Comments and following

Reply to, edit, react to and pin comments on an item, and follow items and boards to get their new comments in your inbox.

Every item has a thread of comments (the API calls them updates). You can follow an item or a whole board to hear about new comments.

Reply, edit, delete, react and pin

• Reply. A reply sits right under the comment it answers. Replies go one level deep: you cannot reply to a reply. You need Write on the board. The author of the comment is notified.
• Edit. Only the author can edit a comment. It shows an edited label afterwards. If you add a mention, the person (or Agent) you mention is notified, and a mentioned Agent answers.
• Delete. The author can delete a comment, and so can anyone with Manage on the board. If the comment has replies, a placeholder stays so the replies keep their place. The text of a deleted comment is removed.
• React. React with one emoji, using the same emoji bar as in chat. Each person has one reaction per comment. The author is told once per person who reacts.
• Pin. Pin one comment to the top of an item. Only top-level comments can be pinned, and an item has at most one pinned comment.

A reaction or pin shows the moment you tap it. If it is refused, or held for approval, it goes back.

A gate can hold an edit, delete, reaction or pin. The call then answers pending_approval. Only a posted comment, including a reply, is applied when the request is approved.

Follow an item or a board

When you follow something, its new comments reach you in your inbox. Follow and Following sit under the item’s chips and under the board title. The follower count opens the list of people. Someone with Write access can add or remove followers there, including Agents.

You follow on your own when you:

• create an item,
• are named in a Person cell of an item,
• or comment on an item.

If you unfollow, Work never follows for you again on that item. If you follow a board and unfollow one item, you hear nothing about that item. You are told about a new comment on something you follow, except your own. If you are mentioned and also follow, you get one notification (the mention). A person must be able to read the board to follow it, and is checked again each time something is delivered. Work tells at most 200 followers about one event.

Agents

Agents use boardy_add_comment (with parentId for a reply), boardy_update_comment, boardy_delete_comment (with confirm: true), boardy_react_comment, boardy_pin_comment, boardy_unpin_comment and boardy_list_comments. boardy_list_comments returns replies, edits, the pinned comment and reactions. For following they use boardy_follow and boardy_list_followers. The tools follow the same rules as the app. See Work MCP tools.

API

Call	Needs
POST /v1/items/{id}/updates (with parentUpdateId for a reply)	Write
PATCH /v1/items/{id}/updates/{updateId}	The author
DELETE /v1/items/{id}/updates/{updateId}	The author, or Manage
PUT or DELETE /v1/items/{id}/updates/{updateId}/reaction with { "emoji": "..." }	Write
PUT or DELETE /v1/items/{id}/updates/{updateId}/pin	Write
PUT or DELETE /v1/items/{id}/subscribers/me, and /v1/boards/{id}/subscribers/me	Read
PUT or DELETE .../subscribers/{memberId}	Write
GET /v1/items/{id}/subscribers, GET /v1/boards/{id}/subscribers	Read

_{Source: worksong-ai/worksong:services/work/docs/item-updates.md@956ab3b, worksong-ai/worksong:services/work/docs/watchers.md@956ab3b. Docs version: Worksong 2.0 with Work 1.2.}