Comments and annotations
Add notes, tags, and threaded replies to Discover explores and Mosaic tiles so your team shares the same context.
When to use it — Whenever a number needs explaining: a spike, a launch, a data-pipeline change, or a finding you want your team to see in context.
Where to find it — Open an explore in Discover and switch to the Notes tab; or open a Mosaic in edit mode and use the + annotation control under a chart tile.
Who can use it — Tracer, Weaver, and Luminary. (Lens is read-only.)
Annotations keep the "why" next to the "what." Instead of a number sitting alone on a chart, your team sees a short note explaining the spike, the date it happened, and who flagged it. There are two places annotations live in Celiq, and they serve slightly different purposes — one is a running log on an explore, the other is a marker on a single tile.
Overview
There are two annotation surfaces:
- Notes on a Discover explore — a timeline of dated notes for the current domain and reveal. Each note carries a status tag and can hold a threaded reply discussion. Use this for the ongoing narrative around a topic.
- Annotations on a Mosaic tile — a compact, date-pinned label that sits under a chart on a dashboard. Use this to mark a specific event (a launch, an outage) right where the data shows it.
Both are scoped to your workspace, so everyone with access sees the same notes. Notes on an explore are tied to the domain and, when present, the reveal you are viewing — so the same explore shows the same notes for every teammate who opens it.
When to use it
- A metric moved and you know why (promo, price change, bug fix) — leave a Note so nobody re-investigates it.
- You spotted something that still needs digging into — tag it Investigate so it stands out.
- The change was anticipated — tag it Expected to reassure readers.
- The investigation is closed — tag it Resolved.
- A dashboard chart needs a marker on a specific date — add a tile annotation in the Mosaic.
Concepts
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Note / annotation | A dated note with content and a tag, attached to a Discover explore (domain + reveal). |
| Tag | The status of a note. One of Note, Expected, Investigate, or Resolved. Defaults to Note. |
| Reply | A threaded response under a note. Replies form a short discussion attached to one note. |
| Tile annotation | A short, date-pinned label shown under a single chart tile on a Mosaic. Has a date, a label, an optional body, and a color. |
| Domain / reveal | The scope a Discover note belongs to. Notes are filtered to the domain (and reveal) you are viewing. |
Getting started
Prerequisites:
- You are signed in as Tracer, Weaver, or Luminary.
- For Discover notes: an explore is open so a domain (and usually a reveal) is in context.
- For tile annotations: a Mosaic exists with at least one chart tile, and you can put it into edit mode (a Weaver-and-above action).
To open the Discover Notes tab, open any explore in Discover and click the Notes tab (marked with a pin icon). To add a tile annotation, open a Mosaic, enter edit mode, and use the controls under a chart tile.
Step-by-step
Open the Notes tab in Discover
Open an explore in Discover and switch to the Notes tab. Celiq loads the existing notes for the current domain and reveal as a vertical timeline, oldest first.
Add a note
Click Add annotation. Pick a Date, write your Note, and choose a Tag (Note, Expected, Investigate, or Resolved). The note text is required — the Post button stays disabled until you type something.
Post it
Click Post. The new note appears at the top of the timeline with your name, the date, and the tag pill. Use Cancel (or the × in the form) to discard a draft.
Reply to a note
Under any note, click Reply to open its thread, type your reply, and press Enter or click Send. The thread count updates (for example, "2 replies"), and Hide replies collapses it again.
Annotate a Mosaic tile
Open a Mosaic, enter edit mode, and under a chart tile click + annotation. Choose a date, type a short label, and click Add. The label appears as a small pill under the chart (for example, 06-14 · Spring launch). In edit mode, the × on a pill removes it.
Examples
A worked example: your Orders explore shows a revenue jump on June 14. You open the Notes tab and add a note so the team knows it was a planned promotion.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-06-14 |
| Note | "Revenue spike is the Spring promo — 20% off sitewide for 48h. Returns will lag by ~10 days." |
| Tag | Expected |
A teammate later replies "Confirmed, returns normalised by 6/28" — and because the tag is Expected, nobody opens a fresh investigation.
On the dashboard itself, you mirror this as a tile annotation so the marker sits on the chart:
{
"annotation_date": "2026-06-14",
"label": "Spring launch",
"body": "20% off sitewide, 48h",
"color": "#EF9F27"
}That renders under the tile as 06-14 · Spring launch, with the body shown on hover.
Best practices
- Tag honestly. Use Investigate only while something is genuinely open, and move it to Resolved when it closes — the tag is how teammates triage at a glance.
- Date the event, not the day you wrote it. Set the note's date to when the thing actually happened so the timeline reads correctly.
- Keep tile labels short. Tile annotations are tiny pills under a chart — use a few words for the label and put detail in the body (shown on hover).
- Use replies to close the loop. Resolve discussion inside the note's thread rather than in chat, so the context stays attached to the data.
- Put the running narrative in Discover, the marker on the Mosaic. Use Notes for the ongoing discussion and tile annotations to flag a single date on a dashboard.
Tips
The tag colors are meaningful: Investigate is amber and Resolved is purple, so an explore full of amber tags is a quick signal that work is outstanding. For a longer-lived record of a choice your team made, capture it in Decisions instead of a note.
Common mistakes
- Expecting Lens users to comment. Annotations require Tracer or above. A Lens (read-only) user cannot add notes or replies.
- Looking for tile annotations in view mode. The + annotation control and the × delete button only appear when the Mosaic is in edit mode. In view mode you only see existing annotations.
- Posting an empty note. The Post button is disabled until the note has content. A date alone is not enough.
- Expecting notes from another explore. Discover notes are scoped to the current domain and reveal. Switch context and you see a different set of notes.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "annotation_date and content are required" | A Discover note was submitted without a date or note text. | Fill in both the date and the note before posting. |
| "annotation_date and label required" | A tile annotation was added without a date or label. | Provide both the date and a short label, then click Add. |
| "content required" on a reply | The reply was empty or only whitespace. | Type a reply before pressing Enter or Send. |
| "Annotation not found" when replying | The note no longer exists in your workspace (it was deleted), or you are replying to a note from a different workspace. | Refresh the Notes tab and reply to a current note. |
| The Notes tab shows nothing | No notes exist yet for this domain and reveal, or the explore has no domain in context. | Add the first note with Add annotation, or confirm you have an explore open. |
| No + annotation control on a tile | The Mosaic is in view mode. | Enter the Mosaic's edit mode (Weaver and above). |
| You cannot open the Notes tab or add notes at all | Your role is Lens (read-only). | Ask a Luminary to grant you a Tracer or higher role. |
Related pages
- Mosaics — where tile annotations live on your dashboards
- Decisions — capture durable decisions instead of running notes
- Discover — the explore surface that hosts the Notes tab
- Notifications — stay informed when teammates collaborate