---
sidebar_label: Communications
toc_max_heading_level: 3
doc_id: 779ddb44-aee3-487e-97ea-9dc16a108b16
description: >-
  Use Communications to reach people inside nullplatform: a personal inbox for
  approvals, deployments, and builds, announcements from your platform leaders,
  and inbox rules that decide what reaches each person.
keywords:
  - communications
  - inbox
  - bell
  - inbox settings
  - inbox rules
  - announcements
title: Communications
canonical: 'https://docs.nullplatform.com/docs/communications'
---
# Communications

Communications is how nullplatform tells people what needs their attention, right in the product: an approval waiting on them, a deployment that failed, or a maintenance window your platform leaders announced.

Communications has three parts:

- **Your inbox**: the bell in the header, where each person reads what's for them.
- **Announcements**: messages your platform leaders publish to the whole organization, in the bell, as a banner, or both.
- **Inbox rules**: what triggers a notification, who receives it, and what it says. nullplatform ships built-in rules, and you can create your own.

Beyond the bell, people can also get their notifications [by email](#email), and you can post [inbox rules](/docs/communications/inbox-rules#post-inbox-rules-to-slack) and [announcements](/docs/communications/announcements#post-it-to-slack) to Slack channels.

:::note For platform leaders
You manage announcements and inbox rules, including what gets posted to Slack, from **Platform Settings > Communications**.
:::

## Your inbox

Click the bell in the header to open your notifications: what involves your work in **Inbox**, and news from your platform leaders and from nullplatform in **Announcements**. Walk through it below:

<GuidedTour
  alt="The bell and Inbox settings, recreated as an HTML scene with a step-by-step walkthrough"
  steps={[
    {
      title: '1. Open the bell',
      body: 'Inbox holds what involves you. The number on the bell counts your unread items there.',
      anchor: 'inbox-tabs',
      placement: 'bottom',
      align: 'end',
    },
    {
      title: '2. Act on what waits for you',
      body: 'Approvals you can decide are pinned under Requires action. Everything else is grouped by day.',
      anchor: 'inbox-requires-action',
      placement: 'left',
    },
    {
      title: '3. Read the announcements',
      body: 'Releases, maintenance windows, and incidents from your platform leaders and from nullplatform. They reach everyone in their audience.',
      anchor: 'inbox-announcements',
      placement: 'left',
    },
    {
      title: '4. Choose what reaches you',
      body: 'The settings icon opens Inbox settings. You can also get there from User settings > Inbox.',
      anchor: 'inbox-settings-link',
      placement: 'bottom',
      align: 'end',
    },
    {
      title: '5. Pick a mode for each rule',
      body: 'Off, Involving me, or Everything, in the bell and by email. Your Default applies across the whole organization.',
      anchor: 'inbox-settings-modes',
      placement: 'bottom',
      align: 'end',
    },
    {
      title: '6. Customize a resource',
      body: 'Change the settings for one account, namespace, or application. The most specific resource wins.',
      anchor: 'inbox-settings-resources',
      placement: 'right',
    },
  ]}
>
  <InboxScene />
</GuidedTour>

## Inbox settings

Inbox settings let you choose which inbox rules reach you, in the bell and [by email](#email). Open them from the settings icon in the bell, or from **User settings > Inbox**.

<InboxScene view="settings" />

Each mode decides what you get from a rule:

| Mode | What you receive |
|------|------------------|
| **Off** | Nothing from this rule. |
| **Involving me** | What involves you: your own requests, items assigned to you, and approvals you can decide. |
| **Everything** | Everything from this rule, whether it involves you or not. Only available for rules where it makes sense. |

### Settings per resource

The **Default** settings apply across your whole organization. To change them for one account, namespace, or application, click **Customize a resource** and pick it. A customized resource starts with every rule set to **Inherit**, which takes the value from the closest resource above it.

The most specific resource wins. For example, you can turn deployments **Off** for an account and set **Everything** for the one application you own inside it.

:::tip Follow an application closely
Customize the application and set the rules you care about to **Everything**. You'll get those notifications for anything in that application, not only what involves you.
:::

Each customized resource also has a **Mute everything from this resource** switch. Use **Remove customization** to go back to the inherited settings.

:::note
Changing a setting affects new notifications only. What's already in your inbox stays.
:::

### Email

:::note
Email is **Off** by default for every inbox rule. You only get emails for the rules you turn on.
:::

Each notification arrives as its own email, right away, with its title, its body, and a button to open it in nullplatform. The footer links to your inbox settings, so you can change what reaches you by email at any time.

:::info
Announcements aren't sent by email. They show in the bell, as a banner, or in Slack.
:::

### Built-in inbox rules

These rules come with nullplatform. Rules that are on by default reach you when they involve you. The rest stay off until you turn them on.

| Group | Inbox rule | On by default |
|-------|------------|---------------|
| Approvals | Approval pending, Approval resolved | Yes |
| Action items | Action items assigned, Action item resolved | Yes |
| Deployments | Deployment failed | Yes |
| Deployments | Deployment started, Deployment finished | No |
| Builds | Build failed | Yes |
| Builds | Build finished | No |
| Scopes | Scope failed | Yes |
| Scopes | Scope ready | No |
| Service actions | Service action failed | Yes |
| Service actions | Service action finished | No |
| API keys & personal access tokens | Expiring soon | Yes |

The inbox rules your organization creates show up in your inbox settings next to the built-in ones.

:::info
Announcements always reach their audience. They aren't listed in inbox settings, so they can't be muted.
:::

## Next steps

- [Announcements](/docs/communications/announcements): publish news to your organization, in the bell, as a banner, or both
- [Inbox rules](/docs/communications/inbox-rules): tune the built-in rules, create your own, and send them from your pipelines