Modes

Lay has two modes, each designed for a different job. The mode changes how comments are treated, who can leave them, and what AI enrichment produces.

Review mode

Job: Your team reviews prototypes and staging builds. Designers, PMs, and engineers point at what needs changing and say why.

• Comments are threaded — reply, discuss, resolve
• AI context cards describe the element and suggest fixes
• All commenters are identified team members
• Best for: staging URLs, design reviews, QA passes

<LayProvider projectId="..." mode="review">
  <StagingApp />
</LayProvider>

Support mode

Job: Your users tell you what's confusing or broken on your live site. They point at the element and describe the problem in their own words.

• Comments are standalone — no threading or resolution UI for end users
• AI detects intent (bug report, confusion, feature request, praise)
• Commenters can be anonymous or identified via identifyUser()
• Best for: production apps, beta programs, user research

Support mode works without identity — comments are anonymous by default. Add identifyUser to attach user info to each comment. This requires a server-side LAY_SECRET_KEY.

import { identifyUser } from '@uselay/sdk/server';
import { LayProvider } from '@uselay/sdk';

export default async function Layout({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  const user = await getUser();
  return (
    <LayProvider
      projectId="your-project-id"
      mode="support"
      {...identifyUser(
        user ? { id: user.id, name: user.email ?? user.name } : null
      )}
    >
      {children}
    </LayProvider>
  );
}

See Quick Start for full setup.

Choosing a mode