Work on a session together

A session belongs to the person who started it, and anyone they add can follow it, steer it, or discuss it. This page covers who can do what, how to add people, and how the discussion works.

Roles

An organization admin can archive a session too.

The Collaborators section of the Overview lists everyone on the session, and you can add people there as well. Collaborators are the people who work in it, and viewers are there to watch. People who get access through a project are marked via project, and you change them on the project instead.

Only collaborators can message the agent, unless a public session’s link makes everyone at your organization a Collaborator, as described below. Anyone who can open the session can comment in the discussion, and an organization admin can step into a session they weren’t added to. The card You’re here as an admin offers that, and the admin joins as a collaborator, visible to everyone on the session. On a private session, the admin first steps in to view it, as described below. Someone listed on the automation that started a session sees You’re on the automation that started this session and can step in the same way.

When a collaborator sends a message, their turn runs with their own connections to integrations such as GitHub or Sentry. In a shared session, Integrations in the message box’s + menu shows what a turn of yours would carry.

Add people

On a public session, General access also sets what the link gives, on the line Anyone at Acme with the link. With Viewer, they can read the session. With Collaborator, they can also message the agent, answer its questions, and approve plans, using their own connections. The owner and collaborators can change it.

A session’s visibility, Public or Private, decides who can find and open it. Everyone at your organization can find a public session in their lists and open it. A private session stays out of lists, and only people with access can open it. General access starts with the choice, as “Everyone at Acme ▾ can open this session” or “Only people you add ▾ can open this session”, and you pick the other answer there. You can also change it under Visibility on the session’s Details tab. A private session has no link role, so General access says “A link alone doesn’t open it.” Making a session private also turns off editing through the link. In a list, a lock before the title marks a private session, and a public session has no mark. Start a session describes both.

A project that’s visible to its team or private keeps its sessions private. A session you move into one becomes private, and making a project private, or visible to its team only, makes its public sessions private. Moving a session out of a project, or opening a project to everyone, leaves each session as it is.

Who can open a private session

A private session opens for these people:

• its owner
• the people added to it as Collaborator or Viewer
• the owner, collaborators, and viewers of its project, if it has one, and of that project’s parent projects
• an organization admin who has stepped in, until the step-in ends

Anyone else who opens its link sees This session is private. They can add a note and choose Request access, and they get a notification when the request is answered. In the terminal, evergreen request-access <session> --note "…" sends the same request.

A private session’s asks for help reach only the people with access, its link doesn’t unfurl into a card in Slack, and its pull requests don’t link back to it. When a session goes private, its agent also stops messaging agents in public sessions. In a private session, the + menu in the message box names who can read it, and Share opens from there.

Ask to join and leave

Someone who can open a session but isn’t on it sees You’re watching. They can choose Ask to join and add a note saying why, or run evergreen join <session> in the terminal. The owner and collaborators get the request in Needs you, in notifications, and on the session, and the same goes for a private session’s Request access. The button lets the person in, and the menu beside it switches between Let them view and Let them edit. On a private session the button starts on Let them view, and on a public session, which the person can already read, it starts on Let them edit. Decline turns the request down. In the terminal, evergreen requests approve <session> <id> --view or --edit lets them in, evergreen requests decline <session> <id> turns the request down, and evergreen requests prints the exact command for each ask.

To leave a session, open the header’s menu and choose Leave session…. You give up your own place on it, and the session keeps running for its owner and everyone else.

Step in to a private session

If you’re an organization admin, with the Owner or Admin role, a private session you have no access to shows only in search. It’s under Private sessions, with its title, its owner, and the lock, and nothing else about it. To open it, you step in.

The session’s owner is told in notifications, by push, and in Slack if they’ve connected it. The session’s history keeps a line with your reason, and the step-in goes in the audit log. While you’re stepped in, a Stepped in bar under the session’s header shows your reason and the time left, and Leave ends it early. Your access ends when the time runs out.

In the terminal, evergreen step-in <session> --reason "…" --for 1h steps in, and evergreen step-in <session> --leave ends it early.

Discuss

The Discuss tab in the session’s sidebar is a conversation between the people on the session. Comments never reach the agent, and neither do the files you attach to them, so you can say what you think of a plan without steering the run.

• Write under Write a comment and attach files with the paperclip.
• Type @ to mention a teammate. The session’s people come first in the menu, and naming someone sends them a notification.
• Add reaction puts an emoji on a comment.
• A line marked New shows where the comments you haven’t read begin, and the Discuss button near the message box shows a dot while you have unread comments.

To talk to the agent instead, use the message box. Plans and asks covers answering what the agent needs.

Sessions started in Slack

In a Slack thread, tagging @Evergreen makes everyone who posts there join the session as a collaborator. To keep a session to the people you add, turn off Add people from the thread under the Slack group of Settings › Defaults. Slack has more on working there.