Activity Feed

The Cothon Activity Feed provides comprehensive visibility into team collaboration across all bid analyses and proposals. Monitor who's doing what, identify bottlenecks, track progress toward deadlines, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Unlike passive version history that requires manual checking, the Activity Feed proactively surfaces relevant updates through intelligent filtering, prioritization, and multi-channel notifications. Whether you're managing a 20-person proposal team or tracking a single partner's review, the Activity Feed keeps you informed and in control.

Activity Feed Overview

What the Activity Feed Tracks

Every action in Cothon generates an activity event:

Activity Feed Locations

Access activity data from multiple interfaces:

Global Activity Feed:

• Location: Main navigation → Activity (or press )
• Scope: All activity across all analyses you have access to
• Use: Dashboard view of team productivity, identify blockers, daily standup reference

Analysis-Specific Activity:

• Location: Open any analysis → Activity tab in right sidebar
• Scope: Activity only for that specific analysis
• Use: Track progress on individual bid, review requirement-level changes

User-Specific Activity:

• Location: Click any user's avatar → View Activity
• Scope: All activity by that specific user across accessible content
• Use: Track individual contributor's productivity, review their contributions

Notification Center:

• Location: Bell icon in top-right navigation
• Scope: Activity requiring your attention (@mentions, assignments, comments on your content)
• Use: Action-oriented filtered view of only relevant updates

Using the Global Activity Feed

Your command center for team coordination:

Accessing the Global Feed

Activity Card Anatomy

Each activity item displays rich context:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [Avatar] Sarah Johnson                    2 minutes ago │
│ Edited requirement #47 in RFP-2024-789                  │
│                                                          │
│ "Vendor must maintain NIST 800-171 compliance"          │
│ Status: Partially Meets → Fully Meets                   │
│                                                          │
│ [View Change] [Add Comment] [⋮ More]                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Information Displayed:

• User avatar and name: Who performed the action
• Timestamp: When action occurred (relative: "2 minutes ago" or absolute: "Mar 20, 2:45 PM")
• Action description: What happened (edited, commented, shared, etc.)
• Context: Which analysis and requirement/section
• Change preview: Summary of what changed (before → after)
• Quick actions: Jump to content, comment, or expand details

Rich Previews: Hover over any activity card to see expanded context:

• Full before/after diff for edits
• Complete comment text
• File attachments or images
• Related activity (e.g., comment this replied to)

Real-time Updates

Activity Feed updates automatically without page refresh:

Live Update Behavior:

• New activity appears at top with subtle animation
• Badge shows "N new activities" if you've scrolled down
• Click badge to scroll to top and see latest
• Presence indicators show who's currently active (green dot)

Notification Integration:

• Desktop notification for high-priority activity (configurable)
• Badge count on Activity navigation icon
• Sound alerts for @mentions (optional, disabled by default)

Filtering Activities

Powerful filtering reduces noise and surfaces relevant updates:

Filter By Activity Type

Focus on specific types of actions:

Content Filters:

• Edits - Text changes, requirement updates, status changes
• Comments - New comments, replies, @mentions
• Status Changes - Requirement completion, workflow milestones
• Uploads - File attachments, document additions

Collaboration Filters:

• Sharing - Access granted, permissions changed, links created
• Assignments - Work assigned to team members
• Approvals - Workflow approvals requested/completed
• Joins/Leaves - Users joining or leaving analyses

System Filters:

• AI Actions - Automated analysis, generation tasks
• Exports - PDF/Word exports, data downloads
• Errors - Failed operations, sync conflicts
• System Events - Auto-saves, migrations

How to Apply:

1. Click Filter button in activity feed header
2. Check boxes next to activity types to include
3. Uncheck to exclude types
4. Click Apply or filters apply instantly

Common Filter Combinations:

Filter By User

See activity from specific team members:

Special User Filters:

• Me - Only my activity (personal activity log)
• Following - Users I'm following (like watchlist)
• External - Activity by public link accessors (security monitoring)
• System - Automated/AI actions (distinguish human vs. machine work)

Filter By Analysis

Narrow to specific projects or bids:

Filter Options:

1. Single Analysis: Select from dropdown or search by name/RFP number
2. Multiple Analyses: Multi-select for combined view (useful for related bids)
3. Folder: Select folder to see all analyses within
4. Tags: Filter by analysis tags (e.g., "Federal", "Active", "High-Priority")
5. Status: Filter by analysis status (Draft, In Review, Final, Submitted)

Smart Analysis Filters:

• Recently Active: Analyses with activity in last 24 hours (default view)
• My Analyses: Analyses I own or am assigned to
• Watched: Analyses I've starred or explicitly follow
• Approaching Deadline: Analyses with deadlines in next 7 days

Example Use Cases:

Project Manager tracking multiple bids:

• Filter: Analyses tagged "Active"
• View: Timeline mode
• Purpose: Morning review of overnight activity across all active pursuits

Compliance reviewer focusing on single RFP:

• Filter: Analysis = "RFP-2024-456", Activity Type = Edits + Status Changes
• View: Grouped by requirement
• Purpose: Track compliance statement revisions

Filter By Date and Time

Control time window for activity display:

Preset Time Ranges:

• Last Hour - Ultra-recent activity, useful during active editing sessions
• Today - Daily activity review (default)
• Yesterday - Catch up on what you missed
• Last 7 Days - Weekly review
• Last 30 Days - Monthly productivity analysis
• Last 90 Days - Quarterly audit
• Custom Range - Specify exact start and end dates

Time-of-Day Filtering: Advanced filter: Time of Day slider

• See activity only during specific hours (e.g., 9am-5pm)
• Identify after-hours work patterns
• Useful for distributed teams: "Show only Asia team's hours"

Relative vs. Absolute Timestamps: Toggle timestamp display mode:

• Relative (default): "2 minutes ago", "5 hours ago"
• Absolute: "Mar 20, 2024 at 2:45 PM EST"
• Choose based on preference; both display on hover

Filter By Priority

Focus on high-importance activity:

Priority Levels (auto-assigned by system + user-configurable):

Critical (Red):

• @Mentions directed at you
• Assignments with past-due deadlines
• Approval requests requiring your action
• Errors or failed operations
• Security events (unauthorized access attempts)

High (Orange):

• Comments on your content
• Assignments approaching deadline (24h)
• Major status changes (Draft → Final)
• Large edits (>500 characters changed)

Medium (Yellow):

• All other edits and comments
• Standard workflow activity
• File uploads
• Sharing events

Low (Gray):

• System auto-saves
• Presence updates (user joined/left)
• AI background processing
• Minor metadata changes

Priority Filter Usage:

1. Default: Show Critical + High only (reduce noise)
2. Comprehensive: Show all levels (complete audit trail)
3. Custom: Define your own priority rules in Settings

Custom Priority Rules (Settings > Activity > Priority Rules): Define what matters to you:

• "Comments by Sarah" → Always Critical
• "Edits to Section 3" → High priority
• "AI Actions" → Low priority (I don't need immediate awareness)

Advanced Filtering

Combine multiple filter dimensions:

Filter Boolean Logic:

• AND (default): All conditions must match
• OR: Any condition matches (expand results)
• NOT: Exclude matching items

Example Complex Filters:

1. My team's work on active bids this week:

Users: Technical Writers Team
AND Analysis Tags: Active
AND Date: Last 7 Days
AND Activity Type: Edits + Status Changes
EXCLUDE: System Events

2. External access security audit:

Users: External
AND Activity Type: Sharing + Exports
AND Date: Last 30 Days
AND Priority: High + Critical

3. Stalled proposal sections:

Activity Type: Comments
AND Status: Unresolved
AND Date: Older than 48 hours
AND Analysis: RFP-2024-789

Saving Filter Presets:

Analysis-Specific Activity

Deep-dive into single analysis activity:

Accessing Analysis Activity

Activity Visualizations

Analysis-specific view includes additional visualizations:

Timeline Graph:

• Horizontal timeline showing activity density over analysis lifecycle
• Color-coded by activity type (edits = blue, comments = green, etc.)
• Identifies burst periods (deadline crunches) and idle periods
• Click any point on timeline to jump to that period's activity

Contributor Breakdown:

• Pie chart showing % of activity by team member
• Identify top contributors and underutilizers
• Useful for workload balancing and recognition

Requirement Heatmap:

• Grid showing which requirements received most attention
• Color intensity = activity frequency
• Quickly spot heavily edited requirements (potential issues?)
• Click any cell to filter activity to that requirement

Workflow Progress:

• Visual workflow showing requirement completion over time
• Burn-down chart: remaining work vs. deadline
• Velocity trend: requirements completed per day
• Forecast: projected completion date based on current velocity

Requirement-Level Activity

Drill down to individual requirement activity:

Accessing:

1. In analysis activity tab, click Group by Requirement
2. See activity clustered under each requirement
3. Expand/collapse requirement groups

Requirement Activity Card:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Requirement #47: NIST 800-171 Compliance    │
│ Status: Fully Meets | Priority: Critical    │
│                                              │
│ ▸ 12 edits (last: 5 min ago by Sarah)       │
│ ▸ 5 comments (2 unresolved)                 │
│ ▸ 3 status changes                          │
│ ▸ 2 assignments                             │
│                                              │
│ [View All Activity] [Jump to Requirement]   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Value: Quickly identify high-churn requirements that may need attention or clarification.

Activity Notifications

Proactive alerts for important activity:

Notification Channels

Cothon delivers activity notifications through multiple channels:

In-App Notifications:

• Location: Bell icon in top-right navigation
• Badge: Shows count of unread notifications
• Content: Activity items requiring your attention
• Actions: Mark read, jump to content, archive

Email Notifications:

• Instant: Critical alerts sent immediately (e.g., @mentions, approaching deadlines)
• Digest: Batched summary sent daily or weekly
• Format: HTML email with activity summary and direct links

Slack / Microsoft Teams:

• Channel notifications: Post activity to team channels
• Direct messages: Personal notifications via bot DM
• Threaded discussions: Comment notifications create Slack threads

Browser Push:

• Desktop notifications: Pop-up alerts when browser tab inactive
• Permission required: One-time browser permission prompt
• Persistent: Notifications remain until dismissed

Mobile Push (iOS/Android app):

• Real-time alerts: Instant notification on mobile device
• Lock screen: Appear on lock screen for immediate visibility
• Badge: App icon shows unread count

Configuring Notifications

Fine-tune what triggers notifications:

Smart Notification Features

Cothon intelligently manages notification delivery:

Notification Deduplication:

• If you've already seen activity in-app, email notification suppressed
• Prevents duplicate alerts across channels
• Tracks read status across devices via sync

Priority Escalation:

• Unread critical notifications escalate after timeout
• Example: @Mention in-app notification → 15 min later, email → 30 min later, SMS
• Ensures urgent items don't go unnoticed
• Configurable escalation ladder

Contextual Grouping:

• Related notifications cluster intelligently
• "5 people commented on RFP-123" instead of 5 individual notifications
• Click grouped notification to expand all items

Do Not Disturb Mode:

• One-click DND toggle in notification center
• Suppresses all notifications temporarily (1h, 4h, until tomorrow)
• Critical alerts can optionally override DND
• Automatically disables after set duration

Notification Snooze:

• Snooze individual notifications to reappear later
• Options: 1 hour, 4 hours, tomorrow, custom time
• Useful for: "I need to address this but not right now"

Managing Notification Overload

If notifications become overwhelming:

Immediate Relief:

1. Enable Do Not Disturb for rest of day
2. Switch to Daily Digest mode for non-critical items
3. Mute specific analyses: Right-click analysis > Mute Notifications

Long-term Solutions:

1. Review your watches: Unwatch analyses you don't need to track actively
2. Adjust priority thresholds: Settings > Notifications > Only notify for High+ priority
3. Team-level filters: Mute notifications from specific teams or users (if their work doesn't impact you)
4. Custom rules: Create rule: "If activity by anyone except [key people], batch into digest"

Notification Analytics: View notification history and patterns:

• Settings > Notifications > Analytics
• See notification volume over time
• Identify noisy sources (which analyses/users generate most notifications)
• Adjust settings based on data

Activity Search

Find specific activity events across all history:

Basic Search

Advanced Search Syntax

Power users can use query operators:

Boolean Operators:

• AND: Both terms must match (e.g., Sarah AND comment)
• OR: Either term matches (e.g., edit OR status)
• NOT: Exclude term (e.g., NOT system)

Field-Specific Search:

• user:sarah - Activity by Sarah specifically
• analysis:"RFP-2024-789" - Within specific analysis
• type:comment - Only comment activities
• date:2024-03-20 - Activity on specific date

Wildcards:

• compli* - Matches compliance, compliant, etc.
• *edit* - Matches edited, editing, preedits, etc.

Phrase Search:

• "fully meets" - Exact phrase match
• Useful for specific requirement text

Example Complex Queries:

# Find Sarah's comments in last week on RFP-123
user:sarah AND type:comment AND analysis:"RFP-2024-123" AND date:>2024-03-15

# Find all critical edits excluding system actions
type:edit AND priority:critical NOT user:system

# Find deadline-related activity
"deadline" OR "due date" OR "approaching"

Search Results Actions

From search results, you can:

Individual Actions:

• Jump to content: Click result to view in context
• View diff: See before/after for edits
• Add comment: Respond directly from search results
• Share result: Copy link to specific activity item

Bulk Actions:

• Export results: Download search results as CSV
• Archive all: Archive all matching results (remove from active feed)
• Mark all read: Batch mark results as read
• Create report: Generate PDF report of search results (useful for audits)

Saved Searches

Save frequently used searches:

Notification on New Results: Powerful feature for monitoring:

• Save search: type:edit AND analysis:"RFP-2024-789" AND user:external
• Enable notifications: Get alerted when external users edit RFP-789
• Use case: Security monitoring without constant manual checking

Activity Export and Reporting

Generate reports from activity data:

Exporting Activity Logs

CSV Export Fields:

• Timestamp (UTC)
• User ID and name
• Activity type
• Analysis ID and name
• Requirement ID (if applicable)
• Description
• Before value (for edits)
• After value (for edits)
• IP address (if available)
• Session ID (for grouping related actions)

Use Cases:

• Compliance audits: Demonstrate who reviewed what and when
• Performance reviews: Individual contributor activity analysis
• Process improvement: Identify workflow inefficiencies
• Billing: Track consultant hours based on activity timestamps
• Security investigations: Audit trail for incident response

Pre-built Reports

Access common report templates:

Navigate to: Settings > Activity > Reports

Available Reports:

1. Team Productivity Report:

• Activity breakdown by user
• Edits, comments, assignments completed
• Time series showing productivity trends
• Identifies top contributors and underutilizers

2. Analysis Progress Report:

• Per-analysis activity metrics
• Requirement completion rates
• Collaboration depth (comments, iterations)
• Forecast to deadline

3. Security Audit Report:

• All sharing events
• External access logs
• Permission changes
• Failed access attempts
• Geographic access patterns

4. Compliance Audit Trail:

• Complete chronological activity log
• User attribution for all actions
• Change history for specific requirements
• Approval chains and signoffs

5. Collaboration Health Report:

• Comment response times
• Unresolved discussion threads
• Blocked assignments
• Collaboration patterns (who works with whom)

Running Reports:

Custom Report Builder: For unique reporting needs:

1. Settings > Activity > Reports > Create Custom Report
2. Drag-and-drop interface to select:
   • Data sources (activity types)
   • Dimensions (group by user, date, analysis)
   • Metrics (count, duration, completion rate)
   • Visualizations (charts, tables, graphs)
3. Save template for reuse
4. Share template with team

Activity Feed Best Practices

For Proposal Managers

Daily Routine:

1. Morning: Check activity feed for overnight progress (distributed teams)
2. Midday: Review unresolved comments, identify blockers
3. Evening: Export day's activity for next-day standup preparation

Filters to Use:

• "Critical + High priority only" (default view)
• "Team activity on active bids" (focus on current work)
• "Approaching deadlines" (proactive intervention)

Notification Setup:

• @Mentions: Instant notification (in-app + Slack)
• Deadline approaching: Email 24h before
• Team edits: Daily digest
• External access: Instant email (security)

For Team Contributors

Staying Informed Without Overload:

1. Watch only analyses you're actively working on
2. Mute analyses you're no longer contributing to
3. Use daily digest for general awareness
4. Enable instant notifications only for @mentions and assignments

Leveraging Activity for Coordination:

• Before editing, check recent activity (avoid conflicts)
• After major edit, leave comment explaining changes
• Use @mentions to flag SMEs for specific questions
• Review comment activity to ensure you haven't missed feedback

For Executives

High-Level Oversight:

• Use weekly digest email for background awareness
• Create saved search: "Critical activity on top 5 bids"
• Review analytics dashboards (don't need granular activity)
• Get notified only for: Submission events, major milestones, escalations

Reports to Review:

• Weekly team productivity report
• Monthly win/loss analysis correlated with collaboration metrics
• Quarterly compliance audit report

For Compliance/Quality

Audit Trail Focus:

• Filter to: Sharing + Exports + Permission changes
• Export monthly activity logs for compliance archive
• Monitor external access patterns
• Review requirement change history for high-risk items

Automated Monitoring:

• Saved search: External access to sensitive analyses → instant notification
• Saved search: Edits to approved sections → daily digest
• Weekly report: All permission escalations requiring review

Troubleshooting

Activity Not Appearing

Symptoms: Expected activity not showing in feed.

Solutions:

Notification Overload

Symptoms: Too many notifications, missing important items in noise.

Solutions:

1. Triage current notifications: Mark all as read, start fresh
2. Adjust triggers: Settings > Notifications > Reduce to High+ priority only
3. Enable batching: Group notifications into hourly/daily digests
4. Mute analyses: Right-click specific analyses > Mute (reduce sources)
5. Use saved searches: Instead of notifications, run saved searches proactively

Missing Notifications

Symptoms: Expected to be notified but wasn't.

Diagnostics:

Activity Feed Performance

Symptoms: Activity feed slow to load or laggy.

Causes & Fixes:

Large date ranges:

• Narrow date range (Last 7 days instead of Last 90 days)
• Use pagination controls to load in batches

Too many filters:

• Complex filter combinations can slow queries
• Simplify filters or use saved searches (pre-computed)

Browser performance:

• Close unused tabs (each active Cothon tab maintains WebSocket)
• Disable cursor tracking if enabled
• Clear browser cache

Network issues:

• Slow connection affects real-time updates
• Switch to wired connection if on WiFi

Advanced Features

Activity API

Programmatic access to activity data:

Use Cases:

• Build custom dashboards in BI tools (Tableau, Power BI)
• Integrate activity into project management systems
• Automated compliance reporting
• Custom alerting based on complex rules

Example API Call (get recent activity):

curl -X GET https://api.cothon.ai/v1/activity \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -G \
  -d "date_start=2024-03-01" \
  -d "date_end=2024-03-30" \
  -d "activity_types=edit,comment" \
  -d "user_id=uuid-of-user"

Response:

{
  "activities": [
    {
      "id": "act_123",
      "timestamp": "2024-03-20T14:30:00Z",
      "user_id": "user_456",
      "user_name": "Sarah Johnson",
      "activity_type": "edit",
      "analysis_id": "analysis_789",
      "requirement_id": "req_012",
      "description": "Edited requirement #47",
      "before_value": "Partially Meets",
      "after_value": "Fully Meets"
    }
  ],
  "total": 1247,
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 100
}

See API Documentation for complete reference.

Webhooks for Activity Events

Real-time webhooks push activity to external systems:

Setup:

Webhook Payload:

{
  "event": "activity.created",
  "timestamp": "2024-03-20T14:30:00Z",
  "data": {
    "activity_id": "act_123",
    "user": { "id": "user_456", "name": "Sarah Johnson" },
    "activity_type": "edit",
    "analysis": { "id": "analysis_789", "name": "RFP-2024-789" },
    "description": "Edited requirement #47",
    "changes": {
      "field": "status",
      "old_value": "Partially Meets",
      "new_value": "Fully Meets"
    }
  }
}

Use Cases:

• Post activity to Slack channels via custom bot
• Trigger external workflows (e.g., Zapier, IFTTT)
• Update project management tools (Jira, Asana)
• Feed activity into data warehouse for analytics

FAQ

Next Steps

Master Related Features

• Comments - Understand how comment activity tracks and notifies
• Real-time Editing - See how edits generate activity events
• Sharing - Track sharing events in activity feed

Related Topics

• Notifications - Configure notification preferences
• Reports - Generate reports from activity data
• API Documentation - Programmatic activity access

Quick Wins

First Time Using Activity Feed? Try this:

1. Open global activity feed
2. Apply filter: "Last 24 hours, All activity types"
3. Review what your team accomplished yesterday
4. Click an activity item to jump to that content
5. Set up saved search for your typical daily review

Advanced Practice:

1. Create custom filter preset for daily standup prep
2. Schedule weekly productivity report to auto-email
3. Set up webhook to post critical activity to Slack
4. Export month's activity log to CSV and analyze in Excel
5. Configure smart notifications (Critical + High only, daily digest for rest)

The Activity Feed transforms team coordination from reactive check-ins to proactive awareness. Master these features to stay ahead of deadlines and ensure seamless collaboration.