Actions

The sidebar entry is labeled Actions and routes to /my-actions. Its badge shows how many of your actions are still open ('99+' past 99), and disappears at zero. This page is personal: the main list only ever shows action items assigned to you. The one exception is the 'Generated by Brev' suggestion group, which also carries AI suggestions nobody has been assigned yet.

Page tour #

• Active / Completed / Canceled tabs: lifecycle state. Active is the default; Completed and Canceled keep history.
• Group by: pill in the filter bar. Groups your list by Goal, Meeting, Assignee, Status, Due date or Tag, and shows the current choice, such as Group by Status. Grouped by Goal, actions with no goal sit under Unaligned. Click a group's header to collapse or expand it. Until you pick one, the Active tab is grouped by Status and the other tabs by Goal. Your pick is remembered on this browser, separately for each account and organization.
• Sort by: pill next to Group by. Newest puts the most recently created actions first; Due date puts the soonest due first, with undated actions last. Remembered along with your grouping.
• Search actions: shows only actions whose title contains what you type. Delete the text to see the whole list again.
• Agent mode (top-right): a per-user setting, not a list filter. Hover the info icon next to it for a one-line summary. Controls how Brev's agent handles action items it finds in your meetings: Approval (Brev suggests items for you to approve), Agentic (Brev adds them automatically), or Manual (Brev never adds them, you add your own).

Creating an action #

Click New action at the top of the page, or press C anywhere on the page while you're not typing. A window opens where you give the action a title and set everything else before it's created.

To add an action straight into one group of your list, click the + at the right of the group's header. The same window opens with that group filled in: its status, assignee, goal, tag, or meeting, so the new action lands in the group you started from. Due date groups such as Overdue don't fill anything in.

• Status: starts as Not started, unless you started from a group's +.
• Assignee: starts as you (or the group's assignee). An action you give to a teammate goes to their list, not yours.
• Goal and Meeting: optional links.

You can also set a Due date, Tags, and what the action is Blocked by or Blocks from Dependencies. Blocking links are added a moment after the action is created; if one can't be added, you're told which, and you can add it from the action's row.

Press Enter in the title, or ⌘Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows) anywhere in the window, to create the action. Press Esc to close it without creating anything.

The 'Generated by Brev' group #

Anything the AI agent or the meeting agent has extracted shows up under a yellow sparkle Generated by Brev (n) group, separated from the rest. You can Dismiss all or Keep all at once, or click a suggestion's check to approve it or its X to dismiss it.

You can also set a suggestion's owner, goal, tags and due date right in this group, before you keep it. Give it to a teammate and it leaves your group for their Generated by Brev group, still waiting for them to keep or dismiss, and they get an inbox notification. It stays a suggestion whatever their Agent mode is. Its goal and tags stay on it when it's kept. A suggestion keeps the meeting it came from, and once it has an owner it can be handed to someone else but not back to nobody, so it never drops out of every group. You can change a suggestion assigned to you. An unassigned one can only be given an owner by an org admin; everyone else sees its owner, goal and tags but can still keep or dismiss it. See Roles & permissions.

The same holds for suggestions on a meeting or goal page: No assignee isn't offered when the suggestion's meeting is private or it has no meeting, and an unassigned suggestion's meeting can't be removed. A change like that made some other way (from another device, or through the API) isn't saved: the suggestion goes back to how it was, and you're told why.

This group holds two kinds of suggestion: items the agent assigned to you, and items it could not assign to anyone. Unassigned items show a dashed grey avatar instead of a face. They are not private to you. They appear for everyone who can open the meeting they came from, until someone keeps or dismisses them. Otherwise a suggestion with no owner would sit in the meeting's recap with nobody to act on it. A private meeting is the exception: its suggestions stay on that meeting's own page. Keeping a suggestion does not assign it. Open the meeting if it needs an owner.

A suggestion you keep or dismiss leaves the group straight away. A kept suggestion assigned to you shows up in your list a few seconds later, briefly highlighted; a kept unassigned one stays on its meeting until someone gives it an owner. If a teammate already handled an unassigned suggestion before you clicked, you see Someone already accepted this suggestion or Someone already dismissed this suggestion, and their decision stands. Keeping or dismissing several at once tells you how many a teammate had already handled.

A suggestion assigned to a teammate never appears here. If you host the meeting it came from (its organizer, or the owner of its series; for a private meeting, only its host), you can see it on that meeting's page, in the Awaiting others group of the Action items panel, and keep or dismiss it there. Changing its owner, goal or tags stays with the teammate it is assigned to.

Tracking something Brev flagged in chat #

When Brev messages you in Slack or Teams about something that looks like a risk (work that has stalled, a decision that was reversed, a commitment that came due), the message carries a Track this button. Pressing it creates an action here, assigned to you, titled with what Brev noticed. It's a normal action from that point on: link it to a goal, complete it, or delete it like any other.

Pressing it twice doesn't create two actions. The second press just tells you it's already in your list. Messages about work that's going well don't carry the button, and the button stays on the message after you press it, so you can still open the sources behind the signal.

Asking the assistant to change your actions #

You can ask Brev's assistant to do this work for you in chat instead of clicking through the list. It can align an action to a goal ("align my actions to my activation goal"), remove that alignment, mark something started, completed or canceled, rename it, hand it to a teammate, or delete it.

Aligning is additive. Linking an action to a goal keeps any goals it is already linked to, so you can build up an action's alignment one request at a time without losing what's there. The assistant only ever changes actions assigned to you, so it can't touch a teammate's work; if you reassign an action to someone else, it leaves your list and the assistant can no longer amend it.

Who can see an action #

An action is visible to the person it is assigned to and to whoever created it. Anyone else in your organization sees it only if they can see every goal and every meeting it is linked to. An action with no goal or meeting links is visible to everyone in the organization.

• A goal or meeting you can't see is never shown on an action, even one assigned to you. The action is still yours, only that link is hidden.
• Organization admins follow the same rule: being an admin doesn't reveal an action linked to a private goal, or to a meeting the admin wasn't part of.
• When a goal or meeting is shared with you, its actions show up on your next sync. When you lose access, they disappear from your device, including copies it synced earlier.
• Editing an action never removes a link you can't see.
• A suggestion has to be kept or dismissed before anyone can change its status.

Who can change an action #

You can edit or delete an action assigned to you. A team admin can also change actions assigned to anyone on their team or its subteams, and org admins can change any action, including unassigned ones. If you host a meeting, or own its series (for a private meeting, only its host), you can edit every kept action from it, whoever it's assigned to, from its Action Items panel, but you can't delete other people's: set the status to Canceled instead. The same rules apply when you ask Operator or another AI tool connected to Brev to change actions for you. Anywhere else, the action's title, status, owner, goal, meeting, due date and tags are shown but can't be changed, and its right-click menu is off. If you select several actions and some of them aren't yours to change, a bulk edit changes only the ones you can and tells you how many it left alone. See Roles & permissions.

If an edit you made is refused, for example because the action was reassigned while you were offline, Brev puts the action back the way it is saved and tells you your change wasn't saved.

Anatomy of an action row #

• Checkbox: appears when you hover the row, for selecting several actions at once. A sparkle in its place means Brev's agent created the action.
• Title: what to do. Click it, or Tab to it and press Enter, to rename the action. Press Enter or click away to save, or Esc to keep the old title. A check mark briefly confirms the save. The title can't be clicked on an action you can't edit.
• Status: the circle at the start of the row, described under The action row below.
• Align to goal: the goal chip. Click it and pick a goal to link the action to it, so the goal's page shows it too; the chip then shows the goal's name. Choose No parent to remove the link. Grouped by Goal, the row moves under that goal.
• Link meeting: the meeting chip. Once linked, it shows the meeting's series and the specific occurrence (e.g. 'Leadership Review · Jan 15 Standup'). Click it to pick a meeting, or None to clear it. It's left off when you group by Meeting, where the group header already names it.
• Assignee avatar: who owns the action. Click it to hand the action to someone else.
• On a suggestion, Dismiss (X) and Approve (✓) buttons on the far right.

Handing an action to someone else #

Click the assignee avatar on a row, then search for a teammate in Search members and pick them, or pick No assignee. Either way the action leaves your list. Picking a teammate moves it into their list; No assignee leaves it in nobody's list. Unless you're a team or org admin you can no longer change it (see Who can change an action). Invite user at the top of the list opens a window to invite someone new to your workspace by email.

The right-click menu #

Right-click an action's row for a menu that changes it without hunting for the right chip: Status, Assignee, Link Goal, Link Meeting and Delete. Each opens a submenu; Assignee, Link Goal and Link Meeting have a search box at the top and offer No assignee, No goal or None to clear the value. The menu closes once you pick something.

The menu also has Due date, with Today, Tomorrow, Next week and a calendar.

The menu doesn't open on a suggestion you haven't kept yet, or on an action you can't change. Delete only appears when you're allowed to delete the action.

Deleting an action #

Right-click the row and choose Delete. Brev asks you to confirm in Delete action item; click Delete again to remove it, or Cancel to keep it. Deleting is permanent and can't be undone. To keep a record of work you decided not to do, set the status to Canceled instead.

Changing several actions at once #

Hover a row and tick its checkbox to select it. Shift-click another row's checkbox to select everything between the two, or Shift-, Ctrl- or Cmd-click a row to add it. You can also Tab to a row and press Shift+Enter, Ctrl+Enter or Cmd+Enter to select it. On mobile, Enter or Space on the focused row opens its details. A toolbar appears at the bottom of the page with the number selected and these buttons:

• Status: set Not Started, Started, Completed or Canceled on all of them.
• Assignees: hand them all to one teammate, or to No assignee.
• Move to: choose Goal or Meeting, then search for one, or pick No goal or None to clear the link.
• Delete: asks you to confirm, naming how many will go (for example 'Delete 2 actions'), then deletes them permanently. Cancel keeps your selection.

When it's done, Brev says how many it updated or deleted and clears the selection. If some fail, it says how many and keeps your selection so you can try again. Selected actions you aren't allowed to change or delete are left alone, and Brev tells you how many. Press Esc, click the X on the toolbar, or switch tabs to clear the selection.

Actions on a phone #

On a narrow screen, a row hides most of its chips. Tap the row (anywhere but its avatar or buttons) to open its details in a sheet from the bottom of the screen, where you change its Status, Goal, Meeting and Assignee. Meeting is left out when you group by Meeting. Fields are greyed out on an action you can't change.

The sheet also has Due date and Tags. Tapping a suggestion in the Generated by Brev group opens the same sheet, marked Pending approval, with Dismiss and Approve buttons at the bottom.

The action row #

The list gives each title as much room as the row allows.

• Status circle: the circle at the start of the row is the action's status: empty for Not Started, half-filled for In Progress, dashed for a suggestion waiting on you, a check for Completed and a cross for Canceled. Click it to change the status. In this list Started is called In Progress. A finished action shows a fixed icon; right-click the row to change its status. A suggestion's icon stays fixed until you keep it.
• Title: a title too long for the row ends in an ellipsis. Hover it, or Tab to it, to see the whole title.
• Meeting: when a meeting occurrence has the same name as its series, the chip shows the series and the meeting's date (for example 'Daily Team Sync · Sep 24') instead of repeating the name.
• Tags, due date, goal, meeting and owner each keep their own column, so they line up down the list. A column with nothing set shows a faded placeholder, such as a calendar icon for no due date, instead of a gap.
• On a narrow window, the meeting chip goes first, then the goal chip. The due date never collapses. Goal and meeting stay reachable by right-clicking the row.

The Active tab opens grouped by status: In Progress on top, then Not Started, each with its count, until you pick another grouping. Sort by puts the newest actions first (Newest) or the soonest due first (Due date), and is remembered along with your grouping.

Due dates #

Give an action a due date to show when it needs doing. Hover a row and click the calendar icon, right-click the row and choose Due date, or on a phone tap the row and use the Due date field. Pick Today, Tomorrow or Next week (the coming Monday), or choose any day from the calendar. Choose No due date to clear it.

• The row shows Yesterday, Today or Tomorrow for dates next to today, and the date itself, such as 'Sep 26', otherwise. It turns red once the date has passed and amber on the day itself. Completed and canceled actions are never shown as overdue.
• A due date is a calendar day, so it reads the same for everyone on your team, whatever their timezone.
• Group by Due date to split your list into Overdue, This week (today through Sunday), Later and No due date; on the Completed and Canceled tabs, past dates are grouped as Earlier rather than Overdue. Sort by Due date to put the soonest first, with undated actions at the end.
• The Brev assistant can set and clear due dates too, and they appear in your list within seconds.

Tags #

Tag an action to group related work across goals and meetings. Actions use your organization's tag list, the same tags as goals, so 'launch' means the same thing everywhere. Hover a row and click the tag icon, or on a phone tap the row and use the Tags field. Type to filter the list and press Enter to apply a tag; if nothing matches, choose Create tag to add a new one. Typing a name that exists in different capitalization, such as 'Launch' when 'launch' exists, applies the existing tag rather than creating a copy.

• One tag shows as a chip on the row. Two or more show as overlapping color dots, with +N past three; hover or tab to them to see every tag's name.
• Each tag gets its own color when it is created.
• Filter by Tag to see only actions with any of the tags you pick, or Group by Tag to see one group per tag. An action with several tags appears under each of them.
• The Brev assistant can tag your actions too, and the tags appear in your list within seconds.

Any member can create a tag, except Observers and Guests. Only organization admins can delete one, and deleting a tag removes it from every goal and action (see Roles & permissions).

Blocked actions #

Mark an action as blocked by another when it cannot move until that one is done. Hover a row and click the blocked-by icon (a circle with an X) or the blocks icon (a circle with a minus), or on a phone tap the row and tap one beside the action's name. Each opens a search of your open actions, the same picker goals use: actions already linked on that side are checked, so click one to remove it, or search by title and click another to add it. If a link is refused, Brev says why.

• Right after its title, a row shows a blocked-by icon while open actions block it and a blocks icon while it blocks open actions, the same icons goals use. Hover or focus either one to see which actions they are.
• Completing or canceling the blocker clears the icon on everything it blocked. The link stays, so you can still see what the work depended on.
• An action cannot block itself, and two actions cannot block each other, directly or through a chain. In the search, an action that would close such a loop is greyed out and marked Would create a cycle; if Brev refuses a link for that reason anyway, it explains why.
• The blocker can be anyone's action, as long as you can see it. You only see a link when you can see both actions.
• On a meeting's page, blocked actions sit in their own Blocked group at the top of Action Items. Their rows show the same blocked-by and blocks icons, so you can hover to see what each is waiting on or click one to change it.
• When Brev drafts a meeting's agenda or artifact, it notes which open actions are blocked and by what, but only when everyone at the meeting could open both actions. Otherwise the action is listed without its blocker.
• The Brev assistant can mark your actions as blocked, or remove the link, and the change appears in your list within seconds.

Lifecycle #

Active

Live work: Not Started or Started (In Progress in this list), plus suggestions still waiting for you in the Generated by Brev group.

Completed

Done. Moves to the Completed tab, with its title struck through, and stays there as history.

Canceled

Decided against, or a dismissed suggestion. Moves to the Canceled tab, as a record of what you chose not to do.

Change an action's status from its status chip, its right-click menu, the details sheet on a phone, or the toolbar after selecting several. Marking an action Completed or Canceled plays a short animation as it leaves the Active tab. Setting it back to Not Started or Started brings it back.