Workspaces & sync

Opening and registering workspaces

Click the workspace name (or Open workspace) in the header to open the workspace picker.

• Open a workspace by clicking its name.
• Register a workspace points DraftMesh at a folder you already have. In the desktop app that is a button — Add a folder — which opens your system’s folder picker. In a browser, which is not allowed to see real folder paths, it is a field: type the absolute path and click Register. Either way the folder’s markdown, HTML, and JSON files appear immediately — nothing is moved or converted.
• Unregister removes a workspace from DraftMesh’s list. The folder and its files are untouched — unregistering never deletes anything, and the dialog says so before you confirm.

A workspace someone shared a document with you from is listed too, marked Shared. You can read its documents; changing one still needs that document to have been shared with you.

Starting a workspace in the cloud

Using DraftMesh in a browser, with no folder of your own to point at, New workspace in the picker creates one in your account instead:

• Workspace name is all that’s required.
• Choose folder… optionally seeds it: your browser hands DraftMesh the documents in the folder you pick — up to 100 of them, skipping hidden folders and anything that isn’t a document. Each file that fails to upload is named rather than silently dropped, and the workspace is created either way.
• Sync to this folder on my computer is an optional hint. Your browser can’t tell DraftMesh where the folder you picked actually lives, so if you also run DraftMesh on that machine and want it to adopt that exact folder rather than downloading a copy, type the path here.

Create makes it, and it opens.

Getting a workspace onto another device

Under In your account, the picker lists workspaces in your account that this device doesn’t have, marked Not on this device. Download to this device asks which folder to put it in — give it an empty one — and Download materializes it there as real files.

Turning sync on

Each workspace has its own Sync on / Sync off toggle in the picker. Sync is opt-in per workspace: a workspace you never sync stays entirely on this device.

To sync you need to be signed in — click Log in in the header. Once signed in and a workspace’s sync is on:

• Changes save locally first, then sync to your account in the background. Working offline is always safe; DraftMesh catches up when you’re back.
• The header shows a Synced pill when everything is up to date, and a Sync now button to trigger a sync immediately.
• Workspaces synced to your account can be downloaded onto your other devices — they materialize into your Workspaces folder (set under ⚙ Settings).

If a sync can’t complete, the header says so honestly — for example “Sign in to sync”, “Can’t reach DraftMesh right now”, or “Already up to date”. Your local files are never blocked by a failed sync.

When two people change the same document

If a document changed both on your machine and in the cloud, DraftMesh merges the changes automatically when they don’t overlap. When they genuinely collide, nothing is lost and nothing is silently overwritten: the document is flagged as a conflict, and a guided panel shows both versions so you decide what the document should say. Until you resolve it, both versions are kept.

Inside the panel:

• Each conflicting passage offers Use your version, Use their version, Keep both, or Write custom text. Next unresolved jumps to the next passage still needing a choice.
• Use your version for all / Use their version for all set one answer across every passage in the document; individual passages can still be changed afterwards.
• Resolve conflict then restates, in plain language, exactly what your picks will do — “Your version will be used for 3 conflicts and their version for 2” — before Confirm resolve applies them.
• The choices stay pinned at the bottom of the panel while the passages scroll, so a long conflict never puts the buttons out of reach.

When several documents are in conflict at once, the list view offers Use your version everywhere / Use their version everywhere. It works through the documents one at a time, shows progress with a Stop button, and finishes with an honest tally — how many resolved, how many failed, and which were skipped because that choice wasn’t available for them. Documents already resolved stay resolved if you stop.

Resolving updates the file on disk, and both versions stay in history either way.

Sharing (signed in)

Signed in to DraftMesh in a browser, the document toolbar carries a Share button. Sharing is always one document at a time — there is no share-a-folder and no share-a-workspace.

• People — enter a Teammate email and a Capability: View, Comment, Suggest, or Edit. Sharing again with the same person changes their level rather than adding a second entry. DraftMesh emails nobody, so Copy link and send them the link yourself.
• Guest links — for someone with no DraftMesh account at all. Choose a Scope (Whole document or A section), a Capability, and an Expires — 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days. Create guest link mints it. A guest link can never carry Edit, and never lasts forever.
• Copy link on a selection (or from the selection menu’s Copy link) gives a teammate a deep link straight to that section. Share section… in the same menu goes further and issues a guest link scoped to just that section.

People and agents with access and Guest links below list what exists, each row with Revoke behind a confirmation. Revoking bites immediately.

Two things worth knowing before you try:

• Sharing is admin-only. The button is there for everyone, but DraftMesh refuses a grant from someone who isn’t an admin of the organization. Holding Edit on a document never lets you pass it on.
• A grant reaches further than the document. The person you share with gains the workspace in their list, badged Shared, and can read its other documents — but only read. Writing anywhere still needs a grant on that exact document.

Admins get an organization-wide view of all of this; see Admin: Access & sharing.