Mention a teammate or Hamster in a conversation and send the right person back to the message in context.
The mention picker lets you address a member of the current workspace or the Hamster AI with @. Human mentions are stored as structured targets, not recovered later by guessing from message text.
In a group thread, the composer prompts you to mention Hamster when you want the AI to respond.
When a message mentions a teammate, Hamster adds that person to the thread as a collaborator when needed and notifies them where they've chosen: in Hamster, in Slack, or by email. The notification links to the relevant Brief, Blueprint, Method, Initiative, or Chat thread and focuses the authored message.
@ in a message composer.hamster, to filter the picker.The picker is account-scoped. Invite someone to the workspace before trying to mention them.
| Target | Behaviour |
|---|---|
@hamster | Routes the message to the Hamster AI. |
@teammate | Adds the selected workspace member as a collaborator when needed and queues a mention notification. |
| Mixed targets | Hamster can respond while selected teammates receive their own notification jobs. |
Mentioning a teammate from an Initiative's chat works the same way as other document-backed chats. The notification returns to that initiative and focuses the relevant message.
Mention notifications are asynchronous and best-effort:
Human-authored mentions use the selected structured targets. AI-authored @handle text is resolved against the current workspace members. AI-authored mention notifications are emitted for document-backed conversations, not plain core-chat or internal routine-run threads.
Each person chooses where their mentions arrive. In Preferences, Mentions from teammates and Mentions from Hamster each have In-app, Slack, and Email switches. Teammate mentions start with all three on; mentions from Hamster start with Email off.
The destination depends on the conversation:
| Conversation | Notification destination |
|---|---|
| Brief | Brief page and authored message; child replies also focus the child thread |
| Blueprint | Blueprint page and authored message |
| Method | Method page and authored message |
| Initiative | Initiative page and authored message |
| Core Chat | Account home, thread, and authored message |
The page opens the surrounding thread and focuses the referenced item. The notification body contains the author, thread title, and a bounded preview of the message.
The notification center also receives account activity and asynchronous outcomes, including:
| Notification | Recipient |
|---|---|
| Brief ready for review | Selected brief participants |
| Alignment vote | Brief owner, excluding self-votes |
| First human reply in a child thread | Author of the parent message, excluding self-replies and AI-authored parents |
| Initiative owner assignment | Newly assigned owner, excluding self-assignment |
| Plan generation completed or failed | User who started generation |
| Cloud Agent delivery completed, incomplete, or failed | User who started delivery |
Notification severity is one of Info, Warning, Error, or Success. Severity describes the outcome; it is not a separate semantic event type.
If the recipient can use a connected Slack installation, Hamster sends eligible notifications to a Slack DM on a best-effort basis.
The notification center splits notifications into two tabs. Primary holds teammate activity directed at you and work that needs you, such as teammate mentions, assignments, review requests, and deliveries waiting on you. Updates holds automated progress and results, such as mentions from Hamster, plan generation, and Cloud Agent delivery results. A tab shows its unread count when it has unread notifications. Mark as read marks everything in the open tab as read.