How-to Guides

Practical step-by-step guides for the most common admin tasks.

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Route content from a source into a space

Articles from a specific RSS source or geographic area automatically appear in a specific space.

Before you start

• You have access to the Governance hub (shield icon in the top bar or Profile → Administration).
• The target space already exists (otherwise: Set up a new space from scratch).
• You know the feed address (or the website) of the source.
• You have settled on an area spelling (lowercase, hyphens — see Best Practices).

Steps

1. Add a source

Navigate to Governance → Sources and click "Add source". The three-step wizard walks you through Address → Check → Details; in the Details step you enter:

Field	Recommendation
Name	Descriptive name, e.g. "Municipal Office Weilstadt"
Trust level	Official for official sources
Default areas	Locality or region, e.g. weilstadt (lowercase)
Default tags	Optional tags for pre-sorting

Consistent area names

Always use the same spelling for the area (lowercase, no spaces). The exact same value will be used as the condition value in the routing rule.

2. Create a routing rule

Navigate to Governance → Routing (Rules tab) and click "New rule".

Fill in the form as follows:

Field	Value
Name	e.g. Weilstadt → Space Weilstadt
Target space	Select the desired space from the list
Order	100

Add a condition:

• Field: Area
• Operator: Is
• Value: weilstadt (exactly as entered in the source)

How the condition works

When an article is processed, locali evaluates all active rules. If the article's area matches weilstadt, the rule adds the selected target space — on top of whatever the spaces' own areas and tags already route (see the four routing phases). If the target space has the area itself, the content reaches it even without a rule.

3. Verify the result

• Open the target space and check Posts to see if new articles appear.
• The Log tab (Governance → Routing) shows, for every item, which phase or rule routed it where.
• New articles are processed on the next feed refresh.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
No content appears in the space.	Check that the source is enabled (⋮ menu on the source card) and wait for the next scheduled poll (the source's polling schedule, default: Monday 06:00 UTC).
The rule does not take effect.	The area spelling must be identical in the source and the rule (lowercase). The Log tab shows how the content was actually routed.
The content appears in multiple spaces.	That is intended: routing is additive — all matching phases and rules take effect together.

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Set up a new space from scratch

A new locality or interest group gets its own space with automatic content supply.

Before you start

• You have access to the Governance hub as a hub admin.
• Name and URL slug are decided — the slug cannot be changed after creation.
• The feed addresses of the relevant sources are at hand.

The flow at a glance:

Create space → Set areas → Add sources → Verify routing

Steps

1. Create the space

Navigate to Governance → Spaces and click "+ Create space". The three-step wizard walks you through Identity (name, description), Address (URL slug), and Access (join mode Open, Request, or Invite).

2. Set up the space: logo and areas

Open the space and switch on Manage mode in the header.

• Logo and welcome text are maintained in the Settings tab, Identity section (see Space settings).
• The space's areas are entered in the Routing sub-area (e.g. weilstadt) — they determine which content from external sources automatically lands in this space.

3. Add sources

Add all relevant sources under Governance → Sources and set the default area to exactly the same value as in the space (see Sources).

4. Verify routing and add rules if needed

If the areas match, the area phase already routes content into the space without any extra rule. You only need routing rules when content should flow into this space additionally based on other criteria (source, item type, tag, …) — then create them as described in the guide above.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
The desired slug is already taken.	The wizard checks availability live — choose a different spelling. The slug cannot be changed later.
The space does not appear in the public overview.	Spaces with join mode Invite or Managed are not publicly listed — you always see them in Governance → Spaces.
No content arrives.	Check that the area is spelled identically in the source and the space, and look at the Log tab (Governance → Routing) to see where content was routed.

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Auto-tag articles with keyword tags

Articles are automatically tagged based on keywords; tags can then be used for routing or filtering.

Before you start

• You have access to the Governance hub.
• You know which terms in the content indicate the topic.

Steps

1. Create a keyword tag

Navigate to Governance → Routing (Vocabulary tab) and click "New tag".

Field	Description
Tag	Unique name, e.g. clubnews
Sort order	Rule priority (lower number = higher priority)
Keywords	Terms to search for in content, e.g. club, association (press Enter or comma to add)

Case sensitivity

Keyword matching is case-insensitive. Club and club are treated the same.

2. Use the tag for routing

The tag works in two ways (see Keyword tags):

• Spaces that collect the tag as a keyword/interest receive matching content directly.
• Alternatively, create a routing rule with the condition Tag · Contains · clubnews to add a further target space.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
The tag is not assigned.	Keyword rules take effect when newly ingested content is processed — check the spelling of the keywords and wait for the next source poll.
Content still carries the tag after the rule was deleted.	That is intended: tags already assigned remain on existing content.

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Best Practices

Consistent area naming

• Use lowercase without special characters, e.g. musterstadt instead of Musterstadt.
• Avoid spaces; use hyphens instead: bad-schoenborn.
• Ensure the area value in the source, the space routing, and the routing rule are identical.

Structuring routing rules

Order	Use case
10–50	Specific sources (one source → one space)
51–100	Area-based rules (Area X → Space Y)
101–200	General rules (tag contains "news" → General)

Order is organisation, not precedence

Since routing is additive, no rule displaces another — the order only breaks a tie between rules with the same target space. The banding above mainly serves readability.

Normalising keyword tags

• Tags apply hub-wide; choose generic names rather than source-specific ones.
• Regularly review whether tags are still actively used.

Source trust levels

Level	Recommendation
Official	Official municipalities, authorities, utilities
Partner	Known partner organisations
Community	Community-maintained sources, e.g. local blogs
External	New or unknown external sources