A prioritized inbox of system-generated action items — the single place where everything that needs attention surfaces, ranked by urgency, and resolved with one tap.
What the Feed Is
The Notification Feed is BuildOS's command center for attention management. Rather than sending emails, expecting users to check dashboards proactively, or relying on phone calls, BuildOS writes every alert, recommendation, status update, and action item to the Feed as a card. Cards are prioritized automatically and displayed in order of urgency.
Think of it as the platform's outbox — everything the AI agents and the system want you to know or do flows through here. The Feed replaces:
- Email alerts from other systems
- Slack messages about project status
- Sticky notes and calendar reminders for procurement deadlines
- Phone calls from Mike asking "did you get that sub confirmation?"
Four Priority Levels
Every card in the Feed is assigned a priority level. The Feed always displays cards in priority order — Critical cards appear at the top, Low cards at the bottom. Cards within the same priority level are sorted by recency.
Card Types — The Full Taxonomy
| Card Type | Generated By | Default Priority | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Procurement Warning | Procurement Agent | Urgent | "Order [item] for [project] by [date] — 14 days remaining" |
| Procurement Critical | Procurement Agent | Critical | "ACTION REQUIRED: Order [item] — deadline in [N] days" |
| Tribunal Recommendation | Tribunal + Procurement Agent | Critical | "Tribunal recommends: Approve [item] order ($[amount])" with Approve / Review actions |
| Weather Alert | Daily Briefing Agent | Urgent | "Rain forecast tomorrow — 3 exterior tasks at Maple Estate may slip" |
| Sub Confirmed | Sub Liaison Agent | Low | "[Sub name] confirmed [task] for [date]" |
| Sub No Response | Sub Liaison Agent | Urgent | "[Sub name] has not confirmed [task] — follow up required" |
| Delay Reported | Sub Liaison Agent | Urgent | "DELAY: [Sub name] cannot make [date] for [task]. Schedule recalculating." |
| Task Completed | Field sync (automatic) | Low | "[Worker] marked WBS [code] complete. Next: [task] ([date])" |
| Certification Expiring | Certification alert job | Urgent | "[Employee]'s [credential] expires in [N] days" |
| Certification Expired | Certification alert job | Critical | "[Employee]'s [credential] has expired — work stoppage risk" |
| Equipment Maintenance Due | Maintenance reminder job | Urgent | "[Asset] scheduled maintenance due in [N] days" |
| Permit Issued | Permit transition job | Normal | "[Address] — Permit issued. Construction schedule initialized. [N] tasks, critical path: [X] days." |
| Invoice Pending Approval | Invoice submission | Normal | "New invoice from [vendor] for [amount] — WBS [phase] at [project]. Approve or review." |
Card Lifecycle
Every card moves through a defined lifecycle from creation to resolution:
Role Targeting — Who Sees What
Cards are targeted to specific users or roles — not everyone sees every card. Targeting is set when the card is created by the agent or system:
| Card Type | Targeted To |
|---|---|
| Procurement warnings & Tribunal recommendations | Tom (owner) and Sarah (admin) |
| Weather alerts and sub status cards | Mike (superintendent for the affected project) |
| Task completion notifications | Mike (superintendent for the affected project) |
| Delay reported cards | Mike (superintendent) + Tom (owner) |
| Certification expiry and equipment maintenance | Sarah (admin) and Tom (owner) |
| Permit issued cards | Tom (owner) and Sarah (admin) |
| Invoice pending approval | Sarah (admin) and Tom (owner) |
Duplicate Suppression
The Feed includes automatic duplicate suppression to prevent alert fatigue. Key rules:
- 72-hour dampening on sub coordination cards: If the Sub Liaison Agent has already sent an SMS and created a card for a specific task-sub combination, it will not create another card for the same pair within 72 hours.
- Status change gating on procurement cards: The Procurement Agent only creates a new card when an item's status changes (OK→WARNING, WARNING→CRITICAL). It does not re-create a card if the item is already at CRITICAL and was already surfaced.
- Single active card per event type: If a Critical procurement card is active for a specific item, the system will not create a second card for that same item until the first is actioned or dismissed.