Sessions
Agenda tab
Build the in-session agenda for a live session — items, breaks, durations — and watch alignment with the session window in real time.
The Agenda tab is where you build the in-session plan — the actual sequence of activities, breaks, and labels that drive the live meeting. Unlike prep (which participants engage with before), the agenda is what you and your participants follow during the session itself.
If the session was instantiated from a template, the agenda starts populated with the template's structure. If it was created standalone, you start with an empty agenda. Either way, the editor on this tab is the same — covered as a template-side tool in Building the Agenda template, and used here at runtime against the session's own agenda.
What the agenda contains
An agenda is a sequence of three kinds of items:
Activities
The substance of the meeting — discussions, exercises, presentations. Each activity has a title, a duration, and optionally a description and tools.
Breaks
Pause points with their own duration. Visible to participants in the agenda; the session clock pauses during them.
Labels
Section headers that group related items together — "Discovery," "Synthesis," "Decisions," etc. Zero duration; pure structure.
The full type-by-type breakdown lives on the Building the Agenda template page; this page focuses on what's specific to using the agenda at runtime on a live session.
The alignment indicator
The Agenda tab shows an alignment indicator at all times — the running total of agenda durations compared to the session window set on the planner header. Three states:
| State | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Aligned | Agenda duration matches the session window. | Nothing — you're in the green. |
| Under | Agenda is shorter than the session window. | Either add more (an activity, a break) or shrink the window. |
| Over (drift) | Agenda is longer than the session window. | Either trim (shorter activities, fewer items) or extend the window. |
The indicator updates live as you change durations or add / remove items. There's no need to "check alignment" as a separate step — it's always visible.
Drift doesn't block publish
An over-budget agenda doesn't stop you publishing the session. It does show up as a warning in the pre-publish checklist (see Publishing a session) — Gleo wants you to know about it, but trusts your judgement on whether it matters.
This is intentional. Sometimes you genuinely want a 90-minute agenda in a 60-minute session because you intend to cut what you don't get to. Sometimes you want to publish a draft agenda that's deliberately over so you can refine it. The check is a flag, not a block.
AI-assisted agenda generation
Some sessions can have their agenda generated by AI based on the session's context (its purpose, prep responses, the playbook it sits in). When this happens — typically triggered from the playbook or template — the Agenda tab shows realtime "generating agenda" placeholders that fill in as the AI works.
You can wait for it to finish, then edit the result; or you can start editing parts of the agenda while other parts are still hydrating. Either way, what AI generates is a starting point — you own the final shape.
Walkthrough
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1
Open the Agenda tab
From the Session Planner, switch to Agenda. If the session came from a template, the agenda is pre-populated; if it was created standalone, it starts empty.
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2
Add or reorder items
Use the Add control to insert activities, breaks, or labels. Drag to reorder. Click an item to edit its title, description, and duration.
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3
Watch the alignment indicator
As you change durations or add items, the alignment indicator updates. Aim for the aligned state — or knowingly publish out-of-alignment with a plan to cut.
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4
If using AI generation, wait for the placeholders to hydrate
If the agenda is being AI-generated, you'll see placeholder skeletons that fill in as items arrive. You can edit hydrated parts in parallel.
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5
Decide on agenda visibility before publish
In the publish gear (on the planner header), the Publish agenda toggle controls whether participants see the agenda live. Default is on; turn off if you want a facilitator-only run sheet.
Tips & pitfalls
Build the agenda after you've reviewed prep. The most useful agendas are shaped by what came back in prep — open questions to discuss, surprising disagreements, knowledge gaps to address. Build the agenda in the right order: prep first, responses second, agenda third.
Use labels generously. Sections — "Discovery," "Synthesis," "Decisions" — make the agenda easier to read in flight, both for you and for participants. Five activities under three labels reads better than five activities in a flat list.
Build in slack at the end. The single most reliable agenda mistake is leaving no buffer for overrun and questions. Keep the last 10–15% of the session window unscheduled (or scheduled as Q&A / wrap-up) — it almost always gets used.