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Workspace

The Workspace is a visual LCA modeling environment at ecosemantic.com/workspace. It complements the chat interface by giving you a graphical canvas to build, inspect, and share LCA models.

Getting Started

Open any project from the project explorer in the left panel, or create a new one. The workspace loads your project's activity graph onto the canvas automatically.

Canvas & Activity Graph

The central canvas displays your project as a node-link graph. Each node is an activity; edges represent exchanges (inputs/outputs). You can:

  • Pan and zoom freely across the graph
  • Click a node to open its detail popover (name, unit, location, exchange breakdown, ecoquery link)
  • Drag node positions — positions are persisted per project
  • Change layout — switch between automatic layout algorithms via the header

Component Library

The resizable left panel lists all ecoinvent activities available in your project's database. Use the search box to filter by name. Drag any activity from the library onto the canvas to instantly create a database exchange linking it to your functional unit activity.

The library is locked to your project's database version.

CRUD Dialogs

Right-click a node or use the toolbar to open dialogs for:

  • Add Activity — define a new foreground process (name, unit, location, lifecycle stage, hierarchy level)
  • Add Exchange — link to an ecoinvent activity or another project activity
  • Edit Activity / Exchange — modify properties via the Properties Editor
  • Delete — remove an activity or exchange from the project

LCA Calculation

Click Calculate Impact in the header (shows a credit cost indicator). A method search dialog lets you find and select an impact assessment method and category. Results appear inline and are also visible in the Validation Panel.

Hotspot Analysis & Sankey Diagram

Switch to the Sankey tab to run a hotspot analysis on your project. The view shows:

  • Flow width proportional to absolute impact contribution
  • Multi-level attribution tree — foreground activities on the left, background ecoinvent processes on the right
  • Auto stage colors by lifecycle stage metadata
  • ISIC category grouping as intermediate nodes (optional)
  • Top-N slider to control how many hotspots are shown
  • Node click → detail dialog with all hotspot fields and an EcoQuery link

State is persisted across tab switches. Use the Clear button to reset.

Validation Panel

The validation panel (right side) highlights model issues: missing exchanges, unit mismatches, disconnected nodes. It auto-refreshes when the graph changes and lets you navigate directly to the flagged node.

Export

Use the Export button in the header to download your project in:

  • EcoSpold v1 — standard XML format compatible with most LCA software
  • CSV — tabular format with ecoinvent UUIDs resolved via Neo4j

Live Sharing

Share your workspace as a live read-only session:

  1. Click Share Live in the header
  2. A persistent link and QR code are generated (private by default)
  3. Toggle visibility to make the link public
  4. Viewers open /live/<share-id> — no login required
  5. Viewers see the graph update in real time as you work, with tool call activity in a feed

Aliases — create a short memorable alias for your share link (useful for stable QR codes).

Spectator features: reaction emojis, spectator count badge, fullscreen mode, multi-project switcher with follow-presenter mode.

MCP Server Toggle

The MCP server toggle in the message input bar lets you switch which MCP servers are active for your session — useful if you have access to additional servers (AI Agents, SAP mock).

Custom System Prompt

In the Tools tab of the settings panel, you can provide a custom replacement system prompt for the Playground (up to 5000 characters). Use the Reset to default button to restore the original.