the plan and leaves the matter alone.
You'll also see a Follow up control on anything you're waiting on someone else for. Press it and Zinley chases them now rather than waiting for its own schedule. It keeps count of nudges so nobody gets pestered forever.
Tell Zinley what to do, inside the topic
Every topic has a command box — type plain English and Zinley works out what you meant. Use it to leave instructions, ask it to reply to someone, or start a new message about this matter.
- @mention people to point at someone specific from your People list.
- Commands can be up to 4,000 characters, so a full paragraph of context is fine.
- You can also ask questions about the topic — "what did they actually agree to?" — and Zinley answers from the whole case file.
Draft an email from a topic
Ask Zinley to write the email and it comes back filled in but unsent — from, to, cc, subject, and body — so you can read it, edit it, and then send it. Three ways to start:
- Reply — answer the existing thread.
- New — start a fresh email about this matter. Describe what you want said.
- Loop in — bring someone new into the matter. Choose whether they join the shared thread or get a private side note the others can't see.
Sent mail is logged back onto the topic, so the timeline stays complete.
Editing and deleting
Rename a topic or fix its summary from inside the topic, and delete one you don't want tracked. Deleting removes it from your list — the underlying calls and emails stay in Activity.
Topics vs. Activity
| Topics | Activity | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | One case file per matter | The flat log of every individual interaction |
| Organized by | Subject + whose turn it is | Time, newest first |
| Answers | "What's in progress, and whose move is it?" | "What happened, and when?" |
New account? You'll see "No topics yet." Topics appear as Zinley handles calls, email, and chat.