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Focus: The Holon Scoping Model

Focus is the single most load-bearing idea in METIS. It scopes nearly every list, shapes almost every URL, and gates what you can create. Understanding it makes the rest of the app make sense. This page is referenced by every other guide, so it's explained here once, in full.

New to the shell? Read Getting Started first for the sidenav vocabulary.

What a Focus holon is

Your Focus is the holon (an organisation, camp, event, …) you're currently scoped to — your "I'm working within this" setting. The alternative is "All" (unfocused), where you see everything you have access to, across all holons.

The Focus selector sits at the top of the sidenav: the focused holon's logo (or a globe for "All") next to the Focus label and a dropdown.

How to switch Focus

Open the Focus dropdown. It lists the holons you're a member of, plus — if you're allowed to unfocus — an All option (the globe). Pick one to focus on it; pick All to clear Focus.

Some users (broad editors) can always clear to "All"; others are scoped and stay within their own holons. If you don't see an "All" option, your account is scoped to your holons by design.

What changes when you switch

Switching Focus re-scopes the app to that holon:

  • Activity and Calendar show that holon's items.
  • People and Orgs list the people and organisations under that Focus — and these nav items only appear when the Focus actually has people/holons.
  • App sections (Camps & Gatherings, Quests & Missions, Conversations, …) list records under that Focus, and each app's nav group only shows when the Focus has those records.

In "All" mode you see everything you have access to, unscoped.

Why the Focus lives in the URL

Your Focus is carried in the page URL as a slug — for example /<org-slug>/people/ rather than just /people/. This is deliberate and has real benefits:

  • Bookmarking a focused view reopens it with the same scope.
  • Sharing a link with a teammate resolves to the identical view for them (subject to their access).
  • Reloading the page keeps your scope instead of dropping it.

Because the URL is the source of truth for Focus, the app keeps it in sync as you navigate: change Focus and the page re-projects itself onto its canonical /<slug>/... address.

Bare vs. focused URLs

The same page exists at both /<route> and /<focus-slug>/<route>. A link that carries an org slug is a focused link; one without is the bare (unfocused / "All") version. Seeing a link with or without a slug is expected — it's not a bug, it just reflects whether a Focus was set when the link was made. Opening a bare focusable page redirects you to its canonical focused address when a Focus applies.

Creating things while focused

Focus also determines where new things are created. When you create a record that lives under a holon (a camp, a quest, a mission, …) while focused, it's parented to your current Focus automatically. If a create flow needs a parent and you have no Focus set, either set a Focus first or expect the flow to ask you to — creating a child holon with nothing to attach it to doesn't make sense.

Focus vs. permissions

These are two different things and both matter:

  • Focus controls scope — which records you're currently looking at.
  • Permissions control visibility and rights — which apps and nav items you can reach at all, and what you can do with them.

A nav group can be missing because you lack access to that app (permissions) or because your current Focus has none of those records (scope). See Access and permissions to tell the two apart.

Common gotchas

  • "Why don't I see this record?" — usually the wrong Focus is selected. Check the Focus chip at the top of the sidenav; switch to the right holon or to "All".
  • "Why can't I create this?" — often no Focus is set when the flow needs a parent holon. Set a Focus and try again.
  • Lost scope after being away — if your session timed out and you logged back in, your Focus may have reset; the sidenav chip tells you your current Focus at a glance.