Context items

Context items are the ingredients ForceVue uses to write your documents. Each one is a labeled note: research, feedback, a competitor, a constraint, a piece of company background. The better your context, the better every draft.

#Adding a context item

1. Open an initiative and go to the Context tab (or use workspace context in Workspace Settings for workspace-level items).
2. Click Add Context.
3. Fill in:
   • Label, the category (see below).
   • Title, a short name.
   • Content, the actual detail.
   • Source URL (optional), a link back to the original.
4. Save it.

Adding items one at a time works well for short, focused notes. If you have a longer source with several ideas in it (meeting notes, a transcript, a competitor page), paste the whole block and let ForceVue split it into typed items you review. See Quick-add context.

#Labels

Labels tell ForceVue what kind of context a note is, so it can weigh it correctly. The labels available depend on scope.

Initiative-level labels:

Workspace-level labels add company background that applies across every initiative:

Workspace context also reuses several of the initiative labels (target users, competitors, feature ideas, links, and general notes) for things that are true across the whole workspace.

#Recording a decision

The Decision label captures a product decision in a structured form, so the reasoning is kept alongside the conclusion and comes back later when you ask about it. When you add a Decision item, the content is pre-filled with a short skeleton you fill in:

• Decision, stated as a conclusion ("we are doing X").
• Reasoning, why this option won over the alternatives.
• Context, the conditions that shaped it, including what might change.
• Alternatives, which options lost, and why.
• Revisit if, the signal that would warrant reopening it.

You also pick a Tag (Scope, Tech, Priority, Customer, Hire, or Pricing) to group the decision. The owner and date are recorded automatically from who added the item and when. Because decisions are indexed like any other context, you can later ask ForceVue "why did we defer X?" and get the answer back with a citation to the decision itself. You can also generate a Decision Log document that pulls an initiative's recorded decisions into one structured log. See Document templates.

#Initiative scope vs workspace scope

• Initiative context is specific to one product effort: the feedback, research, and constraints for that feature or launch.
• Workspace context is shared across every initiative in the workspace: who your company is, your tech stack, your brand voice, your compliance rules.

Put a note where it belongs. Company background belongs at the workspace level so you write it once. Effort-specific detail belongs on the initiative.

#Writing context that improves output

• Be specific. "15 enterprise customers asked for SSO in Q1" beats "users want better auth."
• Use real data. Survey numbers, support-ticket counts, and direct quotes carry more weight than summaries.
• Cover both sides. Pair user needs with the technical constraints that shape the solution.
• Start with three to five solid items for a first document, then add more as the effort grows.
• Keep titles meaningful. A good title helps you find and reuse the item later, including through @mentions in the editor.

Thin context produces generic drafts. ForceVue will even warn you when a document type does not have enough context to work with. See How generation works.

#Where to go next

• Goals to add the outcomes context items support.
• Uploading documents to bring in larger source files.
• Generating documents to put your context to work.