Work intake

Work intake is the set of doors a request can arrive through to become a cycle. There are five, and a request from any other source is refused. “What can create work in this project” always has an exact answer.

Two of the doors connect systems outside hlix and can be closed. The other three are always open, because using one is already a deliberate act within the project.

Prerequisites

• A project in your Workspace.
• manage access on the project to change its intake settings; owner or admin for the Workspace defaults.

The five doors

API value	What it is	Can it be closed?
chat	Someone typed into the project’s conversation	No
kanban	Someone moved a card on the project’s board	No
api	A direct API call with a Workspace credential	No
linear	A delegation from a Linear issue	Yes
github	A GitHub issue	Yes

The board's API value is `kanban`

The board is called the board in the dashboard, and its identifier in the API is kanban. Send kanban when you mean the board; board is not an accepted value.

Every door is open by default, and every request admitted through any of them goes through triage before it becomes work.

Why three doors have no switch

chat, kanban and api are native: the request starts inside hlix and is scoped by the act of making it. Someone typed into this project’s chat, moved a card on its board, or called the API with a credential for this Workspace.

linear and github are external: another system sends requests to this project, that system can be noisy, and noise becomes spend. You can switch either one off.

The native doors cannot be closed: {"intake": {"chat": false}} answers 400.

Close a door for one project

curl -sS -X PATCH "$HLIX_BASE_URL/v1/api/projects/$PROJECT_ID" \
  -H "x-api-key: $HLIX_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Organization-Id: $HLIX_WORKSPACE_ID" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"intake":{"linear":false}}'

Expected result: 200 and the updated project, with intake.linear now false.

The intake object is merged onto what is already stored, so sending one key leaves the other unchanged. Omitting intake leaves the settings as they are.

The dashboard shows the same switches under Project → Settings → Work intake, one per closable door, with a line naming the three that are always open.

Project and Workspace settings

Each external door is decided by the first of these that has a setting:

1. The project’s own setting — what you set above.
2. The Workspace default — an admin’s default for every project.
3. The catalog’s default — open.

A project setting overrides the Workspace default.

What a refusal looks like

A blocked request does not become a cycle, and the reason names the setting that closed the door:

Linear intake is turned off for this project
Linear intake is turned off for this workspace

Check the setting the message names: a door closed by the Workspace default stays closed even when the project screen shows no change.

An unknown source gets a different refusal:

unknown intake source 'slack' — it is not in the intake source catalog

If work is not arriving, or is arriving when it should not

• A Linear issue was assigned and nothing happened. Check both settings: the project’s intake.linear and the Workspace default. The refusal reason in the project’s activity names which one.
• A GitHub issue did not become a cycle. Same check on intake.github. Also confirm the repository is attached to this project — an issue only reaches a project through a repository it owns.
• {"error":"…"} with 400 on the PATCH. You sent a native door (chat, kanban, api) or a name that is not a door. Unknown keys are refused.
• You sent board and got a 400. The API value is kanban.
• You closed one door and the other closed too. intake merges, so check that you did not send both keys.
• Work is arriving from a source you never enabled. All five doors are open by default; close the ones you do not want.
• A 403 on the PATCH. Changing intake needs manage access on the project.
• The door is open and a request still did not become work. It was admitted and then triaged. See Triage for what happens after the door.

Where to go next

If you want to…	Read
See what happens after a request is admitted	Triage
Connect the Linear workspace	Linear
Connect the GitHub account	GitHub
Gate what a cycle may do once created	Delivery policy

Next steps

TriageThe agent that decides whether an admitted request becomes a cycle.

Delivery policyBudgets and client deployment, once work exists.

LinearHow an issue becomes a delegation, and what it can do.

GitHubIssues in, branches and one pull request out.