---
audience: power_user
summary: Come back to a hundred unread messages; get a structured summary of what
  mattered.
title: Catch up on busy rooms
path: tutorials/power-user/catch-up-on-busy-rooms
status: published
---

# Catch up on busy rooms

Two affordances for "I was away; what happened?".

## Catch-up (per room)

Chat header → **Catch up** button. An AI summarises every message
since your last read marker. The summary lands as an AI message in
the room:

> **Catch-up since 09:42 (47 messages)**
>
> **Decisions made**
> - Decided to ship the planner card after design review (Alice → Bob)
> - Postponed the migration to next sprint (team consensus)
>
> **Asks for you**
> - @you was asked to review #1234 — Alice, 11:08
> - @you got pinged about the deploy window — Bob, 11:23
>
> **Threads worth a read**
> - The thread starting "do we still need workspace-bridges" — has
>   substance.
> - The thread on the prompt studio change — short but the conclusion
>   matters.

The summary is generated by the AI engaged in the room (or a
configured fallback model if none is engaged). Click the **×** on
the summary to hide it from your view (others still see it as a
normal AI message).

### What's grouped

- **Decisions** — phrases like "decided", "agreed", "let's go with".
- **Asks for you** — `@you` mentions, questions ending with `?`
  directed at you, action-item phrasing.
- **Threads worth a read** — replies-grouped messages where the
  total length exceeds a threshold and there's substance (not just
  emoji reactions).
- **Calls / shared media** — anything non-text from the window.

### When the AI gets it wrong

You can tell it: *"You missed the discussion about latency; redo
it."* The AI re-runs catch-up with the additional context.

## Priority inbox (cross-room)

Sidebar → **Priority inbox**. A separate panel that surfaces
*anything* in your tenant that an AI thinks you should see, even in
rooms you've muted or backgrounded. Sources:

- Direct `@mentions` of you.
- Questions directed at you (heuristic).
- Keyword alerts matching your configured keywords.
- Messages tagged `priority` by senders.
- AI catch-up output for rooms you haven't opened in 24h.

The inbox is grouped by sender × room; clicking a row jumps into the
room at the matching message.

You can clear items individually or all at once. Cleared items don't
re-appear unless something new matches.

## Read-marker behaviour

Catch-up *doesn't* mark the room as read. That's deliberate — you
might want to keep the unread state until you've personally looked
at the messages. Open the room (or scroll if mark-on-scroll is on)
to actually clear unreads.

## Limits

- **Catch-up window**: by default, since your last read marker. Up to
  500 messages. For older catch-up, ask the AI explicitly: *"Catch
  me up on the last 7 days in this room."*
- **Catch-up cost**: ~500-2000 tokens per run depending on volume.
  Counts against the AI's monthly budget.

## Where to go next

- [Manage your availability](/docs/scaiwave/tutorials/first-steps/manage-your-availability) — the notification model that produces the inbox.
- [Concepts: Notifications](/docs/scaiwave/concepts/notifications).