Sift — documentation
Sift turns a Confluence query into a living page report: build it with filters, save it, and embed the results as a table that refreshes every time someone opens the page.
This page covers everything Sift does. If something here doesn't match what you see, or you're stuck, email support@hyperdella.com.
Getting started
Sift adds two things to Confluence once it's installed.
A macro, for embedding results in a page. Edit any page, type /Sift, and choose
Sift — CQL results table. The macro appears with a Configure button: that's
where you build or pick the query it will show.
A page, for working with queries on their own. Open Sift from the Confluence navigation. This is where your saved queries live, and where you can build and run a query without embedding it anywhere.
Neither needs setting up first. There's no admin configuration, no connection to establish, no account to create — Sift runs inside your own Confluence.
Building a query
The builder works in filters, so you don't have to know CQL. Add a filter, choose a field, choose how to match it, and pick a value. As you go, Sift shows a live Preview: N matching count so you know whether the query is finding anything before you commit to it.
The fields you can filter on:
| Field | How it matches | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Space | is / is any of | The spaces you can see |
| Type | is / is any of | Page, Blog post |
| Label | is / is any of | Any label |
| Created by | is | My pages, Anyone's pages |
| Created | on or after / on or before | A date |
| Last modified | on or after / on or before | A date |
| Text contains | contains | Free text |
With more than one filter, you choose how they combine: Match ALL of these (AND) or Match ANY of these (OR).
"Created by" deliberately has only two options. Sift can't offer a list of your colleagues to pick from, because doing that would require an app permission broad enough to read details about everyone in your site. We'd rather not hold that permission at all. "My pages" resolves per viewer — in an embedded macro, each person sees their own pages, which is usually what an index page actually wants.
Writing CQL directly
If you already know CQL, switch to the Write CQL tab and type the query yourself. Anything CQL supports works, including fields the builder doesn't expose.
This is a one-way door: once a query is written as raw CQL, it stays raw CQL, because there's no reliable way to turn an arbitrary query back into filters. Build with filters first if you think you'll want to edit it that way later.
You can see the CQL the builder produces at any time — open Show query syntax under the filters. It's a good way to learn CQL from queries you already understand.
Choosing columns
The results table can show: Title, Space, Type, Labels, Contributor, Created and Last modified. All but Created are on by default.
Columns always render in that order regardless of the order you tick them, so two Sift tables on the same page look like each other. A column that turns out to be empty for every result is dropped rather than shown as a stripe of blank cells.
Saving queries
A query you'll use more than once belongs in your library. Click Save, give it a name, and choose who can see it:
- Only me — private to you.
- Space — shared with everyone who can see a space you choose.
Saved queries are the reason Sift is more than a macro. Point ten pages at one saved query, edit the query once, and all ten update. The embed follows the query.
A few rules worth knowing:
- A space query's space can't be moved. Once a query is shared with a space, that's where it lives. To move it, save a new copy.
- Deleting a shared query doesn't break the pages using it. Each embed keeps working from the last version it saw. It stops updating, but it doesn't empty out or throw an error onto someone's page.
- Editing is the owner's. Anyone who can see a shared query can use it. Only the person who created it can change or delete it.
The Sift page
Open Sift from the Confluence nav and you get your library on the left, a workspace on the right.
The library has three zones:
- Favourited — anything you've starred, from anywhere.
- Created by you — your own queries, private and shared alike, each tagged with its visibility.
- Browse shared — everything shared with spaces you can see. Search it by name, narrow it by space, and star anything worth keeping.
Click a query to load it into the workspace with its results. Start a new query at the top of the library clears the workspace to build something fresh.
Sharing a query by link
A loaded query has a share link — …/sift?q=<id>. Send it to a colleague and they get
a focused view: the query's name, its results, and nothing else.
The link is not a key. Opening it re-checks who you are: if the query is private to someone else, or shared with a space the recipient can't see, they get a short note saying it isn't available. Nothing leaks by forwarding a URL.
Copying the link takes a keystroke. Click Copy link and Sift reveals the URL in a field — click it, then press ⌘C (Ctrl+C on Windows). Sift can't put it on your clipboard for you: Confluence renders these apps in a sandbox with no clipboard access, and we'd rather show you the real link than a button that silently does nothing.
How permissions work
Every query runs as the person looking at it. Not as you, not as the person who saved it, and not as the app.
The practical consequence: you cannot use Sift to show someone a page they aren't allowed to read. Embed a query on a team home page and each visitor sees their own slice of the results. Share a query with a space and a viewer still only sees the pages their own Confluence permissions allow.
This also means two people can open the same Sift report and honestly see different numbers of rows. That's correct behaviour, not a bug.
Sift runs entirely on Atlassian's Forge platform, inside your own Confluence Cloud tenancy. Sift makes no outbound network calls, so your content is never sent to Hyperdella — there is no path by which it could reach us. See the privacy policy for the detail.
Things Sift doesn't do
Stated plainly, so you can decide before you install:
- No site-wide sharing. A query is private or shared with one space. There's no "everyone in the site" visibility.
- No folders or tags on the library. Favourites and search are how you find things.
- No alerts or subscriptions. Sift shows you results when you look; it won't email you when a query's results change.
- No export. There's no CSV or PDF download of a results table.
- Personal spaces aren't included. They can't appear in the space picker or in Browse shared.
- No Jira support. Sift is Confluence-only.
Troubleshooting
A page I just created isn't in the results. Confluence's search index updates a moment after the change, so a brand-new or just-edited page can take a beat to appear. Sift is reading the same index Confluence's own page reports read. Wait, then reload.
A colleague sees fewer results than I do. Working as intended — see How permissions work. Check their access to the space in question.
My personal space isn't in the space picker. Personal spaces aren't supported.
A query I embedded stopped updating. The saved query behind it was probably deleted. The embed keeps showing the last results it saw. Reconfigure the macro and point it at a query that still exists.
Someone deleted a shared query I was using. Only its owner can delete it. Save your own copy of a query you depend on.
Support
Email support@hyperdella.com. Tell us what you were trying to build and what you saw instead — a screenshot of the query and the result saves a round trip.
Sift is made by Hyperdella.