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The Process Index is Within’s context graph of how work happens — a versioned, hierarchical map of every process the organization runs, with the dependencies, teams, systems, and observations that connect them. It spans value streams at the top (P2P, O2C, close cycle) down to individual leaf processes that a person or system performs. Each process carries:
  • Current version: steps, policies, inputs, outputs, owner, team
  • Version history: how the process has evolved over time
  • Dependencies: which processes feed into this one, which depend on it
  • Hierarchy node: where it sits in the value stream
  • Observations: real-world deviations and exceptions captured against it
  • Linked artifacts: BRDs, SOPs, recordings, screenshots backing the process

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What you ask of it

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Search → fetch → drill → drill further

The default loop for any process question:
  1. Search with the user’s words. Iterate two to four times if results feel sparse — processes use organization-specific names, and single queries rarely cover broad topics.
  2. Fetch the matched process to read steps, policies, dependencies, and history.
  3. Drill into specific dependencies, hierarchy siblings, or version history when the summary isn’t enough.
  4. Drill further into the process’s observations to see what actually happened in practice versus what’s documented — the deviation patterns, exceptions, and activity timelines from real sessions.
See Tools by purpose → Process Index and Process observations for the full toolset, and Find opportunities for an end-to-end walkthrough.

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Observations

The Process Index tells you what a process should be. Observations tell you what actually happened. An observation is a deviation or exception captured by the Within Companion during a real session. Observations are the most “primary source” evidence Within has — they record where the documented process and the executed process diverged. Each observation has:
  • A pointer to the process and version it was logged against
  • A short description of the deviation
  • A linked activity timeline: the exact sequence of user actions, with timestamps
When a user asks “what changed?”, “why does this run this way?”, or “are there edge cases I should know about?”, observations are the answer.