Calm team communication
Relay
Slack's speed without Slack's interruptions: threads with a subject and an end, an inbox of real obligations, and delivery rules the software enforces — quiet hours included.
Chat tools measure messages sent, so they optimize for interruption. Relay measures threads resolved and decisions made — and it will never show a response-speed leaderboard. Every conversation has a subject, an audience, and an end: open until someone resolves it, then permanent, searchable documentation attached to the task, module, or OKR it was about.
There are no green dots, typing indicators, or unread counts. Your inbox counts only threads that need your input — because someone explicitly asked you, or you own the decision — and a guilt-free Pass declines an ask honestly. Urgency costs the sender: a time-sensitive thread requires a one-line justification everyone sees, against honest norms of about 72 hours for normal and 24 for time-sensitive.
Delivery runs on each person's Communication Contract: up to four delivery windows a day, quiet hours, focus blocks, and vacations — enforced server-side, not suggested. Everything batches into one digest at your next window; if you already saw it in the app, no email follows. The philosophy comes from the books Beyond Busy and The Currency of Mortality, shipped as software.
What's in it
Threads that end
Every conversation carries a subject and converges to resolved, decided, or closed — then joins the permanent, searchable record.
Needs-your-input inbox
The badge counts explicit asks and owned decisions, never unread messages. Reading obligates nobody.
The guilt-free Pass
Decline an ask visibly so it moves to someone who can answer — obligations never rot silently.
Honest urgency
Time-sensitive requires a sender-visible reason; normal threads carry a calm 72-hour norm.
Communication Contract
Delivery windows, quiet hours, focus blocks, and vacations — enforced in code at delivery time.
Batched delivery
One digest per window instead of a ping per message; seen in-app means no email follows.
Zero presence theater
No green dots, typing indicators, or last-seen — the UI shows work needing input, not who's online.
Decision records
Decision threads capture context, options, decision, rationale, and one owner — into a searchable decision log.
Attached to the work
Threads link to tasks, strategy modules, and OKRs, so resolutions stay welded to the thing they resolved.
Works with
Put Relay to work on a real client.
$0 base fee through the open beta. Upgrade when the engagement lands.