From conversation to action: a taxonomy of work signals

Vortyx uses a taxonomy of work signals to separate conversation from action.

A follow-up is a future action intended to move something forward, such as asking someone to follow up next week or check back with a vendor if they do not reply by Thursday.

A commitment is a statement that someone will do something. Commitment extraction requires ownership detection because the user may owe the action, someone else may owe it, or ownership may be unclear.

A waiting item means progress depends on someone or something else, such as Legal approving final terms or a signed contract arriving before work can proceed.

A next step is an action implied by the current context. Next steps may be converted into tasks only after review.

A reminder is a time-based resurfacing need. Reminder quality depends on timing extraction and user intent, and vague phrases should remain reviewable.

A recurring responsibility is work that repeats over time. Recurring work should not be treated as a one-time reminder unless the user confirms that behavior.

A draft reply or follow-up is suggested communication, not an action that has already happened. Vortyx can help create or improve a draft, but the user remains responsible for reviewing and sending it.

We should revisit this.

This might be a next step, but it lacks ownership and timing.

Let's catch up soon.

This might be a polite phrase, not a trackable commitment.

I'll try to handle it.

This suggests intent, but confidence may be lower than a direct commitment. Vortyx should avoid over-promoting ambiguous signals. When useful, it can surface them for review with uncertainty preserved.

• Follow-ups can become tracked tasks or suggested reminders.
• Commitments can become user-owned or externally owned obligations.
• Waiting items can appear in Needs Attention.
• Next steps can become proposed tasks.
• Reminders can create resurfacing dates.
• Recurring responsibilities can become recurring commitments.
• Drafts remain editable and unsent until approved.

This separation prevents one kind of signal from being handled as another. A waiting item should not become a user-owned task without review. A draft should not become a sent email. A vague idea should not become a commitment.

Each signal should be connected back to source evidence: source text or message, signal type, owner, expected action, timing cue, reason the signal was surfaced, and review state.

Traceability makes the taxonomy inspectable by the user.

Vortyx is currently evaluating these signals with a closed set of users. Quantitative metrics will be published only after there is sufficient repeatable evidence, including a labeled evaluation set, annotation rules, sample size, precision, recall, false-positive rate, and model/version context.