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Create a review session

Review sessions let subject matter experts review and comment on your documentation without needing a Topicary account.

Before you begin

This feature requires the Team capability tier (the Team or Business ). During the beta, every project is on the free Solo tier, so this feature is locked by default: go to Settings ▸ Billing and request Team access to unlock it.

Create a session

  1. Open a map in the map editor and open the Reviews panel from the right-hand icon rail.

  2. Click Create review. The new-review dialog opens.

  3. Optionally add reviewers by email (and an optional name), then click the add button to pin each one as a chip. You can add more than one.

  4. Set an optional Due date.

  5. Choose when the Link expires: 7, 30, or 90 days (30 is the default).

  6. If you added reviewers, add an optional Message to reviewers, which appears in the email invitation.

  7. Optionally configure verification, approval gating, and content freeze (see Review options).

  8. Click the create button. Its label reflects what will happen: Create and send N invites when you added reviewers, or Create review link for a shareable link with no invitations.

Review options

The New Review dialog includes three optional controls that tighten the review into a sign-off process:

  • Require verification: flag specific topics that reviewers must explicitly verify as accurate. Filter the topic list and check the topics that matter. Flagged topics show a "Verification required" badge to reviewers, and the reviewer header tracks progress (for example, "2/5 verified"). Approving a flagged topic reads as "Verified" rather than "Approved."

  • Mark topics verified when approved: when on, a reviewer's approval updates that topic's verification status in Topicary, and requesting changes clears it. This links the SME's sign-off to the topic's Content statuses state.

  • Lock to a snapshot: captures the map's content at creation time. Reviewers keep seeing this frozen snapshot even if you edit the topics afterward. Leave it off to have reviewers always see your live, latest content. Frozen sessions show a Frozen badge on the session card.

The review link is token-based and does not require a Topicary account. Share it through Slack, email, or any channel. Anyone with the link can review. This makes it easy to get feedback from subject matter experts, stakeholders, or external partners who are not on your team.

  • If you added email addresses, reviewers receive an invitation email with the link.

  • On the session card, click the Copy review link icon to copy the URL and share it manually through Slack, email, or any other channel.

  • The link grants read-only access to the map's content, with no login required.

What reviewers can do

  • Read all topics in the map

  • Navigate between topics using the sidebar

  • Select text and leave inline comments anchored to specific passages

  • Select text and Suggest an edit to propose replacement wording that you can later Apply or Dismiss (see Respond to review feedback)

  • Reply to existing comments for threaded discussion

  • Approve or Request Changes on each topic individually (for must-verify topics, Approve reads as Mark verified)

  • Click Finish review to mark their assignment complete

Session expiration

Review sessions expire after the link-expiry window you chose (7, 30, or 90 days; 30 by default). Expired sessions show an Expired badge, and the review link stops working.

You do not have to recreate an expired review. The session card offers an Extend 30 days action once a session lapses. Extending revives the link for another 30 days while keeping all existing comments, decisions, and sign-off history intact.

Extend an expired or about-to-lapse session rather than creating a new one when you want to preserve the reviewers' comments and approvals. Create a fresh session only when you want a clean approval state for a second review pass.

See also

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