Orbit activity, approvals and follow-ups

Follow Orbit's running and scheduled work, approve or dismiss changes in Needs you, correct or stop a saved job, and set up follow-up reminders.

Some Orbit requests finish in seconds. Others take several steps, run on a schedule, or wait for you to approve a change. This guide shows you where to follow that work, how to approve it, how to correct or stop it, and how Orbit reminds you about follow-ups. It's for anyone who asks Orbit to do more than answer a question.

If you're new to Orbit, start with Orbit, your AI assistant.

Before you begin

Open the Orbit panel from Home, Ask Spacebrain at the top of the sidebar (⌘K or Ctrl+K), or Ask AI on a record.
You approve changes with your own role. If your role can view a change but not make it, the review shows Your role can review this action but cannot execute it. Ask someone with the right role to approve it.
Orbit AI uses credits. Preparing work, correcting a job and running steps can all use credits. Each review shows the cost before you confirm.

Where to look

Place	Use it to
Activity view in the Orbit panel	See everything Orbit is doing or has done: scheduled checks, work in progress, earlier requests and changes by day.
Needs you view in the Orbit panel	Deal with anything that's waiting on you. The tab shows a count, such as Needs you 2.
Needs attention on Home	See follow-ups Orbit found for you, such as overdue tasks or unanswered conversations, and prepare the next step.

Select Orbit's picture at the top of the panel to jump straight to Activity.

Follow work in Activity

The Activity view is grouped so you can scan it quickly:

Upcoming: saved jobs that will run later. Each one shows Scheduled check, what it's waiting for, and when it will next check.
In progress: requests that are queued or running. You can switch to another conversation while these run.
Earlier requests: finished requests. Select the heading to expand the list.
Today, Yesterday and earlier dates: changes Orbit prepared or made, with a status such as Needs approval, Working, Completed or Needs attention.

Each row has a status so you can tell what happened without opening it: Queued, Working, Complete, Stop requested, Stopped or Needs attention.

Select a request to open its conversation. For a saved job, selecting it opens its work details instead (see below).

Add another request while Orbit works

If Orbit is busy in the current conversation, you can line up the next request:

In Activity, find Queue another request in this conversation.
Type the request and select Queue request.

This always creates a new request. To change a saved job, use Change remaining work instead.

Review and approve in Needs you

Needs you collects everything that can't move forward without you. Items are grouped:

Group	What it means	What to do
Waiting for your approval	Orbit has prepared a change. Nothing runs until you approve it.	Select Review, check the change and cost, then confirm or dismiss.
Orbit needs a detail	Orbit asked you a question.	Select it and answer in the conversation.
Check the outcome	Orbit couldn't confirm whether the change worked.	Open the original record and check it. Orbit never retries these automatically.
Didn't complete	Orbit tried and the change failed.	Open it to see why, or ask Orbit again.
Out of date	The record changed after Orbit prepared the change, so it can no longer run.	Dismiss it, or ask Orbit to prepare it again.
Just reviewed	The item you just handled.	Nothing. It moves out of the list.

Approve a change

Open Needs you and select Review on the item. The review opens right there in the list.
Read the change. The review is titled Review agent action and says Check the changes and cost. Nothing runs until you confirm.
Select Confirm to make the change, Do it manually to make it yourself on the normal page (when offered), or Dismiss.
To see the full discussion first, select Open original chat.

What you should see: the item moves to Just reviewed, and the result appears in Activity with Completed or Needs attention.

When nothing is waiting, Needs you shows Nothing is waiting on you right now.

Work with a saved job

For bigger tasks, Orbit saves a plan as a job. A job has steps, can pause for approval and can run a check on a schedule. Select a job in Activity to open its details:

Saved work shows the job and its current status, such as Working, Waiting for approval, Needs a detail, Ready to continue or Complete.
Saved check shows what a scheduled job watches for, when it Last checked and when it Expires.
Steps and outputs lists each step and its result, and the credits used so far.

Buttons you may see:

Continue runs the next step after you've reviewed it.
Stop stops the job.
Refresh status reloads the latest state.
Change remaining work lets you correct the job (see below).
Open conversation opens the chat where the job started.
Close work details closes the panel.

Correct a saved job

Use this when a job is heading the wrong way, for example when you want a different due date or one more step.

In Activity, select the job, then select Change remaining work.
Describe the change in plain words, for example: "Set the due date to Friday and assign the task to Sam."
Select Prepare change or, while the job is running, Save change and pause.
Review the updated plan before you continue.

What you should see: a note such as Change saved · review before continuing or Change saved · pausing after the current step. Completed steps are kept. Changed actions still need their usual approval. To cancel your correction, select Discard change.

If Orbit can't tell which job you mean, it asks you to choose one in the conversation. If the plan changed while you were typing, your text is kept and you're asked to review the new version first.

Stop a request

Open Activity.
Find the request under In progress and select Stop.

What you should see: the status changes to Stop requested and then Stopped. Steps that already finished are not undone. Check the affected records if the request had started making changes.

To stop Orbit while it's still writing an answer, select Stop in the message box instead.

Get follow-up reminders on Home

Orbit can remind you in Spacebrain about due tasks and open commitments. The reminders appear in Needs attention on Home and in Needs you. They're private to you. No emails are sent and no records change.

Turn reminders on

On Home, find Needs attention and select Set up reminders. If reminders are already on, select Settings.
Make sure Remind me in Spacebrain is selected.
Enter your Timezone, for example America/New_York or Europe/London.
Choose Quiet hours start and Quiet hours end. Set the same start and end to turn quiet hours off.
Select Save settings.

What you should see: Reminder settings saved. During quiet hours, the list says when follow-ups will return.

Act on a follow-up

Each follow-up shows why it's there, when it's due (for example Overdue or Due soon) and who owns it. Items marked AI-assessed were picked by Orbit reading the conversation, so check them before you act.

Select the next-step button, such as a button to assign an owner or review an overdue task, to have Orbit prepare that step in the Orbit panel. You still review it before anything changes.
Select Open task, Open conversation, Open lead or Open record to go to the item yourself.
Select Snooze 1h to hide it for an hour, or Dismiss to hide it until something changes. Neither option changes your workspace.

To turn reminders off, select Stop reminders. Your tasks and saved work stay as they are.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What to do
Could not confirm Stop. Refresh the saved status before trying again.	Select Refresh status, then check whether the job stopped before you try again.
Your change was not applied	Open the conversation to see why. The job wasn't changed.
Finish the active request in this conversation first	Wait for the current request to finish. Your text is kept.
More than one saved job could take this change	Nothing was changed. Use Change remaining work on the job you mean.
Out of date item	Dismiss it and ask Orbit again so it uses current records.
Check the outcome item	Open the record and check it before asking again, so the change isn't made twice.
Could not load follow-ups	Select Refresh.

FAQ

Does Orbit keep working when I close the panel or change pages?

Yes. Running requests continue. Check Activity to see how they're going.

Will Orbit retry a change that failed?

No. Orbit doesn't retry changes on its own, especially when it can't confirm the result. You decide whether to ask again.

Can other people see my reminders?

No. Follow-up reminders are only for you.

Why don't I see every follow-up?

To keep Home useful, Orbit sends a limited number of in-app reminders each day and shows only the most important ones at a time. When more are waiting, you see Showing the first few follow-ups. If you also see Some sources are unavailable with your current access, some modules are outside your role.

Next step

Teach Orbit how you like to work in Orbit memory.