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Organizing your workspace

Spaces, types, fields, and structuring your workspace in Tana.

What is a space home?

Every space has a home page. It is both the landing page for the space and the place where you create new content in it.

Pinned items

A grid of pinned documents at the top. The drop zone is always visible on the space home, even when nothing is pinned yet, so dragging an item onto it works the first time too. Drag any item from the space onto the pinned section to pin it for quick access. Unpin by right-clicking and selecting "Unpin."

Type cards

Types defined in the space appear as colored cards below the pinned items. Click a card to open the type page with all entries of that type.

Content list

Below the type cards, the full content list shows all documents in the space sorted by last updated. Filter by type to narrow the view.

Chat

A chat bar at the bottom of the page starts an AI conversation scoped to the space. The AI receives the space's context and follows its AI instructions. See AI chat.

Read more in Spaces and sharing

How do I configure a space?

Open "Configure Space" from the toolbar overflow menu on the space home.

Name, description, color

The name and description explain what the space is for. The color is a hue slider that colors the space avatar throughout the interface. Every reference to the space, whether in the sidebar, search results, or document breadcrumbs, shows the same color, making it easy to recognize visually which space content belongs to.

AI instructions

Custom instructions the AI follows when working in this space. This is how you give the AI context about the team, project, or domain.

For example, a product design space might say: "This space contains product design documents. When creating tasks, always include a priority field. When writing specs, follow our format: problem, solution, tradeoffs, success criteria."

Every chat, skill, and outcome generated in this space inherits these instructions. This is what gives each space its own AI personality.

Skills

Skills created in this space are listed in the configuration for reference. See Skills for how to create and use them.

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Can spaces be nested?

Spaces can contain other spaces. Create a nested space from inside a parent space using the create menu. The nested space appears in the parent's content list and inherits the parent's access settings by default.

Use nesting for deeper organization: a "Clients" space might contain a sub-space for each client, or a "Team" space might contain sub-spaces for individual projects.

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How do I create a type?

The fastest way to create a type is to ask AI. In any AI chat, describe what you want to track ("a Bug type with priority, assignee, and steps to reproduce") and the AI will create it, with fields, workflow, and AI instructions. No templates to pick from, no pre-made catalogue. Every type you need, you can just ask for.

To create one manually, select "Type" from the create menu. Give it a name, add fields, and optionally enable a workflow. Types can live in a space or at the organization level.

Read more in Types

How do I add fields to a type?

Fields add structured data to every document with this type. Four field types are available:

  • Text: Plain text values
  • Link: References to other documents. You can configure which types are valid link targets and set a custom reverse label (the name shown in backlinks).
  • Date: Date values
  • Member: References to workspace members

Each field can be configured as single-value or multi-value.

Add fields from the configuration page by typing a name and clicking "Add." Remove fields from the dropdown menu on each field.

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What are workflows?

A workflow adds status tracking to the type. Click "Add Workflow" in the configuration to enable it.

Every workflow has four fixed states:

  • Inbox: Where new entries land by default
  • Completed: Done
  • Later: Deferred

Between Inbox and Completed, you can add custom states. By default there is one: "In Progress." Click "Customise statuses" to add, rename, reorder, or remove custom states. These become the columns on the kanban board.

Remove the workflow entirely with "Remove Workflow" to return the type to a simple list.

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Can I see a kanban board?

When a type has a workflow, the Active tab shows a kanban board. Columns represent workflow states. Drag cards between columns to change status. Columns can be resized and reordered.

Cards open in an inline popover when clicked, so you can review and edit without leaving the board.

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How do I add AI instructions to a type?

Custom instructions the AI follows when working with entries of this type. For example, "When creating bugs, always include steps to reproduce and expected behavior."

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How do I delete a space?

Delete a space from the overflow menu on its home page. Deleting a space removes the space and all its contents, including nested spaces. A confirmation dialog warns before proceeding.

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Organizing your workspace - Tana Help