Watch several desks from one control-room desk

A control room is a desk you use to watch other desks. It holds one Portal for each desk you look after, so you can see them all at a glance and jump into any of them in one click. Add a Desk agent, and it can read every desk the portals show and write you a short report on what has changed and what needs attention.

Use it if you run several projects, clients or workstreams at once, each on its own desk.

Before you start

• This works on every plan.
• Have the desks you want to watch already set up.
• The Desk agent part needs AI to be set up: PlexiDesk credits while you are signed in, or your own Anthropic key. See AI credits and where your AI runs. The portals alone need no AI.

1. Make the control-room desk

Create a new desk for the control room, and give it a name such as Control room or This week. See Create a desk.

2. Add a portal for each desk

1. On the control-room desk, click Add widget in the centre of the header, and in the Desk layout column click Portal.
2. The portal lists your other desks. Click the first desk you want to watch.
3. Repeat for each desk.

Each portal shows a live miniature of its desk, refreshed every few seconds while you are on the control room. Click a portal to go to that desk.

3. Arrange them

To keep the portals tidy, put them in a section:

1. Hold Shift and click each portal's title bar to select them.
2. Click Group on the bar that appears above them.
3. On the new section's name tag, click the Grid layout button, and double-click the name to call it, for example, Projects.

The portals line up in even rows, up to four across. See Section widget.

Make each portal larger to see more of its desk. Drag its edges, or use the − and + buttons in its title bar.

4. Add an agent that reads them all

1. Add a Desk agent to the control-room desk. It is in the Build & automate column of Add widget.
2. Wire each portal into the agent: point at the portal, click the link button in its title bar, click the agent, and choose Feed in as context.
3. Give the agent its instruction. For example: For each desk, list in one line what changed and anything that looks overdue or stuck. Put the desks that need me today first.
4. Choose when it runs. Manual runs only when you click Run. Interval runs on a timer while the control-room desk is open. For a regular check, choose Interval and set the seconds beside Active, such as 3600 for once an hour.
5. In Write to, choose Add a Note… so each report lands in a note beside the agent.
6. Click Run to get the first report.

When it runs, the agent reads each desk the portals show: the desk's name and a short summary of each widget on it. Widgets inside sections and pinned widgets on those desks are left out.

Wire each portal in, rather than through one

You can also wire several portals into one portal with no desk chosen. It becomes a Rollup that combines them, and you can wire the Rollup into the agent. See Portal widget.

For a report on several desks, wiring each portal straight into the agent usually works better. The agent reads up to the first 2,000 characters of each thing wired into it, so a single Rollup holding several desks is cut short, while separate portals give each desk its own share.

Use your control room

• Start your day there. Glance at the portals, read the agent's latest report, then click into the desk that needs you.
• Keep the agent focused. Ask for what you need to decide, such as what is overdue, what is waiting on someone else or what changed since yesterday.
• Add a Task link for the one to do next. A Task link shows a desk's due date and has a 5 min button to make a start.

Common questions

The agent does not run when a watched desk changes. On change runs when a widget wired into the agent changes, and a portal's own settings do not change when its desk does. Use Interval, or click Run.

A portal shows Empty desk, but the desk has widgets. Portals leave out widgets inside sections and pinned widgets, and so does the agent. Move the widgets you want watched out of their section on that desk.

Can a portal show a desk in another room? Yes. A portal can show any of your desks except the one it is on, and archived desks.

Does the control room update when I am not on it? The portals refresh while you are on the control-room desk, and an Interval agent runs while the desk is open.

Related tasks

• Portal widget
• Desk agent widget
• Section widget
• Keep a running summary with a desk agent
• Link widgets and set up wires