On your phone

Open DraftMesh in a phone browser and you get a layout built for a phone rather than a shrunken desktop window. It is a review surface: the work that arrives in bursts — sign-offs, replies, suggestions to accept or reject — done with a thumb, in a queue.

Long-form writing stays on the desktop layout. There is no rich-text editor here by design.

Getting the phone layout (or leaving it)

DraftMesh picks the layout from the width of your screen. An explicit choice overrides that, and is remembered on this device from then on:

• Me tab → Account → Use the desktop layout switches to the full app.
• To come back: in the desktop layout, Account menu → This device → Layout → Use the phone layout. (The entry appears when you’re on a phone-sized screen or you previously chose the desktop layout.)
• Adding ?surface=mobile or ?surface=desktop to the address forces one, and is likewise remembered until you change it.

Inbox — the things waiting on you

The Inbox is the home tab: everything in the open workspace that names you, newest first. An item lands here when someone asks you to sign off, assigns you a comment, mentions you, replies to a thread you started, or leaves you a question.

Below that incoming queue, Waiting on others lists the open sign-off requests, questions and suggestions that you started and somebody else still needs to answer. Its due dates and order match the workspace Home page. Open takes you to that exact item in the document; it never approves, accepts or nudges from the list. The section disappears at zero. It stays visible when you filter the incoming queue, and its rows do not change the header or Inbox badge count — those counts remain work addressed to you.

Release availability. The hosted web app includes this Waiting on others section and recent-workspace startup. Available in the local package from 0.3.18; check draftmesh --version and update with npm i -g draftmesh if yours is older. Older packages keep the no-history workspace fallback.

Filter chips across the top — All plus a chip per lane, Approvals, Questions, Comments, Suggestions — narrow the queue, and each chip carries its own count. Only lanes that actually hold something get a chip, and where one lane or fewer is non-empty the row is absent altogether: a filter that can say nothing is not shown. The row never scrolls sideways. A question that is unassigned but open is tagged Unanswered and shows up in the Questions lane — if you are reading the document, that question is asking you. The header’s N waiting and the badge on the Inbox tab are narrower: they count only work addressed to you, matching Home and the document’s Needs you count. Replies to your threads and unassigned questions stay in the queue without inflating that number.

Each card carries the same few things: who, in bold, with an AI badge where it applies; what they did, in words; how long ago; the document’s title rather than its path; two lines of the text itself, with code fences taken out so a fenced block never fills the card; and one action — Reply, Answer, Accept, or Review v41… naming the exact version. One card, one obvious next tap. A suggestion that lands here because it would change a document you signed off on also says where you stand on it — Would change what you approved on Sep 28, or Your approval from Sep 28 is already out of date. If you requested changes, the card names that decision instead. The desktop’s Waiting on you rows use the same wording. An older host that does not report freshness shows the date of your decision without claiming whether it is current.

A sign-off card’s one action, Review v41…, opens the document with the sign-off strip at the top, and tapping the card does the same. The strip also appears, with no request behind it, when your own decision on the document is out of date — Your approval of v37 no longer covers v41, or Edited since you requested changes on v37 — and its button then reads See changes since v37, opening the comparison described below.

Between the document’s title and the text, a sign-off card carries one more line: the version in hand, and where you already stand on it — v41 · you last approved v37. Both halves are dropped rather than guessed. Where the version can’t be numbered with certainty the card says Review… with no number at all, and where you have never signed this document off the second half is simply absent.

Under the queue, anything you’ve acted on but DraftMesh hasn’t yet accepted sits under Sending, with a plain dot. It moves to Done today, the receipt strip of what you’ve already cleared, only once the server has answered: a tick means the write actually landed, and anything that failed says so in words rather than pretending it went through.

A plain Reply clears a card only when it hands the ball back — a thread you were mentioned in, or one where someone answered you. A question, comment or sign-off request assigned to you stays in the queue after you reply to it, with Reply sent — still waiting on you, because saying something is not doing what was asked: Answer (or resolving it) is what clears it. Your desktop counts it the same way, so the two never disagree about how much is waiting.

The header you keep

One header sits above Inbox, Docs and Search alike and does not move between them: the workspace name, which you tap to switch workspaces, and under it a line saying whether the workspace is synced and how much is waiting on you. Me is the exception — it has a header of its own, named Me. The queue, the file list and the search are always the open workspace’s.

Nothing is sent the instant you tap

Every action except Add photo (below) is queued rather than sent straight away, and the ones you’re most likely to regret — Approve, a reply, a new comment, Request changes — sit for about five seconds behind an Undo button in a toast that says what is being sent, such as Sending answer…. Undo inside that window is a local drop: the write never happened at all. The confirmation, such as “Answer sent”, appears only after the server has accepted the write; if it refuses, you see why instead.

The deliberate endings — resolving a thread, accepting or rejecting a suggestion, sending a suggestion of your own — go without the undo window, because each of them is already the confirming tap. Adding a photo isn’t queued at all: it’s saved the moment you choose the photo, with no Undo.

Leaving the screen, taking another action, or backgrounding the browser sends a queued action immediately rather than waiting out the timer. If a send fails, the item comes back into your queue with a Retry — nothing is quietly lost, and the Done today strip says “didn’t send” rather than showing a tick.

Reviewing a sign-off request

Tapping an approval item opens the document, and the sign-off strip’s Review v41… opens the decision sheet, whose See changes since v37 (or See what changed, when there is no earlier version of yours to number) opens the review screen described here. It shows what changed since your last decision on this document rather than the whole file again — with the version you’re comparing against named in the band at the top, and the decision you made on it, approved or requested changes. Your first sign-off on a document shows it in full, as does a document too large to compare change by change; the screen says which of those you’re looking at.

• Approve records the decision at once, pinned to the version named in the band. On this screen there is no note on Approve — to add one, approve from the document’s decision sheet, whose Approve takes an optional note, or decide on the desktop.
• Request changes opens a sheet for a note explaining what should change first.

If the document moved underneath you between opening it and deciding, DraftMesh refuses the decision rather than attaching your name to a version you weren’t shown.

Who may decide here is exactly who may decide on the desktop: anyone with edit on the document, and anyone an open request names by identity — picked from the list, sent by someone else — whatever level they hold, with the same limits the desktop page describes; the decision sheet and the review screen then say You were asked to sign off on this document above the buttons. Below edit with no such request (a request typed as a bare name counts as none), the buttons are replaced by the reason and the next step: for a request typed as your name, ask the sender to send it again, picked from the list, so it reaches your account; for a request you sent yourself, or when your level is the obstacle, ask for edit access; for an auditor, nothing a grant can change.

Reviewing a suggestion

A suggestion item shows who suggested it and the suggester’s reason first, then the proposed change against the current text, with Accept edit and Reject. The change is shown rendered; switch to Source to see the exact markdown. If the text a suggestion anchored to has changed too much to apply automatically, the screen says so instead of guessing.

In a Memory workspace, the Inbox also has a Proposed memories section. Open an entry to read it, then choose Accept or Reject. You need edit access to decide. These decisions send immediately: Accept moves the entry into live memory; Reject removes the proposal, with history kept. A failed decision stays on screen so you can retry.

Phone review is available in the local package from 0.3.15; check draftmesh --version and update with npm i -g draftmesh if yours is older. Older packages still require the desktop Memory landing page for these decisions.

Replying to a comment

Tapping a comment or question opens the thread sheet: the whole discussion, a composer, and Resolve. Quick-reply chips offer the common answer for that kind of marker — they fill the composer rather than sending, so nothing goes out over your name that you didn’t read first. Type @ to mention someone.

Resolve is disabled while you have text in the composer: resolving is not a place for a reply to disappear into.

Answering a question

A question that carries choices shows each choice as a tappable chip. Tap one to Answer with that choice — it resolves the question immediately, and after a five-second undo window the question is marked Answered by you. Those choices replace the generic quick-reply chips, and Resolve is not offered while the question is unanswered — answering is what resolves it. If the question has no choices, or if you want to say something more, use the composer to Reply (which keeps the question open) or Answer with a typed response (which closes it).

If you want to push back — the answer given wasn’t the right call — Reopen lifts the resolved state and re-opens discussion.

Reading a document

Open a document from the Docs tab or Search. (Sign-off items in the Inbox open the document; other Inbox items open their thread or review screen.) The reader’s header carries a back button named for where you came from, the file’s path with its version, the document’s title, an N open pill that opens the thread list, and a ⋯ with Comment on this document, Sign off on this version, Add photo…, Ask for sign-off…, Share…, Copy link and Open on desktop. Ask for sign-off… and Share… appear exactly where the desktop’s ⋯ offers them for that document: asking is for someone who can edit it, and Share… — on DraftMesh cloud only — for its owner or an admin (an auditor sees it read-only). Ask for sign-off… opens a sheet with the desktop’s fields — the people to ask, an optional note, and an optional Due by day — and sends the same request. Share… opens the desktop’s own Share panel, full height: an email address, a capability and Share, with a line saying what the share will give; Share with a group instead and Guest links as sections that open on a tap (guest links start open when they are all a personal account can share); and Workspace access…, which opens the whole-workspace view with ‹ Back to this document. Its How sharing works link opens the public DraftMesh docs in your browser, since the phone has no guide. A sign-off request with a due day shows Due … or Overdue · was due … on its card in the thread list. A sign-off strip appears above the prose only when someone asked you to sign off or your own approval is out of date. The prose renders with existing comments and suggestions highlighted in place; tapping a highlight opens its thread — or, for a suggestion, the accept/reject screen above.

Select any passage and a bar appears above the tab bar with Comment and Suggest.

In a workspace you own, administer or have whole-workspace edit access to, you can add a photo to a markdown (.md) document: Add photo… in the ⋯ puts it at the end, and Photo in the selection bar puts it after the passage you selected. Edit access to just one document does not include its image folder, so that share does not offer photo uploads. Workspace editors need a host that reports this eligibility. Available in the local package from 0.3.18; check draftmesh --version and update with npm i -g draftmesh if yours is older. The photo goes in straight away, with no Undo. A camera photo (JPEG, or an iPhone HEIC photo) is re-saved as a JPEG without its location data, and shrunk if it’s large; a PNG, GIF or WebP image is added as it is unless it’s too large. The text itself stays read-only here.

Links in the prose work as they do on the desktop: a reference to another document in the workspace, or to a GitHub issue, is tappable, and a document link opens that document right here in the app, with the back button returning you to where you were.

Docs and Search

• Docs browses the workspace as folders and files, with a short list at the top: the most recently edited documents where DraftMesh knows edit times, otherwise anything waiting on you followed by A–Z. The heading over the list says which of those you’re getting. Each row carries three lines — the document’s title, its path, and a short state line saying when it was last edited and how many comments are open on it — so you can tell a document that needs you from one that doesn’t without opening it. A row drops the state line rather than guessing at it.
• Search starts with your five most recent documents, so the screen is useful before you type. Typing matches file names straight away, under Names · N. From the third character it also searches the text inside documents on its own — no second tap — and says which stage it is at: “Type one more character to search inside documents.” at two characters, “Searching inside documents…” while it runs, then In documents · N with the matching words highlighted in each snippet.
• Me leads with who you are — name, email, and a line naming the kind of account it is. Workspaces lists the one you have open, with its document count and sync state and marked Current, then your recent workspaces, then All workspaces (N). On an ordinary return, the phone reopens the workspace you used most recently in this browser when it is still available here; a link or setup return keeps control of where you land. Agents is one row saying how many are connected — “N connected” with their names, or “None connected” — on a DraftMesh running on your own machine, where the app can see that machine’s configuration. Account holds Report a bug or share feedback…, Email support@draftmesh.com, Use the desktop layout, and Sign out, which asks you to confirm in place before it goes through. Signed-out cloud visitors use Sign in. There is no user guide on the phone: this guide lives in the desktop layout, under your avatar → Help & user guide.
• Admins and auditors can read Plan & billing status here and use Copy link to Administration to open the console on a computer. Admins also see Organization at a glance: seats, pending invitations, and a lapsed or past-due warning when applicable. Members do not see a standing plan or billing entry. Billing changes remain on the desktop layout.
• On a cloud account, Agents & tokens replaces that count with a status row; tap it to change whether connected agents may accept or reject suggestions as you (with confirmation before turning it on). API tokens and assistant setup are on a computer.
• Report a bug or share feedback… opens a short form; Email support@draftmesh.com writes to the same people from your own mail app.