Creating Sessions

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.harmonica.chat/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Overview

As a host, you can set up and manage Harmonica sessions to gather insights, facilitate discussions, and coordinate with groups. This guide covers everything you need to know about creating effective sessions.

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Two starting points

You can start a session from scratch or from a methodology template.

• From scratch — type your objective directly in the dashboard input field and click Create. You’ll fill in goal, critical information, and context manually.
• From a template — go to Templates and pick a methodology. The template pre-fills the session’s fields and selects a facilitation approach matched to that method. If you pick a chain template (a multi-step sequence), see the Chains guide instead — those launch differently.

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Creating your first session

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Session configuration

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Objective

The objective summarizes what you are trying to achieve through the interviews. Be clear and specific:

• ✅ Good: “I want to understand user preferences on our new product features and identify which features are most valuable.”
• ❌ Vague: “Get feedback”

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Critical to gather

Critical to gather specifies what kind of information or details you need from participant responses:

• ✅ Good: “Participants should provide examples of their workflows or describe challenges they face when using similar products.”
• ❌ Vague: “Their thoughts”

This helps guide the conversation to focus on gathering the qualitative insights you need from participants.

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Context

Context provides background to help the AI understand the purpose of your session (this step is optional):

• Relevant history or previous discussions
• Current state of the project or topic
• Any relevant constraints or considerations
• Company or product background

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Session name

Choose a clear, descriptive name that will be shared with participants. This helps them understand what the session is about before they join.

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Using templates

The Templates page lists methodology templates and chain templates. Selecting a single-session methodology template pre-fills your session’s fields and sets a facilitation approach matched to that method. You can still edit any field before launching. See Templates for a full list of available types, and Chains for multi-step chain templates.

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Inviting participants

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Sharing the session link

Once your session is launched, you’ll get a unique session link in the format: /chat?s={sessionId}. You can:

• Copy the link - Click the “Copy link” button to copy the full URL to your clipboard
• Generate QR code - Click “QR code” to generate a QR code that participants can scan
• Share via email, messaging, or other channels

The link takes participants directly to the conversation interface where they can start their guided conversational survey.

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Participant pre-session form

Before participants start chatting, they’ll fill out the pre-session form you configured:

• Default fields: Name and Email (optional)
• Custom questions you added during session creation
• Questions are shown in the order you configured

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Best practices for invitations

• Provide context: Let participants know what the session is about and why their input matters
• Set expectations: Mention how long the session might take
• Give a deadline: If there’s a time limit, communicate it clearly
• Follow up: Remind participants if needed, but don’t be pushy

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Managing active sessions

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Monitoring participation

While a session is active, you can:

• See who has joined
• Monitor participation levels
• View real-time contributions (depending on settings)

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Adjusting settings

You can modify some session settings while it’s active:

• Update visibility settings
• Add or remove participants
• Adjust goals or context if needed

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Reviewing session results

After participants have contributed, Harmonica generates:

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Summary

An overview of key insights synthesized from all participants’ contributions.

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Session recap

A detailed breakdown of the conversation, including:

• Individual responses
• Common themes
• Unique insights

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Custom insights

Additional analysis based on your session goals and the data collected.

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Similarity scores

If enabled, you can see how similar or different participants’ responses are.

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Regenerating after edits

After you launch a session, you can keep editing its brief fields — goal, critical information, context, and topic — from the Brief tab inside the session overview modal. When those fields drift from what was used to generate the current facilitation prompt, a banner appears offering to regenerate.

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What gets regenerated

Clicking Regenerate triggers a full recompose of two prompt layers:

• Facilitation Approach — the methodology-specific instructions for the session
• Summary Generation — how participant conversations are synthesized

The recompose uses everything: your current HARMONICA.md, the active methodology template, and the updated brief fields. Before this was introduced, the cascade only used the brief fields and ignored your organizational context and template — brief edits now produce prompts that are fully coherent with your project’s standing context.

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Accept vs override

The regenerated layers are returned as a proposal — you review them before they are saved. If the proposal looks right, save it. If you want to adjust the wording, edit it first. If you have manually customized the Facilitation Approach with specific rules you want to keep, compare the proposal against your current version before saving. The recompose starts fresh from the brief and template; it does not attempt to preserve manual additions.

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Cross-Pollination snap

During regeneration you can optionally include a Cross-Pollination snap — a snapshot of the themes and tensions the AI has surfaced from participant conversations so far. Including it makes the new prompt aware of what has already emerged, which is useful when you are adjusting the facilitation direction mid-session based on early responses.

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Full prompt layer details

To see and edit all four prompt layers (HARMONICA.md, Platform Guidelines, Facilitation Approach, Summary Generation) in one place, open the Session Design tab in the session overview modal.

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Customising the participant landing

When participants open your session link, they land on a welcome card before the conversation begins. You can control what they see from the Landing tab inside the session overview modal.

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What you can set

Welcome message — the text shown on the welcome card. Supports markdown: use [text](https://…) for clickable links and bare URLs auto-link as well. Aim for a few sentences that set context and encourage participation. Link preview description — the short description shown when your invitation link is shared in Slack, Teams, iMessage, and similar platforms. Keep it under 160 characters. Video intro — an optional video embedded above the welcome card. Paste a YouTube, Google Drive, Loom, or Vimeo URL. A thumbnail chip previews your selection before you save.

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AI-drafted welcome message

When you create a session, Harmonica automatically drafts a welcome message from your brief. You will see it pre-filled when you open the Landing tab. Edit it to your voice, or click Regenerate AI copy to produce a new draft. If you have unsaved edits, Harmonica will ask before overwriting them.

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Save

All three fields save together when you click Save in the Landing tab’s action bar.

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Organizing sessions into projects

Sessions can be organized into projects to:

• Group related sessions together
• Track progress over time
• Maintain context across multiple sessions
• Share access with team members

See our Managing Projects guide for more details.

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Best practices

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Troubleshooting

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Participants can’t access the session

• Check the link: Verify the invitation link is correct and hasn’t expired
• Visibility settings: Ensure the session isn’t set to private if you want external participants
• Contact support: If issues persist, reach out to hello@harmonica.chat

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Low participation

• Remind participants: Sometimes a gentle reminder helps
• Clarify the value: Make sure participants understand why their input matters
• Make it easy: Ensure the session is accessible and the topic is clear

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Results not as expected

• Review your goals: Make sure your session goals are clear and achievable
• Check context: Ensure participants had enough information to provide useful responses
• Iterate: Consider running another session with adjusted questions or context

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Next steps

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Need help?