The four tool statuses
For: an admin who reviews or manages tools. Takes about 5 minutes.
What this means
Every tool in Stacktic is in one of four states: Pending, Managed, Watching, or Archived. The status tells you, and Stacktic, how much attention a tool needs.
- A Managed tool gets the full treatment: owners, admins, and Signals watching for gaps.
- A Watching tool gets a lighter touch on purpose.
- A Pending tool hasn't been looked at yet.
The four statuses
Pending: Stacktic found this tool, but nobody has reviewed it yet. It usually finds tools by scanning your Google Workspace sign-ins. Signals don't run on a Pending tool. So gaps like a missing owner won't be flagged until someone decides what it is.
Managed: a real company tool that Stacktic actively manages. This is the status you want most of your tools in. A Managed tool gets an owner, admins, offboarding coverage, and the full set of Signals.
Watching: an individual's own tool, not something the company manages. Stacktic keeps a light eye on it, and it still shows up in the registry. But Stacktic doesn't ask for an owner, doesn't include it in offboarding, and skips most Signals for it. Think of a one-person Adobe license, or a niche tool only one employee uses. If a Watching tool catches on later, the Watched tool adoption signal can let you know once enough people are using it.
Archived: retired. The tool's access history stays intact for the record. But the tool is no longer active and doesn't need day-to-day attention.
There's also a fifth internal state, Deleted. It's for tools removed by mistake or added twice. You won't see it as a tab, and it isn't something you choose.
Moving between statuses
- A Pending tool has buttons in the banner at the top of its page:
- Manage makes it Managed.
- Watch makes it Watching.
- Archive archives it.
- Internal makes it Managed and tags it Internal. It only appears for a tool that isn't in Stacktic's catalog, because a catalog tool can't be Internal.
- A Managed tool can move to Watching with Watch…, or be archived with Archive…. Both are in the … menu at the top of the tool's page.
- A Watching tool becomes Managed with Mark as company tool in its banner, or Manage… in the … menu. Archive… in the menu archives it.
- An Archived tool comes back as Managed with Unarchive in its banner, or Unarchive… in the … menu. It never goes back to Watching.
Suggested decisions
When you review Pending tools, Stacktic suggests a decision for two kinds of tool:
- Someone requested it. Stacktic suggests Manage and names the requester as the likely owner. Approving makes the tool Managed and approves their request. It doesn't assign the owner. You still pick that later in the review.
- One person or nobody uses it, and nobody requested it. Stacktic suggests Watch, with Archive one click away as the alternative.
Stacktic doesn't suggest anything for a tool several people use, because that decision needs you. A suggestion also shows a percentage. That's how often the rule matched what admins actually chose, at the time it was measured. Nothing happens until you click.
What you'll see
The /tools page has a tab for each status, plus "Mine" and "All." Every tool shows its status as a colored pill:
- amber for Pending;
- green for Managed;
- neutral gray for Watching and Archived.
A Pending tool also shows a banner on its own page. The banner prompts you to decide what the tool is.