the best thing underway does is the thing you never see it do. before the interview starts, it has already read your day: the meeting at eleven, the commits from the afternoon, the payment that landed, the email you forwarded from the train. that is why the first question is about the call that overran, and not a polite how was your day.
the trouble was where you set it up. a new founder opening context saw the tray and a row of tiles for whatever was already connected, which on day one is nothing. the connections themselves lived three clicks away, in account, on a tab called connections, between the plan and the privacy settings. the part rich calls the impressive part, this is how it knows your day, was the part nobody found.
so context is now where you connect it.
six tools, one button each
until three things are connected, context opens on a panel headed connect your tools. one line says what it is for: underway gets smarter by reading the tools you already work in, and it is how the questions know about your day. a shorter one says what to do: connect one now, and add more any time.
under it are six tiles, each with the tool's own mark, its name, what it brings in a few words, and a button. they are the six that are cheapest to connect and most useful in your first few episodes, and each one brings in something the others do not.
- google calendar, for today's meetings. who you met and when is often enough for a sharp question, and it reads titles and times only, never what was said.
- your inbox address, for any email you forward. there is nothing to sign in to, so the tile shows the address with a copy button. forward the lawyer's reply and it is one line of today's context.
- github, for commits. what shipped, without you having to remember it, and only from the repositories you say the series is about.
- stripe, for payments. the day money lands is the moment this product exists to catch. it takes a read-only key.
- fathom, for what was said in your meetings. it connects with a key any fathom user can make, so nobody else has to approve it. meeting words are context for the questions and never footage: nobody else's voice ends up in an episode.
- plausible, for traffic, so a day the numbers moved is a day the interview can ask about.
connect on a tool you sign in to takes you to that tool's own screen and brings you straight back to context. connect on a tool that takes a key opens the same card account uses, right under the tiles, with the steps for making the key and a box to paste it into. it is checked before it is kept, so a typo fails there and then rather than as a quiet empty tray for a week.
the tile says it worked
the moment something connects, its tile turns into the tile it will be from then on, under where today comes from: the mark, what its last read found, and when. for that visit it also says connected, and that it will be in the next read. the panel keeps only what is left to suggest.
past three connections, counting the inbox once something has been forwarded to it, the panel goes. context opens on where today comes from, as it did, with a small tile to connect more. see all 24 connections, on the panel, opens the full list: linear, vercel, argos, zoom, fireflies, whop, posthog, kit, beehiiv, search console and meta ads for the day, and the places your episodes go.
the logos are a way in
folded, the where today comes from section shows a row of the marks of everything it reads. that row is now a link, with connect after it: to the panel when it is up, and to every connection when it is not. if you are looking at the logos and wondering how to add one, you press the logos.
on the phone
the phone's context screen has the same panel, the same six, in the same order. signing in to a tool, or pasting a key, needs a browser, so each tile says it opens the web, and connect opens it already signed in: straight to the tool's sign-in, or to context on the web with that tool's card open. close the browser and the phone reads your connections again; anything that arrived turns into its tile with the same line. the inbox tile needs no browser at all, and has share or copy.
what does not change
every connection is still read-only, on every plan, the free episodes included. what a tool turns up still lands in the tray first, and the director ticks what matters to the season with its reason, or you tick it all yourself. untick anything and no question is written from it. connecting more makes better questions; it never makes the episode about anything you did not choose.
do i have to connect anything to use underway?
no. the panel is a suggestion, and every episode works without a single connection. a line you type about your day, a freestyle or a moment all reach the questions too.
why these six and not zoom or slack?
they are the cheapest to connect and the most useful early on, and each brings something different. zoom, fireflies and the rest are one press away under see all 24 connections, and zoom takes fathom's place on the panel if fathom ever cannot be connected.
when does the panel go away?
once three things are connected, counting your inbox once something has been forwarded to it. after that context opens on where today comes from, with a tile to connect more.
can i still connect from account?
yes. account, connections has every connection with its switch, exactly as before. context is the quicker way in, not the only one.
does connecting from the phone work?
yes. each tile opens the web already signed in, and the phone shows the new tile when you come back. the inbox address can be shared or copied straight from the phone.
see what your context page suggests. open context.