> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.devtune.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Working with Actions

> Turn DevTune signals into shipped work in the Actions workspace: review ranked suggestions, generate briefs, manage your backlog, and track outcomes.

The Actions workspace is where DevTune recommendations become real work. It combines active suggestions, your adopted backlog, and completed outcomes in one project-level workflow.

## The three surfaces

### Suggestions

Suggestions are active recommendations ranked by evidence and opportunity. This is the place to review what DevTune thinks is worth doing next.

Typical actions from a suggestion:

* **Generate brief** for a fuller execution plan
* **Add to backlog** when you want to commit to the work
* **Use existing asset** when an owned page already covers the need
* **Snooze** when the idea is valid but not timely
* **Dismiss** when it is not relevant

### Backlog

Backlog contains work your team has chosen to do. This includes:

* Suggestions you adopted from the feed
* Manual actions your team created directly

### Outcomes

Outcomes help you review completed work and what changed after it shipped.

When you mark an Action as **Done**, DevTune automatically creates an **intervention** that tracks:

* The specific URL you targeted (if any)
* Baseline citation metrics before your change
* A snapshot of the page content at completion

After subsequent domain crawls, DevTune compares new citation counts to your baseline. If citations increased, the intervention is marked as **correlated** — meaning the increase happened after the Action and may indicate a positive visibility change worth reviewing.

This lets you answer: *"Did this work actually move the needle?"*

#### Outcome Markers vs Completed Actions

In the Outcomes view, you'll see **outcome markers** on timeline charts. These are distinct from the Actions themselves:

* **Completed Actions** are the work items you finished (e.g., "Create comparison page")
* **Outcome markers** are visual indicators on the timeline showing:
  * **Action completed** (blue dot) — When you marked the Action Done for this URL
  * **Change detected** (amber/green dot) — When domain crawls later detected content changes on that same URL

A single Completed Action creates one action-completed marker. But a URL can have multiple markers over time — your initial completion, followed by detected changes during subsequent crawls. This helps visualize the timeline of activity on specific pages.

The cross-signal Timeline also shows **post-change page citations**. Those are primary citations to pages after crawl-detected content changes. They can appear even when no Actions have been accepted into the backlog, while the Outcomes view remains focused on completed/intervention-backed work.

## Accessing the Actions workspace

Navigate to **Actions** in your project sidebar. Inside the page, switch between **Suggestions**, **Backlog**, and **Outcomes**.

## Generate Brief

Use **Generate brief** to get a fuller recommendation, based on current evidence, related owned content, and relevant external page context, before you commit work.

### Content credits

Brief generation uses content credits. DevTune uses credits differently depending on how the brief is generated:

* **Automatic prewarming** prepares briefs for some high-priority suggestions so they open faster. It only uses a limited automatic allowance from your included monthly credits.
* **Manual generation** happens when you click **Generate brief** or **Regenerate brief**. It uses included monthly credits first.
* **Purchased add-on credits** are never used automatically. If your included monthly credits are exhausted, DevTune asks before using a purchased credit for manual generation.

If a brief is marked **Stale**, DevTune keeps the existing brief visible so you can still use or copy it. You can manually regenerate it when you want a fresh version.

### Brief style and content preferences

By default, DevTune generates each brief in the best-fit format for the action. Some actions also offer a brief-style selector so you can request a specific format.

If project content preferences are enabled, the selector only offers formats allowed for that project. DevTune also uses the same preferences when it recommends new content actions. Blocked formats are not intentionally recommended, and manual requests for a blocked brief style are rejected instead of being generated.

## Action Properties

### Title

A clear, descriptive name for the action, such as:

* "Create getting started guide for Python SDK"
* "Improve API reference documentation structure"
* "Add comparison page: our product vs. Competitor X"

### Description

Detailed information including:

* What needs to be done
* Why it matters
* Success criteria
* Relevant evidence and context

### Status

Backlog actions follow a defined workflow:

| Status      | Meaning                                    |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Backlog     | Committed work that has not started yet    |
| In Progress | Currently being worked on                  |
| Blocked     | Waiting on a dependency or external factor |
| Done        | Finished                                   |
| Canceled    | No longer being pursued                    |

### Priority

Importance and urgency level:

| Priority | Meaning                          |
| -------- | -------------------------------- |
| Urgent   | Requires immediate action        |
| High     | Do soon, high impact expected    |
| Medium   | Important but not time-sensitive |
| Low      | When resources allow             |

### Channel

Actions are routed to the appropriate team or function:

| Channel     | Description                           |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------- |
| docs        | Documentation improvements            |
| content     | Blog posts, guides, marketing content |
| devrel      | Developer relations and community     |
| pr          | Public relations and communications   |
| engineering | Technical infrastructure changes      |
| product     | Product feature or design changes     |
| other       | Actions that do not fit other buckets |

### Source

Where the action came from:

* **Generated recommendation** - Created from DevTune's evidence-backed recommendation engine
* **Manual** - Created directly by a team member

## Working through a suggestion

### Add to backlog

Use **Add to backlog** when the team wants to do the work. The recommendation leaves the suggestion feed and becomes a real backlog item.

### Use existing asset

Use **Use existing asset** when the recommendation is already covered by an owned page or doc. Link the relevant asset so DevTune can suppress the suggestion unless the evidence changes materially.

### Snooze or dismiss

* **Snooze** is for valid ideas that should resurface later
* **Dismiss** is for ideas that should not come back unless the evidence materially changes

## Creating manual actions

To create an action directly:

1. Go to **Actions**
2. Click **Add Action**
3. Fill in the title, description, priority, and channel
4. Set the initial status
5. Save

## Managing Actions

The workspace surfaces:

* Active suggestions
* Backlog items organized by execution status
* Outcomes for completed work
* Priority indicators
* Channel labels
* Source type indicators
* Query-cluster and evidence context where available

## Recommended Process

1. **Review suggestions** - Identify valuable recommendations
2. **Generate briefs where needed** - Gather enough context to make a decision
3. **Add the best items to backlog** - Commit to work
4. **Create manual actions when needed** - Capture work that did not start as a suggestion
5. **Prioritize and route** - Set priority and assign the right channel
6. **Execute** - Do the work
7. **Complete and measure** - Mark it done and review impact in outcomes

## Best Practices

* Triage suggestions regularly so backlog stays meaningful
* Keep actions specific and reasonably scoped
* Review outcomes to understand which work actually moved your signals

## Next Steps

* **[Alerts](/insights-actions/alerts)** - Get notified of important events
* **[Analytics](/analytics/overview)** - Measure the impact of completed actions