The thesis banner: what IQ is focused on

What the thesis banner is

The Decisions log is a running list of every signal IQ has found in your data. Left with no context, a long list like that reads as a flat queue: forty rows, no sense of which ones matter more this month than the others. The thesis banner is the strip that sits above that log and answers a single question before you scroll: what is IQ actually pushing on right now, and why.

A "thesis" is IQ's current focus: one sentence naming the problem, a short explanation of why it rose to the top, and the themes it groups. When a thesis is active, IQ uses it to decide which new signals get promoted into decisions you see immediately and which get set aside as parked, so your attention goes to one coherent push instead of scattered one-offs.

There are three different banners you can see above the log, depending on where your account is in the thesis lifecycle:

• A proposed-thesis banner, when IQ has surfaced a new focus and is waiting on your yes or no.
• An active-thesis banner, once you (or IQ, by default) has a confirmed focus running.
• An onboarding-asks banner, in place of both of the above, while your account is too new for IQ to have anything worth focusing on yet.

Only one of the three shows at a time in the ordinary case, though the proposed banner and the active banner can appear stacked together if IQ proposes a new focus while a different one is still running: the proposal appears above, the still-active focus below it.

Where to find it

The banner lives at the top of Decisions in the sidebar, at /decisions, directly above the decision log itself. It is not a separate page. Every decision-log row still lists below it exactly as before; the banner only adds the framing.

The active-thesis banner

This is what you see once a thesis is confirmed and running. It reads, in small uppercase text: "IQ is focused on", followed by:

• The thesis title, in large type. This is the one-line name of the current push, for example a focus on collections or on labor cost control, written in plain language rather than an internal code.
• The rationale, a sentence or two underneath explaining why this is the focus right now, in the same voice IQ uses in chat.
• A row of theme chips, small rounded pills naming the categories of signal this thesis groups. Theme names come from IQ's internal tagging (things like a cash or a labor category) and are shown humanized, Title Case, not as raw underscored tokens.
• "· started [when]", a relative date next to the chips: "today," "yesterday," "N days ago," "N weeks ago," "N months ago," or, past a year, the plain calendar date.
• "· N parked", shown only when at least one signal has been set aside under this thesis. It is a link. Clicking it takes you to /decisions?status=parked, which filters the log to the Parked tab, one of the status tabs across the top of the log (All, Pending, Acted, Parked, Ignored, Resolved). Signals land there when they exist but don't match the current thesis's themes, or when you've chosen not to act on them yet. Parking something is not the same as dismissing it: IQ keeps parked signals on file and can resurface one later if the pattern behind it strengthens.

There is nothing to click on the active banner itself beyond the parked-count link. It is a status readout, not a form: to change focus, you either wait for IQ to propose a new one or ask IQ directly in chat.

The proposed-thesis banner

Before a new focus goes live, IQ proposes it and waits for your decision. This banner is visually distinct from the active one: it sits inside a bordered, tinted panel rather than a plain strip with a hairline, because it is asking for input rather than just reporting status.

It reads, in small uppercase text: "IQ is suggesting a focus", then:

• The proposed title and rationale, in the same layout as the active banner.
• "Themes:" followed by the same style of theme chips.
• Two buttons: "Make this our focus" and "Not now."

Make this our focus accepts the proposal immediately. If you already have an active primary thesis running, accepting the new one supersedes it: the old focus closes out and the new one takes over as the one shown in the active banner and the one IQ uses to sort new signals. While the request is in flight the button reads "Accepting…" and disables to stop a double click.

Not now opens a small reject form in place of the buttons: a one-line label, "What would you rather focus on? (optional)," and a text box where you can jot a note (for example, "I'd rather push on growth right now"). Below it, Confirm dismisses the proposal (with your note recorded against it if you left one, or with no note if you left it blank), and Cancel closes the form and returns you to the two original buttons without dismissing anything. While the reject is in flight the confirm button reads "Dismissing…"

If either action fails (a network hiccup, a stale session), the banner shows a plain error line in place of a silent failure, so you know to try again rather than assuming it went through.

Under the hood, accepting or rejecting always re-checks that the proposal belongs to your own account before acting on it, so this flow can't be used to touch another operator's focus.

The onboarding-asks banner

New accounts don't get a strategic thesis on day one, because IQ has no signals yet to build one from. Instead, until you've uploaded enough for IQ to see across your team, jobs, carriers, and vendors, the banner shows a short setup checklist instead of a focus.

It reads, in small uppercase amber text: "First, let me get the basics," then a title (typically something like "Build enough visibility to recommend a real focus"), then a rationale explaining IQ needs to see your team, jobs, carriers, and vendors before it can recommend where to push. Below that: "N uploads · ~X minutes total · started [when]" (or "all under an hour" if no time estimate is available for the set).

Under that summary is a numbered list of asks. Each one shows:

• "Step N," a small label above the ask.
• The ask's title, for example uploading a team roster, a recent AR aging report, adjuster contacts for your carriers, your top vendor relationships, or your facilities.
• A short explanation of what the upload contains and what it unlocks, for example, "This unlocks every team/safety/cert signal" or "Unlocks demand-letter sequencing and cashflow signals."
• A button that takes you straight to the page where you make the upload (Team, Data, Clients, Vendors, or Facilities, depending on the ask).
• A footer line under the explanation: an estimated number of minutes for that step, and "· unlocks [the data type]" in plain words.

Completing an ask doesn't remove it from this list in real time; graduation out of onboarding happens once your data crosses a coverage bar across enough of these areas at once, not step by step. Once that bar is crossed, the onboarding thesis closes out on its own and, the next time IQ has a real pattern to propose, you'll see the proposed-thesis banner instead.

No-thesis state

If your account has neither an active nor a proposed thesis and isn't in the onboarding state, no banner renders at all: the page goes straight from the top of /decisions into the decision log. This is a normal, occasional state, not an error, and it means IQ currently has no standing focus recommendation for you; individual decisions still appear and can still be acted on in the log exactly as usual.

How this connects to the rest of Decisions

The thesis banner frames the log; it does not filter it. Every row in the log, whatever its status, is still listed below the banner regardless of which thesis is active. The one live connection between the two is the parked-count link, which jumps you to the Parked status tab. For how the log itself is organized, its status tabs, and what taking action on a row does, see the decision workspace and acting on decisions.