Intake views
An intake is a view section on the table whose grid views are the steps a person walks through, routed by one formula.
When to use
Use it when people capture or advance records inside the table, one step at a time.
When not to use
A transition that needs no human judgement is an automation. Interface pages show intake rows; they never mirror a step.
How it works
Build an intake as a view section
The intake is a sidebar section named for it, and each grid view in it is one step. Forms are never the mechanism, since a grid view keeps the row, its neighbours and the chance to correct a cell.
Pass: every intake is a section of grid views, and no spec names a form.
Name sections and steps by one convention
A section is N - <Intake name> (intake), numbered in the order a row meets it. A step is Step N - <verb phrase>, numbered from 1 in each section, with three to five words for what the person does. View names are unique across the table.
Pass: every step name follows the convention, and no two steps share a name.
Show only the columns the step needs
The primary field plus at most six columns, ordered left to right as they are filled.
Pass: every visible column is filled or read in that step; 0 columns are there for neither.
Route rows with one formula
One text formula, Intake Step, returns the label of the first step whose required columns are empty, and each step view filters on its label. Filling the cells moves the row. The first step of an intake that creates rows prefills the status through its filter.
Pass: every step filter names a label that the formula returns.
End with a validate step
The last step shows one combined check beside the status that closes the intake. The person reads the check, then sets the status.
Pass: the closing status and its check sit in the same view.
Make transitions without judgement automations
Archiving after some days or stamping a date is an automation. A step captures a human decision or a value only a person knows.
Pass: every step has a required column or a status choice, and 0 automations decide a transition.
Give each intake one actor
The proposer and the reviewer get separate sections, even on the same columns.
Pass: every section’s decisions belong to 1 actor.
Mark required columns in the name
Inputs carry * or ° in their names. See required markers.
Pass: every shown input has exactly 1 marker.
Describe every step in under 140 characters
Each step view has a description of one or two sentences: what the person does here and when the row leaves.
Pass: every step has a description, and none reaches 140 characters.
Research
The intake skill wrote these rules for this workspace from the reviewer’s feedback, and no published guide backs them yet. The intake rules’ own examples, such as 1 - Create Milestone (intake), still carry Title Case until the capitalization rename pass.