Using the Perception console

Business Summary: Perception is how you ask questions about anything happening in your workspace — approvals, workstream status, run outcomes, and lifecycle history — without opening every screen individually.

Click the floating orb (bottom right) from any page, or press ⌘/ (Mac) / Ctrl+/ (Windows). Perception queries the lifecycle graph built in the background since sign-up — the same operating memory that powers Ask Nimbus on Overview.

Ask a cross-platform question

1. From any Nimbus page, locate the Perception orb in the bottom right corner of the screen.
2. Click the orb — or press ⌘/ (Mac) / Ctrl+/ (Windows) — to open the full-screen Perception console.
3. Read the input area and type a natural-language question. Strong starters include:
   • Tell me the status of all ongoing workstreams and outcomes from their latest runs
   • What needs my approval across the platform?
   • What happened with the Financial Analysis workstream?
4. Submit the query and read the structured response — note deep links into workstreams or audit surfaces.
5. Click a link to open the relevant Workstream workspace, Audit & History, or Lifecycle Graph.
6. Ask follow-up questions in the same session to narrow causality — Who approved the last run? Which connector failed?
7. Close Perception with X or press Esc when finished — you return to the page you were on.
8. Optional: open Chat history from the sidebar (or Decision Studio at /ask) to revisit past Perception sessions — every Perception conversation is saved for later reference.

The same lifecycle data powers Ask Nimbus on Overview — Perception is the full-screen version available from anywhere without navigating to the dashboard first.

Note: Perception Chat history is workspace-wide and distinct from workstream chat, which is private per user inside each workstream.

Scope a new workstream from Perception

1. Open the Perception orb and describe a business goal in natural language — for example, I need a workstream to analyze Q3 cloud spend with finance sign-off.
2. Answer follow-up questions until objective, agent fit, and connector needs are clear.
3. When Perception prompts you to commit, confirm Workstream name, collaborators, and connector toggles.
4. Click through to Create workstream — or continue in the dedicated Perception wizard from New workstream on the hub.
5. Land in workstream Analyze mode with scoping context preserved.

See Creating a workstream for the step-by-step Perception wizard and Creating from chat on the Workstreams hub.

How this fits in Nimbus

flowchart LR
  Orb[Perception orb]
  Lifecycle[Lifecycle Graph]
  Overview[Overview Ask Nimbus]
  Audit[Audit and History]
  WS[Workstream workspace]

  Lifecycle --> Orb
  Lifecycle --> Overview
  Orb --> WS
  Audit -->|View Lineage| Lifecycle

Every connector read, agent run, HITL approval, and team action adds nodes to the lifecycle graph. Perception reads that graph so you can ask causality questions at any time — what happened, who approved it, and what was the outcome?

Query without opening the graph

You do not need to open Lifecycle Graph manually for most questions. Examples Perception can answer:

• "What happened with this workstream?"
• "Why was this decision approved?"
• "Show me all runs that stalled this week"
• "Which teams are most active on workstreams?"

Power users can still browse the graph directly — see Using the Lifecycle Graph.

Perception vs Overview vs workstream chat

Inside a committed workstream, use Analyze, Plan, Action, and Reports — not Perception. See Workstream chat modes.

Example scenarios

COO — platform-wide status before exec meeting

A COO asks Perception: Tell me the status of all ongoing workstreams and outcomes from their latest runs. The answer pulls from the lifecycle graph — twelve active workstreams, one pending HITL, one output ready. She opens the flagged workstream from a deep link, approves at HITL review, and sends the report path to Live Canvas for her EA to finalize slides.

Compliance analyst — audit trail without opening every tab

A compliance analyst asks What approvals happened on Financial Analysis this week? Perception summarizes governance events with actor names and timestamps. She cross-checks one event in Audit & History via View Lineage, then exports the audit table for her quarterly controls pack — without manually opening each workstream Activity tab.

FAQs {#faqs}

Q: Does Perception cost NTUs? A: Exploration is lighter than governed Plan runs. Confirm & run inside a workstream shows explicit NTU quotes.

Q: How is Perception different from Ask Nimbus on Overview? A: Same lifecycle data source. Overview adds stat pills and activity tables; Perception is available on every page via the orb.

Q: Can I run an agent from Perception? A: Commit to a workstream first. Governed runs happen in workstream chat with Confirm & run — see Workstream chat modes.

Q: Where does Perception get its data? A: The lifecycle graph — built automatically from sign-up. See Using the Lifecycle Graph.

Q: Can I query audit events? A: Yes. Perception and Audit & History share the same event stream. Use View Lineage in Audit for graph navigation.

Q: What keyboard shortcut opens Perception? A: ⌘/ on Mac or Ctrl+/ on Windows from any page.

Q: Can I scope a workstream entirely in Perception chat? A: Yes — describe the goal and commit when prompted. The hub New workstream wizard offers the same flow with explicit steps.

Q: Does Perception replace the Lifecycle Graph page? A: No. Perception answers questions in natural language; the graph page supports visual browsing and Search nodes… — see Navigating the graph.