Action items

An action item is one thing somebody still owes. "Muhsan to send the site pictures", "Waiting on John to approve the proposal" and "Pay ABC Supply by Friday" are all action items. Each one says who has to do it, who is waiting on it, and when it is due.

Cooper watches your chats and inbox and turns requests into action items. Records add them too: an unanswered RFI or an unpaid payment request becomes an item for the right person. You can also add items by hand. The Action items board shows what you have to do, what others owe you and what Cooper suggests, and lets you finish, snooze, hand off or chase each item.

Action items are not project tasks. Project tasks live on a project's schedule. An action item can be linked to a project task, and then finishing either one closes the other.

Key conceptsCopy Anchor Link

Open Action itemsCopy Anchor Link

1. In the sidebar, open Connect.
2. Click Action items.

The page lives at /connect/action-items. Every member sees the items they own, are waiting on or created. To see everyone's items, your role needs Connect > Action items > Read. See Permissions.

The header shows how many chats and inboxes Cooper reads for you, for example Watching 14 chats · 2 inboxes.

Where action items come fromCopy Anchor Link

Cooper creates action items in these ways:

• Chat: Cooper reads new messages in your chats for requests and promises. It also notices when a message says something was done and closes the item. When it is less sure, it posts a card in the chat asking you to confirm.
• Email: Cooper reads mail in the inboxes you connected. A reply that suggests an item is finished marks the item Looks done.
• Texts and calls: Cooper reads text threads and call summaries the same way.
• Meeting notes: actions in meeting notes that have an owner and a date become action items. Dismissing one on either side dismisses both.
• Records: rules over your records create items and close them when the record changes. They cover proposals and pay applications waiting on client approval, payment requests and vendor payment requests waiting on payment, vendor quotes waiting on a quote, purchase orders waiting on acknowledgement, RFIs waiting on an answer, submittals waiting on review, upcoming meetings, and leave requests and timesheets waiting on approval. A nightly pass catches anything missed.
• By hand: from the board, from a person's page in Humans, from the + > Action menu in a chat, or from a line in a call transcript.
• Agents: Cooper's AI agents, or any assistant connected through the CooperBuild MCP server, can add items. These show Added by an agent.

The same request said twice, for example in a meeting and again in chat, becomes one item when the owner, project and wording match.

Find your items with tabs and viewsCopy Anchor Link

Tabs choose whose items you see. Each tab shows a count.

Views narrow by state. Use the switch next to the search box.

Type in Search to match the item's text, the owner's name or the name of the person waiting.

The list shows up to 100 items. If there are more, the bottom of the list says Showing 100 of total — search to narrow it down.

Read the listCopy Anchor Link

In the Open, Overdue and Snoozed views you can group the list two ways with Group by:

• Priority (default):
  • Do today: overdue, due today, or no due date.
  • This week: due in the next seven days.
  • Later: everything after that.
• Project: one group per project. Items with no project go under No project.

Inside Do today, overdue items come first, then items due today, then undated items, then Cooper's suggestions, then items that look done. The first plain item gets a Do next badge.

Each card shows:

• The item's text.
• One line on why it matters now, such as "Dana has waited 3 days." or a quote from the message it came from.
• Where it lives (the project, or Unassigned), who it is for, and a due chip: Today, Tomorrow, a date, or Overdue · date in red.
• A badge where one applies: Do next, Suggested or Looks done.

Click a card to open its details on the right. Dates follow your company's time zone.

Use the morning briefCopy Anchor Link

The Morning brief at the top of the board suggests where to start, for example "I would start with Send the revised drawings — Dana has waited 3 days." It also shows four counts: Due today, Overdue owed to you, Suggestions and Look done.

• Click Start with this to jump to the suggested item.
• Click Hide to collapse the brief for the rest of the day in this browser. Click Show to bring it back.

If nothing is waiting on you, the brief says "Nothing is waiting on you right now."

Each morning Cooper also posts a brief in a chat thread of your own named Cooper. You hear from it only when something is open for you. You can reply in that thread, for example "done with the timesheet", and Cooper closes the matching item.

Add an action itemCopy Anchor Link

The owner gets a notification: "New action item for you: …". If an identical open item already exists for the same owner and project, Cooper keeps the existing one and tells you "That one already exists".

You can also add items from:

• A person's page: in Humans, open the person, go to Timeline and click Add item. The item is linked to that person.
• A chat: click + in the message box and choose Action. The New action panel opens. The item is posted as a card in the chat.

Mark an action item doneCopy Anchor Link

Do one of the following:

• Click the round tick on the item's card.
• Select the item and click Mark done in its details.
• Select the item and press E.

The person waiting is notified that it is finished. Done items move to the Done view and show who finished them and when.

To undo, open the item in the Done view and click Reopen.

Suggestions cannot be ticked done. You act on them through their suggestion card. See Review Cooper's suggestions.

Mark an action item as startedCopy Anchor Link

When you own an item, or created it, and have begun work, click Started in its details. The person waiting is notified. The item stays open. Click Not started to undo.

Only the owner and the creator see this button. The person waiting cannot mark it started for you.

Snooze an action itemCopy Anchor Link

Snoozing hides an item from Open and Overdue until a time you choose.

1. Select the item.
2. Click Snooze, or press S.
3. Pick a time:
   • Later today: 4:00 PM, or three hours from now if it is already past 3:30 PM.
   • Tomorrow: 8:00 AM tomorrow.
   • Next week: 8:00 AM next Monday.
   • Until someone replies: only for items that came from a chat. The item returns when a new message arrives.

A snoozed item shows "Snoozed until …" in its details. Click Unsnooze to bring it back now. Snoozed items are in the Snoozed view. Due-date reminders are not sent while an item is snoozed.

Delegate an action itemCopy Anchor Link

1. Select the item.
2. Click Delegate, or press D.
3. Type in Find someone and pick a teammate.

The new owner gets a notification: "Handed to you: …". If you owned the item, you become the person waiting on it, so it moves to your Owed to me tab.

Nudge the person who owes itCopy Anchor Link

When somebody else owns an open item, its details show Nudge name with a short follow-up Cooper drafted.

1. Edit the message if you like.
2. If both are available, choose Chat or Email.
3. Click Send nudge.

A chat nudge posts in the chat the item came from, if you are a member of it. Otherwise it goes to your direct messages with the person. An email nudge is sent from your connected mailbox to the person's email address, with the subject "Following up: …". The line under the button tells you where it goes. Nudges are sent as you.

Reply to the email an item came fromCopy Anchor Link

When an item came from an email, its details show the email. If the email came into a mailbox you can send from, Cooper drafts a reply for you to check.

1. Read and edit the reply.
2. Click Send reply and mark done to send it in the same email thread and close the item.
3. Or click Save draft to keep it for later.

If the email came into someone else's mailbox, you see "Only the mailbox this came into can reply from here."

Jump to where an item came fromCopy Anchor Link

• Open source opens the chat message, or the project inbox, the item came from.
• For items from chat, the Picked up from chat card shows the original message. Click Jump to message to open it in the chat. You must be a member of that chat.
• The Activity list at the bottom of the details shows the item's history, such as when it was created, started, reassigned or finished.

Review Cooper's suggestionsCopy Anchor Link

When someone says in chat that a record-keeping step happened, Cooper checks the record. Examples are "RFI #5 response received", "the glazing submittal is approved" or "task done". If Cooper does not show it yet, it creates a suggestion. Suggestions have a dashed border, a Suggested badge and the heading Cooper found this in chat.

A suggestion card shows what was said, what the record shows, and the steps on offer. Examples are closing the RFIs with the answer from the message, marking a submittal approved, or adding a follow-up. Possible states include Cooper shows it, Not in Cooper yet, Cooper shows something else, Not found in Cooper and Which one was meant?

• Approve a step to apply it. Nothing is submitted until you approve.
• Use Edit response to change an RFI answer before closing it.
• Use Pick the right one when Cooper found more than one possible record.
• Use Not now to leave it.

A suggestion closes by itself once the record shows the change. Some steps need permission in that area. For example, closing RFIs needs permission to answer RFIs.

Select several action itemsCopy Anchor Link

1. Click Select above the list, or press X.
2. Tick the items you want.
3. Click Mark done or Snooze until tomorrow in the bar at the bottom.

Cooper reports how many succeeded, for example "Marked done: 3 of 3". Click Done to leave select mode. Suggestions are left out of bulk actions.

Keyboard shortcutsCopy Anchor Link

These work on the board when you are not typing in a field.

Set a due date or dismiss an itemCopy Anchor Link

On a person's Timeline in Humans, each open item has a More menu:

• Set due date: pick a date, or clear it. Changing the date resets its reminders.
• Already done: dismiss it because it was already done.
• No longer needed: dismiss it.

Hover over an item and click Dismiss (the x) to dismiss it as not a real item. Dismissed items show in the Done view. Cooper learns from items you dismiss that it picked up from conversations.

Notifications and remindersCopy Anchor Link

Cooper sends in-app and push notifications:

Due-date reminders go out once each, at about 9:00 AM in your company's time zone. You are never notified about something you did yourself.

Fields referenceCopy Anchor Link

PermissionsCopy Anchor Link

Everyone can work with their own items without any extra permission:

Role permissions under Connect > Action items widen this:

The Action items link sits in the Connect menu next to Humans.

Tips and best practicesCopy Anchor Link

• Start each day from the morning brief and Start with this.
• Write items the way you would say them: "Send the revised drawings to Dana". Put the person in Who does it or For, not in the text.
• Add a due date when there is one. Reminders and the Overdue view depend on it.
• Use Snooze > Until someone replies for items you cannot move until someone answers.
• Delegate rather than reassigning in conversation. The new owner is notified, and the item stays on your Owed to me tab so you can follow up.
• Check the Suggestions tab regularly. Approving a suggestion keeps your records in step with what the team says in chat.

TroubleshootingCopy Anchor Link

For AI agentsCopy Anchor Link

Agents work with action items through two MCP tools. Every user can call them. The service limits what each user can read and change by the same rules as the board.

action_item_browse (read-only)

• action: list, get (needs id) or summary (counts for a person, company or project).
• Filters: humanId or query (a name, email or phone), externalOrgId, projectId, state, owed, overdueOnly, search, limit (default 30, max 100), pageNo.
• owed: BY_ME (things I have to do), TO_ME (things I am waiting on), WE_OWE, THEY_OWE or ANY.
• list returns open items only unless you pass state. Use ["done"] for finished items, or ["open","done","dismissed"] for everything.
• Examples: "what do I owe" → list, owed: "BY_ME". "What am I waiting on" → list, owed: "TO_ME". "Anything overdue" → list, overdueOnly: true.

action_item_manage (writes)

• Previews by default. Call with confirm: false (or omit it) to see what would happen, then again with confirm: true to do it.
• Actions:
  • create: needs text, max 500 characters. Name the owner with ownerQuery, ownerHumanId or ownerUserId. Leave the owner empty when the user means themself. When someone else owes it, the user is recorded as waiting. Optional: counterpartyHumanId or counterpartyUserId, dueAt, projectId, and conversationId (posts a card in that chat).
  • resolve (optional note), reopen, dismiss (reason: not_an_action, already_done, wrong_person, duplicate, no_longer_needed, tracked_elsewhere or other).
  • reassign: owner and/or counterparty.
  • snooze: until.
  • set_due: dueAt; omit it to clear.
  • link_task (taskId) and unlink_task.
  • create_task: makes a project task from the item. Needs projectDeliverableId. Optional: projectId, taskName, taskType, description, scheduledStart, scheduledEnd. Once linked, finishing either one closes the other.

Common errors and fixes:

• Action items are not project tasks. Never answer an action item question with project task tools or db_find on project tasks.
• An ambiguous query or ownerQuery returns candidates. Ask the user which person they mean.
• For a person's whole history, including their open items, use person_timeline or person_status_brief. See Humans.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Humans: each person's Timeline shows what they have to do and what they are waiting for.
• Organizations: items that concern a company.
• Phone: texts and calls Cooper reads for action items.