Calendar privacy, management, and troubleshooting

Use this guide when a user asks what Domino can see, whether friends can see their calendar, how often calendar links update, or why a connection is not working.

Privacy by connection type

Friends do not receive event titles, locations, notes, guests, provider names, connected-account identities, calendar names, or subscription URLs through ordinary availability features.

Secret calendar-link safety

Apple, Microsoft, and many other providers publish calendar feeds as bearer links. Anyone with the URL may be able to read whatever the provider included in the feed.

• Paste the URL only into Domino's Calendar link field.
• Never paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, an email, a support ticket, or public documentation.
• Select the least detailed publication option the provider offers.
• If a link leaks, revoke or unpublish it at the calendar provider, then replace or remove it in Domino.
• Removing a feed from Domino does not revoke the provider's published URL.

Domino encrypts the normalized feed URL at rest and does not show it back in the management interface.

Sync timing

Direct Google and calendar-link connections refresh periodically. Calendar-link feeds are scheduled about twice daily and may also refresh when availability is needed. They are not instant push connections.

If a newly added or changed event does not affect a suggestion immediately:

1. Confirm the connection is active.
2. Confirm the event is marked busy rather than free or transparent at the provider.
3. Allow time for the next refresh.
4. Check Profile → Availability for Needs attention, Reconnect, or another safe status message.

Do not promise an exact next-sync minute.

Manage connections

In Profile → Availability:

• expand Google Calendar or Calendar link with Manage;
• Pause a connection without deleting it;
• Resume a paused connection;
• Replace a feed URL after the provider issues a new one;
• Add another calendar for another feed;
• Remove a connection and its stored availability data;
• use Group suggestions to control whether Domino considers the user's calendar in group timing suggestions.

For Google event-aware mode, the user can also choose Selected calendars and save Availability instructions. Calendar-link feeds can each have their own display name and availability instructions.

Diagnose a calendar-link failure

“Enter a valid webcal:// or https:// calendar feed link”

The user may have copied an HTML sharing page, a login page, an unsupported scheme, or a private-network URL. Ask them to return to the provider and copy the actual ICS/iCal subscription link.

“Calendar link needs attention”

The feed may be unpublished, temporarily unavailable, too large, invalid, or too slow to process. Confirm it still works at the provider. If the provider generated a new link, use Replace in Domino.

Google says “Reconnect needed”

Google access expired or was revoked. Choose Reconnect and authorize the same account. To use a different Google identity, remove the old connection first.

A work calendar has no publish option

The organization may prohibit public calendar feeds. Domino cannot bypass provider or administrator policy. Do not ask for credentials or suggest exposing a private corporate endpoint.

The user connected the wrong calendar

• Google event-aware: adjust Selected calendars.
• Apple, Microsoft, or another feed: remove or replace the incorrect feed and connect the intended calendar's subscription link.
• Calendar app with several accounts: identify the provider that owns the calendar; the app displaying it is not necessarily the provider.

Disconnect and revoke correctly

To stop Domino from using a calendar, remove it in Domino. For a published calendar link, also unpublish or disable public sharing at the original provider when the link should no longer exist.

For Google, removing the connection revokes the stored authorization. For feed connections, Domino deletes the connection's derived availability blocks; the provider remains responsible for revoking the source URL.

Availability versus adding a plan

Connecting a calendar lets Domino consider availability over time. Add to calendar adds one scheduled Domino plan through Google, Microsoft Outlook, or .ics. Adding one plan does not connect ongoing availability, and disconnecting availability does not remove calendar events the user previously added.

LLM answering guidance

• Answer “what can people see?” before giving setup detail.
• Never request a secret calendar URL, provider password, app password, OAuth token, or private event contents.
• Use the current connection status shown by Domino; do not infer that a feed is healthy from its provider name.
• Explain provider revocation separately from removal in Domino.