What a topic is
Each topic is a single page focused on one subject, and it reads like the current state of things, not a transcript or a history. It holds the facts, decisions, and open questions that matter and leaves out incidental conversation. Every line links back to its sources, so you can check where any fact came from.
Nearly anything you keep coming back to can be a topic. Common examples include:
- An account or deal. The current truth about a customer relationship: people, positions, blockers.
- A person. One key relationship: preferences, history, open loops.
- A project. An initiative with a goal: status, decisions and why, open questions.
- A team wiki. How the team operates: policies, tools, who to ask.
- A competitor watch. The landscape, kept live: positioning, moves, what the field hears.
- A research subject. Findings, evidence, and questions still open.
Creating a topic
Ask Bravo in any chat to create a topic, or go to Topics and create one there. Tell Bravo what it should cover and any boundaries. If you're still deciding, Bravo asks what the topic should cover and presents all four starting options below for you to choose from. Once the scope is clear, Bravo can choose a name and description from your request and start the topic.
You can start a topic in four ways:
- From your Bravo chats. This is the default when you describe a topic without choosing sources. Bravo builds it from relevant past chats, including information from pages, files, and emails you had Bravo read in those chats.
- From selected inboxes. Choose any connected Gmail or Outlook inboxes, on their own or alongside chats. Inboxes are included only when you ask; if it's unclear which one you mean, Bravo asks you to choose.
- From this conversation. Ask Bravo to turn the current conversation into a topic. It saves the relevant facts and their citations during the reply, with automatic sources off.
- Start empty. Create a blank topic to fill in yourself or ask Bravo to edit later. It is ready right away, with automatic sources off.
With sources selected, Bravo researches them during a background build that takes a few minutes. You can leave while it builds, and Bravo emails you when it's ready. Bravo confirms which sources it is building from and whether it is ready or still building. A topic may have little content if the sources have little about its subject.
On the dashboard, select Change under the description to choose sources. Chats start on and inboxes start off. An inbox that needs reconnecting shows Reconnect instead. Switch every source off to start empty. Only you can change your sources after creation, in Topic settings.
You can also pick an icon and color on the dashboard. Pin a topic from its ⋯ menu on the Topics page or from its settings, and it moves to the front of the Topics page and into the Pinned section of the dashboard navigation. Unpin the same way. See Dashboard for what else the Topics page holds.
“What goes in here”
A topic's description is the rule Bravo uses to decide what belongs in it. It is not an introduction or a summary of the page. Be specific about the subject, the details you care about, and the boundaries. For example:
The Northwind deal: the people involved and their roles, decisions, open blockers, and commitments we have made. Leave out other accounts.
To refine the description later, open the topic, click the gear to open Topic settings, and edit What goes in here. Changes take effect on the topic's next editorial pass, within about a day. Editing the description does not rebuild the topic from every past chat: it shapes what Bravo includes from conversations going forward, and narrowing it can trim information that no longer belongs.
Using a topic in chat
Bravo automatically uses a topic as context when you talk about its subject. You can also @-mention a topic when you want Bravo to use it specifically: type @ in the message box and pick it. A topic's page also has an Ask about this button that starts a chat about it. With the Bravo extension installed, that chat opens in the sidebar so you can keep the topic in view.
How a topic stays current
With chat updates on, Bravo notices when a chat touches a topic's subject and works new information into the topic after the conversation, usually within an hour or two. An editorial pass rereads the whole topic within about a day of a change, merging repeats and dropping what no longer fits the description.
Topics keep themselves current using credits: the first build uses the most and ongoing updates are smaller. See what the charges are for for the breakdown.
Where updates come from
Topics learn from your Bravo chats, including anything you had Bravo read in them, such as an email, a webpage, or a file, and from the Gmail and Outlook inboxes you pick. Bravo searches those inboxes for the first build and cites the email it uses. After that, new mail in your Gmail and Outlook inboxes keeps the topic current as it arrives. Bravo does not look at the pages you visit outside your chats.
For those updates, Bravo looks at:
- Gmail: new mail anywhere in the account, including sent and archived mail, except the Social and Promotions tabs, drafts, and chats.
- Outlook: new mail in every folder except Junk Email and Deleted Items, leaving out drafts.
Bravo watches for new mail while an inbox is on, checks each thread that gets new mail, and reads only the threads that could matter to the topic. When it reads a thread, it reads the whole thread, including earlier messages, so it has the context. It skips its own notification emails and does not go back through older mail on its own.
Sources are per person. Under For you in Topic settings, owners and editors each have a switch for Update from my chats and one for each inbox they've connected, and only they can change their own. Viewers' chats and inboxes never feed a topic. Turning a source off stops new updates; what's already in the topic stays.
Everything Bravo adds is visible to everyone with access to the topic. When your email feeds a shared topic, the share panel and Topic settings remind you of that.
Editing a topic
In the text box at the bottom of a topic, tell Bravo what to change in plain language, and it applies the edit right away. You can also select any text in the topic and click Edit this to attach that selection, then type the change you want. For example:
- Add that Priya owns the security review.
- The launch date moved to October 14.
- Drop the old pricing section.
Click into the text box, then type your change.
To work from a file, click the paperclip in the text box and attach one or more files, up to 10 MB each, along with your instruction. Bravo folds what's in them into the topic and cites the file, or adds a short cited reference where it fits best when you send a file without specific editing instructions. Attaching a file with the same name as one already in the topic replaces it with the new version. Images can go in the topic too.
You can also change a topic from any chat: @-mention it and say what to change, such as Add Joe's Pizza to @NYC Trip. Bravo applies the edit right away, and the topic's history shows the change with the sources from your chat. Ask Bravo to include a file from the chat, like something it made for you, and the file goes into the topic along with your edit.
You can also say Remember this without naming a destination. Bravo saves topic details to the relevant topics and personal preferences to Memory, splitting a request when needed. If you name a topic that doesn't cover the information, Bravo asks before saving it somewhere else.
To change what the topic covers, edit its description instead (see “What goes in here”). Click a topic's name to rename it in Topic settings, and its icon to change the icon or color.
Seeing what changed
Click the clock next to the gear to list the topic's changes, newest first, with the sources behind each one. On a wide window the list stays open beside the topic; on a smaller screen it opens in a panel that closes when you pick a change. Your own edits are marked You. Click a change and the topic shows itself as it read right after that change, with removed text in red and added text in green. Click the Updated time under the topic's name to go straight to the newest change. When a change touches more than one place, the arrows in the banner step between them. If a change looks wrong, Not right? starts a correction: the change you flagged is attached above the text box, and you type what is actually right. Click Done to go back to editing. You can also ask in any chat, such as What changed in @NYC Trip this week?
Deleting a topic
Open Topic settings with the gear and choose Delete topic. The topic is removed right away, with no confirmation step. If it was a mistake, click Undo in the message that appears. After that message is gone, see Recovering a deleted item. Deleting a topic does not delete the conversations it learned from.
Sharing a topic
Share a topic to let other people read it and use it in their own chats. Open the topic, click the people icon next to Ask about this, enter an email address, and click Invite. Bravo emails them a link, and the invitation also waits at the top of their Topics page. When they open it and sign in with that address, the topic shows up in their Topics. Until then, they are listed as Invited. Pick Editor or Viewer next to the email before you send; Editor is the default. You can change it later from the menu on their row, before or after they accept.
Viewers can read it, see its history, pin it, and @-mention it in their chats. Editors can also change the topic from its page or in chat, rename it, share it, and manage who has access. Only the topic's owner can delete it, and the owner can't be removed. A shared topic shows a people icon, for you and for them.
Links into Gmail, Outlook, Calendar, Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive open only for accounts connected to your own Bravo; everything else in a shared topic reads the same for everyone. Files a topic cites open for everyone it's shared with, and stay available if the chat they came from is deleted.
To stop sharing with someone, open the same panel, open the menu on their row, and choose Remove, or Withdraw invite for a pending invite. They lose access right away.
If someone shared a topic with you and you no longer want it, open Topic settings and choose Leave topic. To get it back, ask someone who manages it to invite you again.
Email updates
To hear about changes without opening a topic, open its Topic settings and under Email me about choose Everything, Only what matters, or Off. Only what matters means new facts, corrections, and sections added or removed. Rewording, reorganization, and routine reference cleanup are skipped. Each email shows what changed and lists the sources behind the change by title and detail. You never get one for your own edits. Anyone who can see a topic can turn this on, and it is off until you do.