Working with Events

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Events are the building blocks of your timeline — time-anchored nodes representing things that happened.

Creating an Event

From the Timeline Detail Page

1. Navigate to your timeline.
2. Click the + Event button in the toolbar, or press N.
3. The Create Event dialog opens. Fill in the fields:

1. Click Create.

The event appears as a card in the timeline sequence.

What you'll see: The event card shows the title, status badge, time precision indicator, and formatted timestamp. It appears in chronological position relative to other events.

From the Investigation Tools

You can also create events programmatically through the API.

Time Precision

Every event records a canonical_time — your best estimate of when it occurred — and a time_precision — how certain you are about that time.

Choosing the Right Precision

When you don't know the exact time, use a precision level that matches your certainty:

Be honest about uncertainty. A tool that demands exact times forces you to fabricate precision. This tool forces you to record what you actually know.

Time Confidence

Alongside precision, every event has a time_confidence score (0–100). This is a separate axis from precision — you can have an exact timestamp with low confidence (you were told it was 9:30 AM but don't trust the source), or an estimated range with high confidence (you know the event was sometime that afternoon).

Editing an Event

1. On the timeline detail page, select the event card or click it.
2. Click the Edit (pencil icon) button, or press E.
3. The Edit Event dialog opens with the current values pre-filled.
4. Modify any field.
5. Click Save.

You can also edit an event from its detail page at /events/[eventId] by clicking the Edit button in the header.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Deleting an Event

1. On the timeline detail page, select the event you want to delete.
2. A delete button appears on the expanded card. Click it.
3. Confirm in the dialog that appears.

Deleting an event is a soft delete. The data is archived and recoverable through the revision system. Claims attached to the event are preserved.

The Event Detail Page

Each event has its own dedicated page at /events/[eventId]. This page shows the complete picture for a single event.

Navigating to an Event Detail Page

• From the timeline detail page: click an event's title or the arrow on its card
• From search results: click any event result
• From the workspace review queue: click an event item
• From the entity graph: click a node's "View event" link

Page Layout

The event detail page shows:

Header

• Event title with status badge and time precision indicator
• History button — view revision history for this event
• Edit button — modify the event
• Delete button — remove the event
• Formatted canonical time in monospace

Description Card

• The event's full description text

Location Card

• If the event has a location with coordinates, an interactive map is displayed
• Location name, coordinates, and address fields are shown below the map

What you'll see: If no location is set, the location card shows a placeholder message. If a location is set but has no coordinates, the name is shown with "(no coordinates)" and no map is rendered. To set or change the location, use the Edit Event dialog.

Claims Section

• All claims attached to this event, shown as cards
• Each claim card shows: claim text, status badge, source link, and confidence percentage
• + Add button to create a new claim (hidden on read-only timelines)
• Delete button on each claim card (hidden on read-only timelines)
• Count badge in the section header showing total claims

Linked Entities Section

• All entities linked to this event, shown as badges
• Each badge shows the entity's canonical name and an optional notes field
• + Link button to link additional entities
• X button on each badge to unlink (hidden on read-only timelines)

Metadata Footer

• Event ID (in monospace)
• Created date
• Last updated date

Setting an Event's Location

1. Click the Edit button on the event (from the timeline page or event detail page).
2. In the Edit Event dialog, expand the Location section.
3. Click the search field to search existing locations, or create a new one with coordinates or a geocoded address.
4. Select a location. A live map preview appears in the dialog confirming the selection.
5. Click Save to apply the location change.

To remove a location, clear the location selection in the dialog and save.

Linking Entities to an Event

Entities represent the people, organizations, and objects involved in an event.

From the Event Detail Page

1. Under "Linked Entities", click + Link.
2. The Link Entity dialog opens.
3. Search for an existing entity by name. The search matches against canonical names and aliases.
4. Select an entity from the results. You can also enter notes about this entity's role in the event.
5. Click Link.

From the Timeline Detail Page

You can also link entities from the context panel when an event is selected. The workflow is the same.

Unlinking an Entity

Click the X button on an entity badge. Confirm the removal in the dialog. This removes the association but does not delete the entity itself.

Event Statuses in Detail

An event's status communicates its verification state to your team. Here is every status and when to use it:

Statuses are progressive. A typical workflow: reported → alleged → confirmed. Don't leave events at reported indefinitely — that signals to your team that this event hasn't been vetted.

Event Relationships

Events can be connected to each other via relationships. This captures causal chains, dependencies, and narrative connections.

Available relationship types:

• supersedes — This event record replaces an older version
• caused_by — This event was caused by another event
• related_to — General association
• merged_from — Created by merging duplicate event records
• references_event — References another event for context

Event relationships are created through the API or the investigation tools. They appear when viewing an event's relationships graph.

Next: Claims and Sources →