Action Items is your to-do list for AI visibility. Stride turns what it finds in scans and checks into fixes, you work through them, and later scans show what changed after each one shipped.
Overview
Open Actions in the sidebar. The Board has three columns:
- To Do shows the most urgent actions first. The first few cards are shown in full; the rest sit in Later · N more active actions.
- In Progress holds actions you've started, plus Projects underway.
- Done holds what you've shipped, grouped by what later scans could tell you.
Below the board, Watching lists signals Stride has seen but not confirmed yet, and No Longer Observed lists signals that went away on their own.
Above the board, This week lists the top five actions recommended for the week, in the same order as To Do. The list is set once each Monday, so it stays the same all week, and each item shows whether it's done or in progress. If the agent suggested work for you, it shows how many suggestions are waiting. Nothing the agent suggests is added to your board until you approve it.
TODO — needs review
Document the Monday weekly briefing email (who receives it, what it contains, and how to turn it off) once the email is switched on in production.
Actions come from your scans, AI readiness checks, commerce and brand checks, prompt research, Topics and setup tasks. Readiness, commerce and setup fixes go straight to To Do. Findings from scans wait in Watching until two comparable scans show them, so a one-off result doesn't create work.
When to use it
Use Action Items when you're deciding what to do next, picking up work you started, or checking whether something you shipped made a difference. Use the page an action came from, such as AI Readiness or Competitive intelligence, when you want the full picture behind it.
How to use it
- Open Actions. Start with To Do; the default Most urgent order puts the most important work first.
- Open a card. Why this? shows the evidence behind it: what Stride saw, which prompt or page it's about, and how much effort to expect.
- Follow the steps on the action. Depending on the fix, that's a draft to review, a snippet to paste, or a connection to set up. Starting an action moves it to In Progress.
- Make the change on your site and mark it done. Stride doesn't publish for you.
- Later scans compare before and after. Check the result in Done.
- Once a result is final, open the row and choose Archive to clear it from Done. Archived (N) at the bottom of Done opens the archive, where you can Restore to Done until the record's normal retention ends.
Use Severity, Action type and Show hidden to narrow the board, and the sort menu to switch between Most urgent, Least effort and Your order. Projects groups related actions, and Timeline lists recent changes, scans and results.
Definitions
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| To Do | Ready to work. Readiness, commerce and setup fixes start here; scan findings arrive after two comparable scans show them. |
| In Progress | You opened the action and haven't finished it. |
| Done | You shipped it. Results appear as later scans come in. |
| Watching | Seen in a scan but not confirmed yet. Waiting means it needs another scan; Not seen means the latest scan didn't show it. |
| No Longer Observed | Missing from two comparable scans in a row, so it may already be fixed. It isn't marked done. |
| Severity | Critical, High, Medium or Low, from the size of the gap behind the card, such as a drop of 20 points or more. Critical only comes from the Agent. |
| Project | A group of related actions worked in order. |
| Results | In Done: work later scans can compare before and after. It reads Waiting on a scan while every item still needs its first later scan. |
| Can't tell | In Done: work Stride saved but can't fairly compare. Each row gives the reason. |
| Waiting on a scan | No later comparable scan has run yet. |
| Measuring | Later scans are in, but not enough yet to call a result. |
| Improved | The score rose across repeated later scans and the window has closed. That doesn't prove the change caused it. |
| No clear change | Later scans look about the same as before, or a move didn't repeat. |
| Can't tell · Couldn't check | A data source didn't respond, so Stride didn't record a zero. |
| Can't tell · Not enough data | Too few comparable answers to say what happened. |
| Can't tell · Can't compare | The tracked prompts or engines changed, so before and after don't line up. |
| Can't tell · Mixed with other work | Other completed work landed in the same window, so this change can't be singled out. |
| Went down | Later scans moved down after the change. That doesn't prove the change caused it. |
Best practices
- Finish what's in progress before starting new work. Started actions stay at the top for a reason.
- Mark work done on the day it went live. Before-and-after comparisons start from that date.
- Keep scheduled full scans running. Results need comparable scans after the change.
- Read a result as what happened after your change, not proof that the change caused it.
Plan & limits
Action Items comes with every Stride plan. Your plan's scans, tracked prompts, competitors, content credits and integrations decide which actions appear. Content actions (create or optimize a page) open on every plan. Guided actions for technical, schema and source work need Grow or Scale; on Starter they stay visible, marked Upgrade to unlock this action, and are left out of the week's list.
Opening an action is free. A content credit is used only when you run a content draft.
FAQ / Troubleshooting
Why isn't a scan finding in To Do yet?
Scan findings wait in Watching until two comparable scans show them, so a single noisy result doesn't create work. Readiness, commerce and setup fixes skip this step.
How do I get an action off my board without doing it?
Open the card's menu and choose Hide from queue or Snooze. A snooze lasts until the next scan or 30 days. Turn on Show hidden to see and restore hidden actions.
Where do I see what happened after I shipped something?
In Done. Each item moves from Waiting on a scan to Measuring, then to a result: No clear change or Can't tell, which always names its reason. Open a row for what was tracked and when it was last checked.
Improved and Went down appear on the action's outcome bar and the dashboard proof timeline, which know which way the score moved. On the board, a score that moved in either direction stays Measuring.
Why does a result say Can't tell · Couldn't check instead of No clear change?
A data source failing is missing evidence, not a zero. Stride keeps your record and waits for a scan it can trust.
Does Stride publish changes for me?
No. You review drafts and steps, publish through your own site or tools, and mark the action done.