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Academy · Platform · Experience

Getting oriented

In one line. How to sign in, land on the Command Deck, jump into any project, navigate the consumer app, jump in and out of Studio, and find the Lab feature-flag menu. You’ll be able to. Land in any project, recognise every part of the chrome, and switch confidently between the end-user app and the builder’s Studio. Where this lives. The login page, the Command Deck at /, and the top nav inside any project.

Why it matters

From here on you are in the product, clicking real screens. The single biggest source of early confusion is navigation — builders get lost between workspaces, projects, the consumer tabs, and Studio, and waste time hunting for a screen that was one click away. This page is the map. Read it once and you’ll always know where you are and how to get anywhere else.

A quick vocabulary reminder (full list in the Glossary; the agent-and-collection model is in Core concepts):

  • A Workspace is a tenant (the API calls it a Subscription). It contains projects, members, and billing.
  • A Project is one solution — its collections, agents, and surfaces (the API calls it a finon). You always work inside one project at a time.
  • Studio is where you build the solution; the consumer app is what your end-users use.

Signing in

The login surface is at /profile/login. It is per-tenant skinned — the platform picks a login layout from a family of components (a plain default, plus several customer-branded ones) based on the tenant’s configuration. The fields and flow are the same; only the branding changes.

Control What it does Notes
Sign in Authenticates and lands you on the Command Deck at /. Email/password is the default path for most tenants.
Forgot password? Sends a reset link (/profile/resetpassword).
SSO / Okta Federated login (/profile/okta, /profile/external-login). Only shown when the tenant has it configured.
2FA / OTP A second-factor step shown inline during login (an OTP entry / QR-enrolment modal — no separate route). Only appears if the tenant enforces it.

Tip. If your screen looks different from a colleague’s — different colours, a customer logo, an SSO-only button — that’s expected. The login page is the most heavily branded surface on the platform.

Watch out. Some tenants ship with a default password and a forced password-change guard. If you’re prompted to set a new password immediately after first sign-in, that’s the guard — set a strong one and continue.

The Command Deck — where you land

Signing in drops you on the Command Deck at / — an intent-first home that spans all your workspaces. Instead of a wall of workspace folders, it asks what do you want to do? (The old workspace-wall landing is retired on the main host; subdomain-hosted tenants keep the classic per-workspace project listing.)

Section What it does Notes
Command box The “What do you want to do?” bar — click it, or press Ctrl K / ⌘K from anywhere, to open the global command palette. Results are grouped Actions · Navigate · Projects · Workspaces; jump to any project or run a command without touching the mouse.
Jump back in Cards for your recently visited projects, across every workspace (each carries a workspace colour dot + status). Click a card to land back in that project.
Needs you Your live queue — review tasks and sign-offs waiting on you, plus unread notifications. Rows clear themselves as you act on them.
Browse everything → Opens the Browse (Atlas) overlay — the full workspace-and-project browser (below). Also reachable at /workspaces.

A brand-new account with no workspaces sees a welcome state instead, with outcome chips: create a project, open the Academy, ask Piper for a tour.

The Browse (Atlas) overlay — the full inventory

Browse everything (or navigating to /workspaces) opens the Atlas overlay: one search box across all workspaces and projects, above a two-pane browser — workspaces on the left, the selected workspace’s projects on the right.

Control What it does Notes
Search box One query across workspaces and projects. ↑/↓ to move, ↵ to open, Esc to close.
Workspace row Click to load its projects on the right. Shows a project count; each row carries ★ pin and ⚙ settings (→ /{workspace}/_settings).
Project card Click to open the project — drops you into its landing surface. Shows a document count and a recent chip; the landing surface may be Documents, a dashboard, or another configured page.
+ Project Create a project in the selected workspace. Admins/creators.
+ Workspace Opens Create Workspace. Super/system admins only.

Tip. Old bookmarks keep working: /{workspace} now redirects to /workspaces?ws=<workspace> — the Browse overlay scoped to that one workspace.

Walkthrough — open your first project. Sign in; you land on the deck. If your project is in Jump back in, click its card. Otherwise press Ctrl K and type its name, or click Browse everything, pick the workspace on the left, then click the project card. You’re now inside the project, looking at its consumer landing surface.

Tip. The logo (top-left) is the universal escape hatch: from anywhere in the product it returns you to the Command Deck. The thin spark bar under the nav is the click-feedback indicator — every navigation visibly reacts while the next screen loads.

Create Project and Create Workspace

You usually open an existing project. When you do need new ones:

  • Create Project launches a guided create-project flow — from the Atlas overlay’s + Project (in the selected workspace), or the palette’s Create project… action (on the deck it first asks you to pick the workspace). You can also start one from a Hub solution. The mechanics live in Studio orientation.

  • Create Workspace (+ Workspace in the Atlas overlay, super/system admins only) opens a small dialog:

    Field Rule
    Workspace Name lowercase letters / digits / underscore; no leading underscore; no spaces.
    Subscription Type radio — General or Demo/Customer (restricted to certain admin roles).
    Template optional — pick a starter UI config when more than one exists.

    Create is disabled until the name is valid, and shows “Creating…” while it provisions.

Watch out. Creating a workspace is a tenant-level act, usually done once by an administrator. As a solution builder you’ll almost always work inside a workspace someone has already set up — you create projects, not workspaces.

Inside a project: the consumer navigation

Open a project and the top navigation bar is the constant chrome around everything. It has three clusters: left (identity / how you got here), centre (the configurable tab row), and right (tools and your account).

Left cluster

Control What it does Notes
Workspace logo The universal escape hatch — returns you to the Command Deck at / from anywhere. Anonymous (public-share) sessions keep their scoped landing instead.
Project name Click returns you to the project’s landing surface. When a left sidebar is active, this region shows the active View name plus a help-info icon.

Centre — the tab row (the heart of the consumer app)

Tab Goes to What it’s for
Overview / Dashboard _dashboard Project analytics widgets. One button per configured dashboard. See Dashboards and inbox.
Chat _chat Ask questions over the project, grounded in cited documents.
Search _search Natural-language / semantic search across the project.
Documents _view/<default> The document table — the consumer’s main work surface. See Document workspace.
Collection / View tabs _view/<name> One tab per collection and per saved View (a saved column+filter slice).
External Links (a configured URL) Opens a link the project author wired in.
More (overflow menu) — Appears when there are more than ~6 tabs; selecting an item promotes it into the visible row.

Watch out — the tab row is configurable and role-gated. What you see is not fixed. Each tab appears only when the project enables it and your role allows it. A project can hide Chat, Search, or Dashboard entirely; a “client” role sees fewer tabs than a builder. Don’t assume a tab is missing because it’s broken — it may simply be turned off for this project or your role. Security and governance covers who-sees-what.

Under the hood. The platform’s word for a Collection in some consumer code is Entity (RelationalEntities), and a tab labelled Entity in a generic project is really a collection tab. We always say Collection. The default unnamed View is hidden from the tab row, which is why you see Documents rather than a “Default” tab.

Right cluster

Control What it does Notes
Co-pilot Opens a project-level chat assistant (modal, dock, or floating). Only when the project enables it.
Studio (gear icon) Enters Studio for this project (the builder). Admins/creators only; hidden if the project disables Studio.
Share (link icon) Copies the current page URL to share. Only when share links are enabled.
Notifications (bell icon) Opens a notifications popover; a green dot marks new items.
Account menu (avatar) Your account menu — see below.

The account menu. Click your avatar at the far right:

  • Your name — your Profile (/profile): name, mobile, avatar, change password.
  • Admin — the platform Admin shell (/admin). Super/system admins only.
  • Strangler flags — the Lab feature-flag submenu. Super/system admins only — covered below.
  • Version — the current build stamp.
  • Logout — signs out (warns you first if an automation is still running).

Flag-gated. A “Try the new home” link may appear in this cluster. It switches you to the emerging Agent OS landing, and only shows when the tenant’s agentOsDemo environment flag and the per-browser agentOsTryNewHome lab flag are both on. Agent OS is still rolling out — see What is Botminds. Don’t build on it yet.

The project switcher. There is no dedicated project dropdown in the top bar. To switch projects, press Ctrl K / ⌘K and type the project’s name — the palette jumps you straight there — or click the logo (far left) to return to the Command Deck and pick from Jump back in or Browse. Either round-trip is the project switcher — simple and always available.

Studio vs consumer — and how to move between them

You’ll cross this boundary constantly, so make it a reflex.

Consumer app Studio
URL /<workspace>/<project>/… /<workspace>/<project>/studio/…
For Doing the work — review documents, chat, search, dashboards. Building the solution — define collections, agents, pipelines, security.
Who Everyone with access. Builders (admins/creators).
Enter via Open a project from the deck (Jump back in, Ctrl K, or Browse); or the Project name in the nav. The Studio gear, top-right in the consumer nav.
Leave via — Studio’s own chrome links back to the consumer app; the logo returns to the deck.

This is the single picture to keep in your head — everything you’ll touch hangs off it:

                    ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
   SIGN IN  ─────>  │  COMMAND DECK  (/)                   │
   /profile/login   │  Ctrl K palette · Jump back in       │
                    │  Needs you · Browse (Atlas) overlay  │
                    └───────────────┬──────────────────────┘
                    open a project  │   (logo = back to the deck)
            ┌───────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┐
            │                      PROJECT                        │
            │  /<workspace>/<project>/...                         │
            │                                                     │
            │  ┌─ CONSUMER APP ───────────┐  ┌─ STUDIO ─────────┐ │
            │  │ top-nav tabs:            │  │ left rail:       │ │
            │  │  Overview / Dashboard    │<>│  Agent Builder   │ │
            │  │  Chat · Search           │  │  Data Model      │ │
            │  │  Documents               │  │  Connectors      │ │
            │  │  Collection / View tabs  │  │  AI / Assets     │ │
            │  │  Inbox (human queue)     │  │  Search · Chat   │ │
            │  └──────────────────────────┘  │  Intelligence    │ │
            │  ┌─ AGENT OS (emerging) ────┐  │  Security · Hubs │ │
            │  │ agent-first landing home │  └──────────────────┘ │
            │  └──────────────────────────┘                       │
            └────────────┬───────────────────────┬────────────────┘
                         │                       │
            account menu (avatar)     account menu (super/system admin)
              /profile — your account   /admin — platform admin shell
                                        Strangler flags (the Lab)
            plus: Notifications · Share · Co-pilot

Roles in brief — who sees what

The platform is heavily role-gated, so two people can open the same project and see different tabs, buttons, and menus. The big tiers:

Tier Sees roughly
Client / consumer role The narrowest view — documents, maybe chat/search; no Studio, no dashboards by default, no admin.
Builder / creator The consumer app plus the Studio door and most build surfaces. This is you.
Subscription admin Builder, plus workspace settings (members, module config).
Super / system admin Everything, including the Admin shell and the Lab flag menu.

This is a sketch, not the contract. The exact, permission-by-permission breakdown — and how a workspace admin tunes it — is Security and governance.

The Lab — feature-flag menu

The platform ships new surfaces behind feature flags (internally “strangler” flags) so they can roll out safely. The Lab menu is where an admin flips them on or off to preview or fall back.

Where it is and who can see it. Account menu (avatar) → Strangler flags. It is gated to super/system admins — the same gate as the Admin link. Subscription admins and consumers do not see it.

Element What it does
Group headers Flags are grouped: Ingestion, Studio & Collections, Runtime & API, Diagnostics, Session.
Row toggle (on/off dot) Each row shows its on-state, title, and a “default ON/OFF” tag (marked when you’ve overridden it). Hover for a tooltip explaining what it is, what on/off mean, when it applies, and safety.
Override-count badge How many flags differ from this environment’s baseline.
Reset all to defaults Clears every override you’ve set.

To toggle a flag: open the account menu, hover Strangler flags, find the flag (groups are in a fixed order; read the hover tooltip if unsure), and click its row. The change takes effect immediately (some flags note “applies after reload”).

Watch out — overrides are per-browser, not per-user or per-project. A flag you flip is stored only in your browser’s local storage (bm_lab_<key>) — nothing is sent to the server. Your teammate, your phone, and your other laptop will not see the change. This is for previewing and debugging, not for configuring the product for others.

  • Precedence (high → low): a ?ff_<key>=1|0 URL override → your per-browser setting → the server baseline → the baked default.
  • No silent drift. When the server build changes, all your per-browser overrides are wiped, so a stale flag can’t haunt you across releases. Setting a flag equal to the baseline removes the override rather than pinning it.
  • Debug Mode (enableDebugMode) is session-only and resets on every page reload.

Most flags are ON-by-default kill-switches — OFF restores the previous proven behaviour byte-for-byte. The handful worth knowing as a builder:

Flag Group Default What it gives you
knowledgeCollections Studio & Collections ON Knowledge-corpus collections: purpose picker, auto-indexing, an Index Health tab.
addDataModes Ingestion ON The per-collection + Add Data launcher (Upload / Paste text / Fill a form / Connect a source).
studioRailV2 Studio & Collections ON The 7-section Studio left rail.
newAgentBuilder / agentHarness Runtime & API ON The modern tabbed Agent Builder and its mirrored view-edit harness.
meshDesigner Studio & Collections ON Surfaces mesh runnables in the XFlow designer.
summaryV2 Ingestion ON The redesigned document Summary panel.
agentOsTryNewHome Runtime & API OFF Shows the Try the new home link to Agent OS (needs the env flag too).

The complete table — all 29 flags, every group, what each turns on — lives in the Feature-Flags Reference.

Try it yourself

With the product open:

  1. Sign in and identify your tier from the right-cluster icons: do you see a Studio gear? A Strangler flags entry under the avatar? That tells you whether you’re a builder or an admin.
  2. From the deck, open a project (Jump back in, or Ctrl K and type its name), then click the logo to bounce back to the deck, then open it again. You’ve just used the project switcher.
  3. Inside the project, name three tabs in the centre row and predict where each goes (_chat, _search, _dashboard, _view/…).
  4. Click Studio, confirm the URL now contains /studio/, then navigate back to the consumer app.

Where to go next

Prefer learning inside the product? The same academy lives in the platform's Learn menu — every screen links to the chapter that explains it.

See the platform live