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The customer portal is a white-labeled, customer-facing site where your users can submit feature requests and follow their progress — without needing access to your Lane workspace. Every request submitted through the portal becomes a feedback in Lane, so your team manages everything from a single place. Portals are hosted at portal.laneapp.co/{your-workspace-slug} and are completely separate from the main Lane app. Customers authenticate with a passwordless magic link — no passwords, no accounts to manage.

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How it works

  1. You enable the portal and share the link with your customers.
  2. Customers sign in with their email via a magic link.
  3. They submit requests and track the status of each one.
  4. Requests appear as insights in Lane with source: Portal.
  5. As your team updates insight statuses in Lane, the portal reflects the changes automatically through status mapping.

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Enable the portal

  1. Click your workspace name in the top-left corner.
  2. Go to Settings → Portal.
  3. Toggle the portal on.
  4. Copy the portal URL and share it with your customers.
When the portal is disabled, the portal URL returns a 404 page.

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Configure the portal

All portal settings are in Settings → Portal and save automatically when changed.

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Design

  • Portal name — the heading displayed at the top of the portal. Defaults to “Requests”.
  • Subtext — a short description shown below the portal name.
  • Primary colour — the accent colour used for buttons and highlights across the portal.
  • Lane branding — toggle whether a “Powered by Lane” footer link appears.

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Visibility

Controls what signed-in customers can see:
  • Personal (default) — customers only see requests they submitted.
  • Company — customers see all portal requests associated with their company.

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Status mapping

The portal uses four fixed status labels that your customers see — Open, Planned, In Progress, and Done. Each portal status maps to one or more of your internal Lane insight statuses:
  • Open — automatically maps to the triage status. This cannot be changed.
  • Planned, In Progress, Done — you choose which internal statuses map to each one.
Each portal status has a configurable colour. When your team moves an insight to a new status in Lane, the portal status updates automatically based on these mappings.

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Customer experience

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Signing in

Customers visit your portal URL and enter their email address. They receive a magic link email that’s valid for one hour. Clicking the link signs them in for 30 days — no password needed.

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Submitting requests

After signing in, customers click + New request in the top bar to submit a request with a title and description. They receive a confirmation email after submitting. On the Lane side, this creates an insight with source: Portal and a moderation status of pending. Lane also automatically resolves or creates a contact and account record for the customer.

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Tracking requests

The portal groups requests by status in the following order: In Progress, Planned, Under Review, Submitted, Shipped, and Declined. Customers can click any request to view its details or delete their own submissions. The sidebar shows an activity timeline of status changes and a completion counter.

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Profile

Customers can update their display name from the top-bar profile dropdown. Name changes are reflected on the associated Lane contact record.

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Best practices

  • Set clear portal status mappings before sharing the link. Customers see these labels, so make sure they reflect your actual workflow.
  • Use company visibility if you want customers at the same organization to see each other’s requests and avoid duplicates.
  • Customize the design to match your brand — updating the portal name, subtext, and primary colour makes the experience feel native.
  • Review portal submissions regularly. Since requests arrive as insights with source: Portal, you can filter your insights list to surface them quickly.

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FAQs

Q: Where do portal requests appear in Lane?
A: They appear under insights with source: Portal. You can filter your insights list by source to find them. Q: Can customers see internal discussions or notes?
A: No. The portal only shows the request title, description, submission date, and mapped portal status. Internal Lane data is not exposed. Q: What happens when I change an feedback’s status in Lane?
A: The portal status updates automatically based on your status mapping in Settings → Portal. Q: Can I disable the portal without losing data?
A: Yes. Toggling the portal off makes the URL inaccessible, but all existing requests and data remain in Lane as insights. Q: Do customers need a Lane account?
A: No. Portal users authenticate with a magic link tied to their email. They don’t need a Lane workspace account.