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Space Apps — Host Tools

If you're the host of a Space, Apps are the building blocks you plug in to shape it. Each App handles one job — publishing info, sharing files, asking participants to vote, generating an AI-assisted report, distributing rewards — and the App you don't need today, you simply leave out.

You'll find the apps panel at:

/spaces/:space_id/apps

From there, each App has its own dedicated URL — listed in the sections below — so you can deep-link into the exact configuration screen you need.

Designed to be additive

You don't have to enable everything. A simple Space might just use General and Files. A flagship Space with monetized reports will use Analyzes and Incentive Pool together.

Settings General​

URL: /spaces/:space_id/apps/general

The General App is the operational settings screen for the Space. Everything host-controlled that isn't an Action lives here — branding, who can join, who can administer, and (at the bottom) the destructive "delete this space" path. Every change auto-saves; the sticky footer flips to a green Synced pill when the save lands, so there's no manual save button anywhere on the page.

The page is a single scrollable arena with these sections, in order:

  1. Space logo — upload a square image (anything 1:1) to replace the Ratel symbol mark in the topbar tile and on every list/card surface that links to the Space. If you haven't uploaded one, a 2-letter initials placeholder rendered from the Space title is used.
  2. Start time — datetime picker for when the Space "officially" begins. Defaults to the Space's creation timestamp; setting an explicit start time is what flips the Space's badge from Draft to Scheduled / Live on discovery surfaces.
  3. Visibility — pick Public (anyone with the link can land on the splash) or Private (only invited participants and signed-in admins). Switches are radio cards; the active card is aria-selected.
  4. Invite participant — comma-separate email addresses (or hit Enter between each), preview them as chips, then send. The list below shows every outstanding invitation with its status (Pending / Accepted / etc.) and lets you revoke an invitation with one click. Pagination loads more invitations as you scroll.
  5. Anonymous participation — toggle. When on, participants' votes and comments are recorded against an anonymous handle in this Space (their identity stays in the Essence pipeline, but isn't shown to other participants).
  6. Join anytime — toggle. When on, anyone can join after the Space is live. When off, participation is gated to the panel of invited / pre-approved users.
  7. Administrators — add other Ratel users by username (comma-separated, Enter-to-queue, like the invite flow). Each admin appears as a chip with a remove button. Only existing admins see the "Add" field; non-admin viewers see the read-only list.
  8. Danger zone — a single red Delete space button. Opens an inline arena modal that requires confirmation; on confirm, the Space, all its actions, comments, and pool funds are permanently removed.
Where rich written content goes

General is not where you write a long welcome page or pin a manifesto — that's the Overview panel (the topbar file-text icon on the Space arena). General is for switches and lists; Overview is for narrative.

File Files​

URL: /spaces/:space_id/apps/files

The Files App is a read-only aggregator of every file already attached elsewhere in the Space (the Overview narrative, Discussion boards, Quiz questions). It is not an upload screen — there's no "Add file" button on this page; files reach the library by being attached at their source surface and then surface here automatically.

The arena layout, top to bottom:

  1. Tab filter — segmented control with All · Overview · Boards · Quiz. Each tab filters the list to files that came from that source. The active tab is aria-selected. A right-aligned counter (N files) reflects the displayed count for the current tab; the sticky footer separately shows the all-tab total.
  2. File list — one card per file, showing:
    • a type-colored extension badge (JPG, PNG, PDF, ZIP, DOC, PPT, XLS, MP4, MOV, MKV — these ten extensions are the entire supported set)
    • the file name and size
    • a source-tag chip when applicable (Overview / Board / Quiz) — tells you where the file is attached so you can navigate back to its context
    • clicking the card opens the file in a new tab (target="_blank"); when no URL is available the card still renders but isn't clickable
  3. Image previews — auto-rendered grid section, only appears when the current tab has at least one JPG/PNG. Each thumbnail carries the extension label.
  4. Video previews — auto-rendered single-column section (16:7 aspect ratio, native HTML5 controls), only appears when the current tab has at least one MP4/MOV/MKV.
  5. Empty state — shown when the active tab matches no files. A folder icon, "No files yet" headline, and a hint that files shared in the Space appear here.
Where to actually upload

To add a file you intend participants to reference, attach it on the Overview panel (for a manifesto/spec accompanying the Space), inside a Discussion board, or on a Quiz question. The Files app then aggregates them into one browseable view.

Grid Analyzes​

note

Available on dev / staging today; production rollout pending validation.

URLs:

  • Browse analyses — /spaces/:space_id/apps/analyzes
  • Create a new analysis — /spaces/:space_id/apps/analyzes/create
  • View an analysis — /spaces/:space_id/apps/analyzes/report/:report_id
  • Per-analysis raw records — /spaces/:space_id/apps/analyzes/report/:report_id/records

The Analyzes App is Ratel's cross-filter analysis engine — not a longform AI narrative generator. (For the longform AI narrative side, see Reports, which covers /spaces/:space_id/report.) Each analysis you save is a saved cross-filter over your Space's polls, quizzes, follows, and discussions, with a drilldown to the per-participant records that match.

How a typical analysis flow runs​

  1. Browse at /spaces/:space_id/apps/analyzes — a horizontal carousel of saved analyses. The first card is always + Create new analysis; cards to its right are the analyses you've already saved. Status badges read Running / Analysis complete / Failed.
  2. Create at /spaces/:space_id/apps/analyzes/create — a two-step builder. Step 1 (Pick cross filters): every poll question, quiz question, follow target, and discussion thread becomes a tile; pick one or more, each becoming a chip. Comma-separated keywords are also supported (each keyword becomes its own filter). A live counter shows how many participants and records currently match. Step 2 (Preview): name the analysis, confirm the chips and a sample of the matching raw data, click Generate report.
  3. Read at /spaces/:space_id/apps/analyzes/report/:report_id — the saved analysis renders the cross-filter results across four panels (poll, quiz, follow, discussion), all narrowed to the chip set. Chips are frozen at save time, so reopening a month later shows the exact slice you saved.
  4. Drill into raw records at /spaces/:space_id/apps/analyzes/report/:report_id/records — paginated table of every individual record that matched (User · Question · Answer · Post · Comment · Followed). Click any chip in the sidebar to scope the records further.

All per-source data (poll distributions, quiz pass rates, follow targets, discussion topics) lives inside the saved-analysis report's four panels — there are no standalone single-source drilldown pages today.

Not yet shipped
  • A spreadsheet (Excel / CSV) export from the records page.
  • Standalone single-source drilldown pages (per-poll, per-quiz, per-follow, per-discussion). All per-source views are inside the saved-analysis report.

Contribution records — the data layer behind future monetization​

The :report_id/records page is also the contribution records surface: per-participant breakdowns of how each respondent's activity matched the analysis you saved. It is the data layer that will feed the Phase 4 revenue split when paid Reports ship — see Reports → Phase 4 revenue split for the planned 10% platform · 60% host · 30% contributors allocation.

Coming soon

Paid Reports + the on-chain revenue split engine are not yet live. Analyses themselves and the contribution-records page are usable today on dev / staging; the monetization layer appears in your host dashboard as it ships.

Users Panels​

URL: /spaces/:space_id/apps/panels

The Panels App is the Space's demographic quota planner — the screen survey researchers use to declare "I want N respondents, split this way across age, gender, and university." It's not a contact-list / invitation tool; it shapes the composition of the panel that paid Actions and the Incentive Pool will pay out to. Like General, every change auto-saves and a sticky footer flips between Saving… and Saved as the writes land.

The arena is Creator-only. Admins, viewers, and participants who land on /apps/panels see a "no access" placeholder with a Back button — only the Space's creator can edit the panel.

Sections, top to bottom:

  1. Total quotas — a single integer input for the total respondent count, paired with an allocated / unassigned meter on the right. The meter sums the quota numbers in the conditional table below; the unassigned bar is what's left over to spread.
  2. Attribute groups — three toggle cards for University, Age, and Gender. Flipping a card on enables that attribute; flipping it off rebuilds the panel rows server-side. Active cards render as aria-selected="true".
  3. Collective panel (only renders when ≥1 attribute is in collective mode) — chips of the currently-collective attributes. The + button on the section header opens a dropdown to promote an attribute (Age or Gender, when total quota > 0) into the conditional table for finer-grained allocation.
  4. Conditional table (only renders when ≥1 attribute is in conditional mode) — a per-cell quota table. Rows are axis-tagged: pure-Age (--age swatch), pure-Gender (--gen), pure-University (--uni), or composite (--mix) for Age × Gender. Each row carries its own integer quota; the sum feeds the allocated count in section 1.

In other words: section 2 picks which demographic axes matter for this Space's panel, section 3 keeps the simple "everyone counts equally for this attribute" form, and section 4 is what you reach for when you need "30 women aged 18-24, 50 men aged 25-34, …" precision. The Incentive Pool / Reward apps then pay out against the realized panel.

Not yet wired

There is no "send invitation" or "import from another Space" flow in the Panels app today — interest tags, reputation tiers, cross-Space membership filters, and per-action audience scoping are not implemented. The current build only models demographic quotas (university / age / gender).

Incentive Pool (Beta)​

URL: /spaces/:space_id/apps/incentive-pool

Available on beta builds; rolling out to production builds soon.

The Incentive Pool App is where you fund and configure the rewards participants earn from completing Actions. Set the pool size, the per-action allocation, and the rules for distribution — flat split, weighted by participation depth, or staged across phases of the Space.

When a participant completes an action that pays out, their share is drawn from this pool automatically. The pool size, current balance, and distribution history are all visible from the same screen, so you can audit your reward economy at a glance.

Pair it with Analyzes

A Space that publishes paid reports often also runs an Incentive Pool — the pool drives participation while the report split rewards the contributors whose input made the report worth selling.

A note on host-side rewards

Rewards distribution is tracked from your User Rewards page (/your-handle/rewards) — there's no host-side Rewards app today. You'll see host share from published reports, platform-distributed bonuses, and reward credits routed to your account, aggregated across every Space you host.

Putting it together​

A typical reward-bearing Space uses these Apps in concert:

  1. General publishes the framing and the rules.
  2. The host adds Actions (polls, discussions, quizzes, follows, meets — see Space Actions).
  3. The Incentive Pool funds the rewards, and Analyzes turns the activity into a report.

Every App is optional, but together they form the production line that turns a community of participants into a publishable, monetizable artifact — without losing the link back to the people who made it.