A theme is a cluster of feedback items that say the same thing in different words. Themes turn the firehose into a small number of patterns you can act on.
Themes are a Pro+ feature. On Starter, the theme detection step is skipped — your feedback list still works, but you won't see clusters.
Where themes live
Themes are surfaced inside the Insights page in the workspace nav. The standalone Themes route from earlier versions now redirects there. You'll find them as a grid of cards alongside insights.
What a theme looks like
Each theme card shows:
- Name — generated by AI, edit-able.
- Short description — one or two sentences.
- Item count — how many feedback items are in the cluster.
- Vote total — sum of votes across constituent items.
- Status — Active or Actioned.
Clicking a theme opens its detail panel with the full list of feedback items inside it.
How themes are created
Theme detection is batch on demand, not real-time:
- New feedback flows in over time.
- When you click Re-detect themes, Conclude runs the clustering pipeline:
- Pulls recent feedback items for the product.
- Uses embeddings to cluster items that talk about the same thing.
- Generates a name and description for each cluster.
- The themes grid updates with the new clusters.
You decide when to re-run. Most teams re-detect weekly, or when they're triaging.
Acting on a theme
From a theme:
- Open it to see all the feedback inside.
- Mark it as Actioned when you've shipped a fix or a feature that addresses it. Actioned themes stay visible (badged) — they're not deleted.
- Create a Linear issue from the theme (Pro+). The issue body summarises the theme and links the constituent feedback items.
When a theme isn't a theme
Sometimes the clustering catches things that aren't really one pattern. You can:
- Edit the name or description if it's close but not quite right.
- Split by re-running detection after triaging the false-positive items.
- Ignore by leaving it un-actioned.
There's no penalty for noisy themes — they just sit on the page until you act on them or re-detect.
Themes vs. insights
People conflate these. The distinction:
- A theme is a cluster of similar feedback items. It says "these 14 customers said similar things."
- An insight is a higher-order signal generated from your data. It says "this is going to bite you next month if you don't act." Insights can reference themes.
→ Insights
Plan limits
| Plan | Theme detection |
|---|---|
| Starter | — |
| Pro | ✓ |
| Team | ✓ |