Topics
Channel-like containers that organize a space's content and decide who can see it, in one move.
A topic is a named, channel-like container inside a space. It does two jobs at once: it organizes your content into recognizable areas, and it gates access to that content. Filing a thread, note, canvas, or view into a topic decides both where it lives and who can reach it - there is no separate visibility switch to set.
Topic names are slugs: lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens, shown with a leading hash - #product, #go-to-market, #fe. You mention a topic the same way, and the name reads as one word wherever it appears.
Why topics
In most tools, "where does this live" and "who can see this" are two separate decisions. In Naumu they are the same decision. When you home a thread in #sales, everyone who has joined #sales can see it, and everyone who hasn't, can't. Organizing and sharing happen in a single move.
That means a member's view of a space is shaped by the topics they belong to. Join more topics to see more; the content homed in topics you haven't joined stays out of sight.
What can be filed in a topic
Threads, notes, canvases, views, and files can all be homed in one or more topics. Members join a topic, and joining grants access to everything homed there.
An item can sit in several topics at once - a spec homed in both #product and #design is visible to members of either. Its audience is always the union: adding a topic only ever widens who can see an item, and removing one narrows it.
misc and other virtual entries
Not everything is filed into a named topic, so the sidebar shows a few virtual entries that sit alongside topics but aren't ones you manage:
- misc - the catch-all for content shared with the whole space but not filed into any topic. It carries no # because it isn't a topic: you can't join it, rename it, or make it public, and it can never be closed. It appears both in the sidebar and in the Browse Topics panel so space-wide content always has a home to browse.
- Your personal home - shown with your own name and avatar (and an italic "You"): your solo work, meaning the AI chats only you are in, plus notes, canvases, and views that belong to you alone.
- All unread - a running list of unseen activity across everything you can reach, so you can catch up without hunting through each topic.
Filing content into a topic
There are two everyday ways to give an item a home.
From the sharing popover. Every thread, note, canvas, and view has a sharing control that opens a Home picker with three choices:
- Private - only the participants, no one else.
- Everyone in [space] - shared space-wide, which is what lands it in misc.
- Topics - pick one or more topics to home it in.
Under Topics, use Add topic to file the item into any topic you belong to. Only topics you are in are listed, and archived topics never appear.
From the composer. When you start a chat, tags in your message decide its home, and a visibility pill on the row above the composer covers the untagged case:
- #topic - homed in that topic, so its members can see it. A topic tag locks the pill - the tag has already decided the audience. When every tagged topic is closed, the thread is pinned private to those topics' members.
- @[space-name] - shared with the whole space; the pill is pinned to Space visible.
- No tags - the pill decides. It starts on Space visible, which lands the thread in misc where anyone in the space can find it; click it or press
Tabto flip it to Private, keeping the thread to you and its participants. - @person - adds that person as a participant; the pill still decides whether the thread is space-visible or private. Starting a chat from a member's sidebar row starts the pill on Private.
You don't have to type the triggers: +# and +@ chips next to the pill insert them for you and open the same picker. Tapping a tag or mention chip already in your draft opens a small menu - Go to, Replace, or Remove - instead of navigating away.
The pickers stay useful even when there's nothing to pick yet. In a space with no topics, typing # offers to create the first one right there (for members who can manage topics), and the @ picker always ends with an Add members row that opens the invite flow in place.
In a space where you're the only member the pill is hidden - there's no one to share with yet.
Participants are always additive. Being named a participant is never taken away by a later topic change - changing where an item is homed never removes someone who was added directly.
Removing the last topic from an item makes it private, not space-wide. Access never widens on removal, so an item filed only in #sales becomes private the moment you remove that chip - only you and the people added directly keep access. The sharing popover warns you before this happens.
Topics and node visibility
Topics govern the things you create and file - chats, notes, canvases, and views. The facts in your memory - the nodes themselves - carry their own visibility level instead: Open, Internal, or Invite only, set per node or as a per-type default in the schema.
The two are independent. Joining a topic does not reveal an Invite-only node referenced in something homed there, and an Internal node is visible to every space member even when the conversation that created it is private. For what each visibility level means, see Spaces; for setting a default per type, see Schema.
Joining, browsing, and managing topics
Open Browse Topics from the sidebar to see every topic in the space, grouped into Your topics (the ones you've joined, alongside misc), Discover (open topics you can join), and Archived. Each row shows a globe when the topic has public web access and a lock when it is closed. Topics also show up in the command palette - Cmd+K, type the name, and you land on a fresh composer already tagged with it.
A topic can be joined in one of three ways, set when it's created or edited:
- Joined by default - new space members join automatically and may leave.
- Anyone can join - any member can find it under Discover and join.
- Invite only - closed; only people added by an admin have access.
Members can join open topics themselves from Discover. Admins create and edit topics through a two-step flow: a New topic / Edit topic dialog for the name, color, and access mode, and a Members dialog for managing who belongs to a closed topic. In a space that has no topics yet, admins get a Create a topic row directly in the sidebar that opens the New topic dialog straight away.
Closed topics and #hidden
A closed (invite-only) topic keeps its very existence out of view. To anyone who isn't a member, its tag renders as #hidden with a lock - on chips, message pills, and sharing surfaces alike. No name, title, or link leaks.
The same protection applies anywhere a topic's content is referenced. If a chat, note, or notification points at something you can't reach, it renders as a plain Hidden badge with no title, tooltip, or link to follow. You always see that something exists without being shown what it is.
Public web access
A topic can be opened to the public web. In the topic's access settings, turn on Public web access and choose how visitors may take part:
- View only - anyone on the web with the link can read.
- Can view and participate - anyone on the web with the link can read and join the conversation.
A Copy link row gives you the shareable address. Public access is a property of the topic, not of individual items - an item becomes reachable on the web only because it is homed in a topic whose public web access is on. There is no per-item share-to-web switch.
This also governs the space's public front door. A space URL (/spaces/<space>) opens for signed-out visitors only when at least one active topic has public web access; otherwise it behaves as if the space isn't there. Visitors land on a Public topics index listing only the public topics - never your memory, misc, the member list, or the schema.
Signed-out visitors are always read-only. A signed-in Naumu user can take part in a topic set to "Can view and participate" without needing an invite.
Guests
Topics are also how outside collaborators come in. From a topic's sharing surface you can invite a guest by email; they get view-only access to that topic by default. Guests are managed from the Guests section of the Members panel. See Members & sharing for how guests and roles work across the space.
Related
- Members & sharing - roles, inviting people, and guests.
- Spaces - the workspace a topic organizes.
- Sidebar - where topics and their virtual entries appear.