Spaces
A Space is the arena where Ratel activity happens. Discussions, polls, quizzes, follow quests, scheduled meets — everything that turns a community into a measurable conversation lives inside a Space. From a Space, hosts shape what participants see, and participants accumulate Essence as they engage.
Every Space lives at a stable URL:
/spaces/:space_id
If you have the link, you can jump straight in. If you don't, you'll usually arrive at one through a creator's profile, your feed, or a notification.
Two roles, one arena
Inside a Space there are really only two roles:
- Hosts decide what the Space is. They plug in Apps — info pages, file libraries, polls, quizzes, analyses — and configure how rewards flow.
- Participants show up to do things. They scroll the action carousel, vote, contribute opinions, follow people, and RSVP to meets. Each action becomes part of their Essence and, in reward-bearing Spaces, earns a piece of the Incentive Pool.
If you've never run a Space, start as a participant — the participant flow is the fastest way to understand what hosts are configuring on the other side.
The tabs inside a Space
When you open a Space, the same :space_id is the root of several views you can switch between:
| Icon | Tab | URL | What it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Index (the arena/portal) | /spaces/:space_id/ | The viewer splash. The first thing you see — branding, headline, and the participate / sign-in cards. |
| Dashboard | /spaces/:space_id/dashboard | Live activity at a glance. Active actions, participation counts, what's been happening recently. | |
 | Overview | /spaces/:space_id/overview | The narrative tab. The host's pitch — what this Space is about, who it's for, and why you should care. |
| Report | /spaces/:space_id/report | Published analyses and reports the host has shared with the community. The Phase 4 revenue split (10% platform · 60% host · 30% contributors) flows through here. |
There are also two deep links worth knowing:
/spaces/:space_id/discussions/:discussion_id— open a single discussion as its own page (great for sharing on social)./spaces/:space_id/discussions/:discussion_id/comments/:comment_id— open a discussion and scroll directly to a specific comment, with the comment highlighted. Use this when you want to send someone exactly the reply you're talking about.
Discussion deep links survive URL normalization — they keep working when posted into Bluesky, X, LinkedIn, or Slack. Comment deep links do the same.
Discovering Spaces
There are a few natural entry points:
From a profile. Every user lists the Spaces they host or actively participate in (/<your-handle>/spaces).
From your feed. Posts can announce a Space, and the Space link drops you straight into the arena.- From a search. Search by topic or by Space title.
From a notification. When a host adds an action to a Space you've joined, you'll get a nudge with a direct link to the new quest.
Joining a Space
Joining a Space is the moment your Essence pipeline starts collecting structured signal from your participation in it. From the Index page, you'll see a Participate card; sign in (or connect a wallet, if the host requires verification), and you're in.
What "joining" means in practice:
- You can open every action the host has published.
- Your votes, comments, follow choices, and quiz answers are tied to your account and become EssenceSources you own.
- If the Space has an Incentive Pool, you become eligible to receive a share when actions are completed.
- You'll receive notifications when the host posts a new action, publishes a report, or replies to a comment you wrote.
Phase 0's full Essence pipeline — embedding every Space action into your personal knowledge base — is on the way. Until it ships, your activity is recorded and rewarded normally; the embedding layer is added on top later, retroactively.
Where to go next
This chapter has several sub-pages — by role and by host workflow:
- Space Apps — the host's toolkit. Info pages, files, AI-assisted reports, panels, the Incentive Pool.
- Space Actions — the participant's quest board. Discussions, polls, quizzes, follows, meets — and how doing them feeds your Essence.
- Space Dashboard — the host's live stats: card grid + participant ranking.
- Host Actions — host-side editors for creating Discussions, Polls, Quizzes, and Follows.
- Reports — the AI-assisted longform Report and the cross-filter Analyzes that feed it.