Requests

Overview

Requests are the central unit of work in Arca. Whether a colleague needs a contract reviewed, a compliance question answered, or a document drafted, it starts as a request. Requests capture the full lifecycle of legal work—from the initial ask through research, collaboration, and resolution.

Creating a request

Click New request to open the creation form. Fill in the following:

• Title — A short description of what's needed (required).
• Description — Additional context, background, or instructions. Supports markdown formatting.
• Priority — Low, Medium, High, or Urgent. Helps your team triage effectively.
• Assignee — The team member responsible for handling the request.
• Due date — An optional deadline.
• Tags — Labels like “Compliance” or “Priority client” to keep things organized.
• Visibility — Private (only you, the assignee, and admins can see it) or Organization (visible to your entire team).

Requests can also be created automatically from Slack messages and forwarded emails. See the Integrations guide for details.

Status workflow

Every request moves through a simple status workflow:

1. Open — The request has been created and is awaiting attention.
2. In Progress — Someone is actively working on it.
3. Blocked — Work is paused, waiting on external input or a dependency.
4. Resolved — The work is complete.
5. Closed — The request has been finalized and archived.

You can change a request's status at any time from the request detail view. Status changes are logged in the activity feed so your team always has a clear audit trail.

Filtering and sorting

The requests list supports several ways to find what you need:

• Search — Real-time search across titles and descriptions.
• Filter by status — Show only Open, In Progress, Blocked, or other statuses.
• Filter by priority — Focus on urgent items or review low-priority backlog.
• Filter by assignee — See your own requests or a teammate's workload.
• Sort — Order by most recently updated, creation date, or priority level.

Collaboration

Each request has an activity feed where your team can collaborate:

• Comments — Post updates, ask questions, or share findings. Comments support markdown and file attachments.
• System events — Every change—status updates, priority shifts, reassignments, due date changes—is automatically logged with who made the change and when.
• AI assistant — Each request includes a built-in chat panel on the right side where you can research, draft, and iterate with AI assistance. See the Research guide to learn more.

Intake from integrations

Requests don't have to start in Arca. When you connect integrations, requests can be created automatically:

• Slack — Forward messages from Slack channels to create requests. The original thread is linked so you can respond directly from Arca.
• Email — Forward emails to your Arca inbox address to create requests automatically. The full email thread is preserved.

Each request tracks its source, so you always know where an ask originated and can follow up in the right channel.

Permissions

• Admins can view and edit all requests, archive resolved requests, and manage team settings.
• Members can create requests, edit their own, and view any organization-visible request.
• Private requests are only visible to the person who created them, the assignee, and organization admins.