Topographer
Find your way around
Topographer is the Spice Labs hosted service. It receives the surveys the Surveyor CLI uploads and turns them into scores, reports and a ranked list of what to fix. You work with it in the dashboard at dashboard.spicelabs.io, which is labeled Spice Labs.
Sign in
Go to dashboard.spicelabs.io and sign in with your email address or with Google. With an email address, Spice Labs sends you a link that signs you in.
- If your organization asks for a second verification step, you also enter a code from a text message or from an authenticator app.
- A sign-in lasts about a month in that browser. After that, or after you sign out, sign in again.
- If someone invited you, sign in with the email address the invitation went to. You land in the project you were invited to.
- To start a new account and organization, choose Get started under the sign-in form. The quick start walks through it.
Choose an organization and project
If you belong to one organization, the dashboard takes you straight in, and it reopens the project you used last. If you belong to several and it does not know which you used last, it asks you to Select an organization to continue.
An organization’s page lists its Projects. Open one to work in it. If you are allowed to create projects, a + Create Project card is there too. If the page says you don’t have access to any projects yet, ask an organization admin to add your team to a project (Teams and roles).
Surveys, reports, the Portfolio, Data health and credentials all belong to a project. To work in another project or organization, use the switchers on the top bar.
The top bar
From left to right:
| Element | What it does |
|---|---|
| Logo | Returns to the current project’s Portfolio. |
| Organization name | Opens Switch organization, a list of your organizations. |
| Project name | Opens Switch project, a list of the projects you can reach, and Manage projects at the bottom. |
| Place | Shows where you are. On the Portfolio it opens Switch portfolio: All subjects, your custom portfolios, New portfolio and Edit portfolio. |
| Portfolio | The project’s front page: scores and what to fix next. See Portfolio. |
| Data health | Whether surveys are arriving and finishing. Its colored dot shows the current state. See Data health. |
| ☰ | Opens the menu. |
When you switch to an organization that requires a second verification step, the dashboard sends you back to sign in and says the organization “asks for another verification step”.
The menu
Open the menu (☰) for everything that is not on the top bar. You see only the items your role allows.
| Group | Item | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Surveys | Every survey uploaded to this project, and its reports. See Surveys and reports. |
| Project | Reports | Every report, filtered by type. |
| Project | Survey setup | The setup steps: Spice Pass, CLI, first survey, CI, AI assistants. |
| Project | Credentials | Spice Passes, API tokens, sign-ins and connected apps. See Spice Passes and credentials. |
| Project | API | The API reference for this project, with a console to try calls. See REST API. |
| Project | Settings | Rename the project or delete it. |
| Organization | Activity | The organization’s activity log. |
| Organization | Projects | Create, open, delete and restore projects. |
| Organization | Teams | Teams, their roles and their projects. |
| Organization | Users | Invite and remove people. |
| Organization | Settings | The organization’s name and how long deleted data is kept. |
| Account | Your name | Preferences: your name and your time zone. |
| Account | Sign out | Signs you out of the dashboard. |
The Organization items are covered in Administration.
Survey setup
Open the menu (☰) and choose Survey setup. The page lists five steps, each with a Mark as done link:
- Generate a Spice Pass: create the credential the CLI uploads with. This step marks itself done when you select Generate.
- Install the CLI: the install command for Linux, macOS and Windows. Full instructions are in Install the Surveyor CLI.
- Run Your First Survey: a sample
spice survey inventorycommand. - CI/CD Integration: sample configuration for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure Pipelines, CircleCI, Bitbucket and other systems. See GitHub Actions.
- AI assistants (MCP): the address to give an AI assistant. See Connect an AI assistant.
On project pages, a setup checklist sits at the right edge and counts your progress, for example “3 of 7 complete”. Its items link to the matching setup step, plus Invite your team, which opens the organization’s Users page. Select Collapse to fold it away, or I’m all set to dismiss it.
Detail and keyboard keys
The Detail strip at the bottom of the page sets how much the dashboard explains:
- Standard shows the figures and labels.
- Brief me adds a line of explanation to sections and tables, such as how the What to fix next list is ranked.
The dashboard remembers your choice in this browser. The strip also shows the keys that work on the current page:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
w and s (or k and j, or the arrow keys) | Move up and down a list |
f or / | Filter |
d or i | Open details for the selected row |
e | Simulate the selected fix on the Portfolio |
Enter | Select |
Esc | Go back, or leave a simulation |