Notifications

CompassDocs can push an alert to your chat platform or inbox when content changes hands. Admins manage everything under Settings → Notifications — available in every edition.

Channels

Add as many channels as you like; each has its own events and space filter.

Channel	How to connect
Webex	Create an incoming webhook for the target space and paste its URL.
Microsoft Teams	In Teams: channel → Workflows → Post to a channel when a webhook request is received, then paste the workflow URL. Alerts render as Adaptive Cards.
Slack	Create an incoming webhook and paste its URL.
Email	Enter one or more recipient addresses (comma-separated). Requires SMTP, below.
Generic JSON	Any endpoint that accepts a JSON POST — for your own automation.

Webhook URLs are stored write-only — after saving, the UI shows only the hostname. Every channel has a Test button that sends a sample alert, and the list shows each channel’s last delivery status and time, so a revoked webhook or broken relay is visible at a glance.

Events

Each channel subscribes to any of:

• Change submitted for review — an editor’s change request enters the review queue. The classic “something needs an approver” ping.
• Change approved / Change rejected — the review decision, with the reviewer’s note.
• Document published — a doc goes live directly (from the app or the Claude connector).
• Suggestion left — a reader files a suggestion, with a preview of the text.

Per-space filtering

Each channel can be limited to specific spaces — tick the ones it should hear about, or leave all unticked for everything. A #engineering channel can subscribe to just the Engineering space while a compliance inbox hears about Policies only.

Email (SMTP)

The Email (SMTP) section at the bottom of the page configures the relay used by email channels:

• Host, port, encryption (STARTTLS or implicit TLS), username, and password (write-only, like webhook URLs).
• From address — what recipients see.
• Send test email — verifies the relay end-to-end before you rely on it.

Any standard relay works: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun, or self-hosted. CompassDocs sends plain, skimmable messages — subject line carrying the event and title, body with the actor, space, note, and a link.

Ask in chat (Slack & Teams)

The Ask in chat section lets people question the knowledge base from Slack or Microsoft Teams and get the same grounded, cited answers as in-app Ask — with source links back to the documents.

What chat can see

Chat answers draw only from published documents in non-private spaces. Anyone in the channel can see the answer, so private-space content is never included, no matter who asks.

Slack (slash command):

1. Create a Slack app with a slash command (e.g. /askdocs) whose request URL is https://your-domain/api/integrations/slack/ask.
2. Copy the app’s Signing Secret into the panel, save, and enable.
3. In any channel: /askdocs how do we roll back a deploy? — the answer posts in-channel with cited sources.

Teams (outgoing webhook):

1. In a team: Manage team → Apps → Create an outgoing webhook, callback URL https://your-domain/api/integrations/teams/ask.
2. Copy the security token Teams shows on creation into the panel, save, and enable.
3. In a channel, @mention the webhook: @CompassDocs what's our refund policy?

Requests are authenticated with Slack request signing (with replay protection) and Teams HMAC; the secrets are stored encrypted like every other credential, and both endpoints stay disabled (404) until a secret is saved and the switch is on.

The notification inbox (the bell)

Every user has a personal notification inbox behind the bell in the sidebar — no configuration required, and it works even without SMTP. The bell shows an unread badge and collects, with a deep link each:

• @mentions and new comments on threads they’ve participated in
• Publishes and updates in spaces they subscribe to
• Change requests — approvers see new submissions; authors see approvals and declines (with the reviewer’s note)
• Content reviews coming due (approvers)
• Read-confirmation requests (enterprise)
• Training assignments and due reminders (enterprise) — see Training & onboarding

Items mark themselves read on click, or all at once with Mark all read; read items are pruned after 90 days.

Personal chat webhook. Under your name → Notifications each user can paste a Slack or Teams incoming-webhook URL — their notifications are then also posted there (a personal DM channel works well). Only https:// URLs are accepted, and delivery goes through the same SSRF-safe fetch layer as every other outbound call.

Per-event routing. The same page holds a “What reaches you where” grid: each event type (mentions, comments, subscribed-space updates, change requests, review decisions, review reminders, read confirmations, training assignments and reminders) can be switched on or off per channel — in-app, webhook, and, where an email exists, email. Everything defaults to on; choices are personal opt-outs, so admins never have to configure it.

Personal subscriptions

Workspace channels (above) alert a team; subscriptions alert a person. Every space page has a Subscribe button — subscribers get an email when a document in that space is published or updated (however the change arrives: direct edit, approved change request, or the Claude connector).

• Emails only go to people who can see the space; the person who made the change is never emailed about their own edit.
• Each user manages their subscriptions (and a master email switch) under your name → Notifications.
• Admins can subscribe a group to a space (Settings → Spaces → Email subscriptions): every member is subscribed automatically, membership changes flow through (including Entra-synced groups), and individuals can mute it without leaving the group.
• Requires SMTP to be configured.

Mention emails work the same way: when someone @mentions a user in a document comment, that user gets an email with the comment and a link to the document — governed by the same master email switch, and requiring SMTP. (The inbox notification appears even without SMTP.)

Email templates

Every alert email CompassDocs sends is a template you can edit — Settings → Notifications → Email templates. Seven templates cover the senders:

Template	Sent when
Document published / updated	A doc changes in a space someone subscribes to
Announcement	An announcement is posted with email delivery on
Comment @mention	Someone @mentions a user in a document comment
Acknowledgement request	An admin requests (or re-requests) a policy acknowledgement
Training assigned	A training deck or onboarding program is assigned to someone
Training due reminder	A training assignment is due within 3 days or overdue
Workflow event	A review/publish/suggestion event fires an email channel

Each template has a subject line and a body, edited in the same rich text editor used for documents. Two things make them dynamic:

• Dynamic tags — placeholders like {{doc_title}}, {{actor_name}}, and {{doc_url}} are replaced with the real values when each email is sent. Use the Insert tag menu in the editor toolbar to drop one at the cursor; each template lists exactly which tags it supports. A tag the template doesn’t know is left visible in the sent email, so typos are easy to spot in the preview rather than silently vanishing.
• Live preview — the pane beside the editor re-renders your draft with realistic sample values as you type, showing the exact subject and styled body recipients will get.

Bodies are markdown, rendered through the same sanitized, brand-accented HTML pipeline as newsletters — links, bold, and quotes work, and a plain-text alternative is generated automatically for text-only mail clients. (Newsletters themselves keep their own editor and are not part of this list.)

Reset to default restores the built-in wording for a template at any time, and a Customized badge marks the ones you’ve changed. Untouched templates keep sending exactly the copy CompassDocs has always used. Edits and resets land in the audit log.

Weekly digest

Each user can opt into a weekly digest under Account → Notifications: a Monday-morning email with what changed in their subscribed spaces that week, reviews to handle (approvers and admins), and the week’s most-read documents. Everything is scoped to what the recipient can see, and users with nothing to report get no email. Requires SMTP; sent once per week regardless of how many app instances run.

Delivery semantics

Alerts are fired in the background with a short timeout — a slow or dead webhook never delays a save, publish, or review action. Failures don’t retry (the next event will try again); the per-channel status shows the last result so problems surface quickly.