Foundations
Notifications
Notifications are how River talks back to you. When a Job finishes, an Agent flags something important, an integration disconnects, or your Morning Briefer is ready, River tells you.
Notifications are first-class entities. They're persisted, addressable, and tied to your account. You can open them, clear them, search them, and come back to them later — they don't vanish like a toast.
Where notifications appear#
Notifications surface in several places, depending on how urgent and how big they are:
| Surface | Use |
|---|---|
| Top-right toast | Brief inline confirmation of recent actions and arrivals |
| Notification center | Full list of unread notifications, persistent and filterable |
| InboxApp intelligence channel | FYI items and decisions River wants you to make |
| When an action requires you and you're away | |
| Slack (if connected) | Optional mirror to a chosen Slack channel |
| Push (mobile, if installed) | Time-sensitive things like meetings or approvals |
You choose which channels each kind of notification uses. Most teams use one or two.
Three categories#
Action required#
Something is waiting for you. A Workflow paused at an approval gate. An Agent flagged an email that needs a decision. An invoice is overdue. These notifications are bold, persistent, and don't go away until you act.
Awareness#
Something happened that you'd want to know but doesn't require action. A scheduled report is ready. A teammate finished a draft. A Job completed successfully. These are quietly logged and surface in the notification center.
Insight#
Something the AI noticed that you might not have. A recurring pattern in your inbox. A stalled deal. A meeting tomorrow with someone you haven't talked to in a month. See Signal Intelligence.
Configuring what notifies you#
By default, only "Action required" items use loud channels (toast, email). Awareness and Insight items go to the notification center silently. You can change this per Agent, per Workflow, per integration, and per Schedule.
Tips#
- The notification center is searchable. If you remember River told you something but can't find it, search there.
- You can turn any notification into a Task or Doc — right-click → "Save to Tasks."
- Going on vacation? Set quiet hours in Settings → Notifications, and River will hold non-urgent notifications until you're back.