Working with your channels

Guidance for people using synoia, not a description of the build. It covers finding your way around, where your channel lives and when you need to sign in, how to work offline without making a mess, how to stop syncing a channel and rejoin it later, who is in a channel, how teams give access and what a guest reaches, starting a channel from a template, links between channels, renaming and moving with former names, channels open by request, the knowledge atlas, what counts towards your workspace's storage, connecting your AI and switching it off for a channel, why an offline AI is the case to be careful about, how to treat documents at different stages of their life, and what read-only actually means here.

Each workspace has its own colour. Inside it, its tile, the channel you have open, links, checkboxes and the main buttons take that colour, so you can tell at a glance which workspace you are working in. Owners and admins choose it from eight, in Workspace settings in the app or online, beside the icon, or when they create the workspace in the app. Until someone chooses, it is Violet.

Finding your way around

Each workspace has its own profile for you: the name, job title and photo its people see. You can be "Director" in one and "Associate" in another. Change yours from Profile in that menu, or online at "Your profile in <workspace>". Nobody outside the workspace sees it, and it goes when you leave. Your sign-in, the email address, is the same everywhere on the server.

A workspace's owners and admins change its name, icon, colour and accent in the app (click the workspace's name, then Workspace settings, Overview) or online, under Settings. Icons and photos are square PNG, JPEG or WebP pictures of at most 1 MB; the app and the pages crop a picture to its centre and shrink it for you before it is saved, and nothing else about the picture, such as where it was taken, is kept.

The knowledge atlas

The knowledge atlas is a map of everything you can open. Open it with ⌘G (Ctrl+G on Windows and Linux) or the map button at the top right of the window. It starts with your workspaces, your own in the middle. Click a circle to see what it holds and where it links; double-click, or choose Go in, to step down a rung, from a workspace to its channels, then folders, then notes. Back steps out again the way you came, and the trail at the top shows where you are.

The arrow keys move between circles, Enter goes in and Escape comes out, so the atlas works from the keyboard alone. The same place is also given as a list, below the map, for a screen reader or for reading at a glance. Work and Personal show one kind of workspace at a time, and All shows both.

A channel you may ask to join is drawn dashed, with its name and nothing inside it: choose Request access to ask. A channel that is not on this computer shows its name and offers to download it (Download it). This section will be revised after the pilot.

Starting a channel from a template

Press + in the channel column, or Create a new channel in a workspace with no channels yet. Create a channel in <workspace> offers two ways in: From a folder (see "Bringing in a folder you already have" below) and From a template.

From a template opens a gallery. It groups templates under Start simply, Just for me, Study, Work and research and Clubs and communities. Each says who it is for, what you get and the folders it makes, and every one of them is ready to use. Blank is always there. Choose one, then the second step, Name it and choose where it lives, asks for the channel's name, the workspace that owns it (it keeps the channel if you leave) and where it goes on this computer (Change… picks another folder). Nothing is made until you press Create channel; Cancel, Escape or a click outside the box leave nothing behind.

• Blank gives you the essentials: a Home page, Getting Started, an Inbox, Templates, Attachments, a Setup folder and an AGENTS.md.
• Any other template gives you the structure it describes, in the folders it names, on top of the same essentials.

The channel opens on its Home page and is ready to use without any AI. Every folder has a Guide saying what belongs in it and how to write it, and Templates/ has a note template for each kind of note. To start a note from one, copy the template into a new note in the right folder and fill in the blanks.

When you want an AI to help, open Setup/Connect your AI. It says how to connect your AI tool to synoia and gives one prompt to paste. The AI reads the channel's rules, asks you a few questions, shows you each change before it makes it, and records what it changed in Setup/Setup Record.

Bringing in a folder you already have

Before anything is made, the box says how many notes and pictures and PDFs go up to the channel and how large they are (.txt, .html, .canvas, .base, .json, .yaml, .yml, .css, .js, .mjs and .jsx files go up as notes, and fonts, icons and office files are counted with the pictures), which files stay on this computer and do not sync (other kinds, such as .mp4 or .zip files, notes over 10 MB, files over 20 MB and links to other places), and which folders stay (dot folders such as .obsidian and .trash, and build, dist, target, vendor, venv, node_modules and __pycache__). Each row says what will happen to its folder:

• Stays where it is, for a folder already inside the workspace's folder.
• Moves into the workspace, for a folder somewhere else on your computer. A shortcut is left at the old place, nothing is deleted, and until the channel's first upload finishes you can press Move it back.
• Copied in, for a folder kept by iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Obsidian Sync or git. The original is not touched and is no longer connected to the channel.

When you press Create N channels and confirm, each folder becomes a channel and its notes, folders and pictures sync from there to the people you share the channel with and to your other computers. If one folder fails, the others carry on, and its row offers Try again. The app adds its own .context folder beside your notes. Obsidian's .obsidian folder, and any other folder whose name starts with a dot, stays as it is and does not sync.

The app will not bring in a folder that already belongs to a channel, a folder inside another channel's folder or holding one at any depth, the folder your channels live in, your home folder, the top of a disk or network share, a folder it cannot read, or a folder whose own .context folder some other tool made. For now it also brings in no more than 5,000 notes, or 2 GB of notes, pictures and PDFs, at once, and a folder with more than 20,000 files and folders in it is too large to check. It says which, and makes nothing. If you pick a link to a folder, the folder it points to is brought in, and the box shows its real place. If something goes wrong before the channel is made, nothing of the app's is left in the folder; once the channel is made, it is deleted again while it is still empty. Either way your notes are left exactly as they were.

A folder you brought in stays your own. When you delete its channel, "Also move this computer's copy to the Bin" starts unticked, and the box says it is your own folder. If you leave the workspace, it stays where it is as a plain folder that no longer syncs.

A folder that is on this computer only says so at the top of the channel column: On this computer only, not linked to a workspace, with Link to a workspace. In its settings, under General, Turn on sync… opens Create a channel with that folder chosen, so you choose which workspace it goes to. It is never added to a workspace without asking. A folder you stopped syncing earlier rejoins its own channel instead (see "Stopping sync for a channel").

Which files sync

Every computer that shares a channel should be on synoia 0.2.3 or later. An older version keeps the file types it was built with: it never receives a type added since, it keeps its copies of a type switched off, and the server refuses any change or delete it makes to a type off your workspace's list.

Obsidian Bases

A Base (a .base file made in Obsidian, or a ``` `base `` block in a note) is a live list of notes. synoia shows it where Obsidian does: embedded in a note with ![[Name.base#View]]`, in a block, or opened on its own, with its views as tabs. It reads the Base's filters, formulas, sorting, grouping and summaries, and draws it as a table, a list, cards, a kanban board or a map. It is read-only: to change a Base, open it and choose Source, or change it in Obsidian.

A Base lists only notes that are on this computer in this channel, which are the notes you can open. If it asks for something synoia cannot work out, it leaves that part out and says so in a line under the view; it never shows a list it is unsure of. A Base that would take too long or build too much is stopped, and says so, without affecting the rest of the note.

Pictures in a Base (a card's cover, image()) are shown only from files in this channel. A picture from a web address is never loaded: the Base says "image not shown: web address".

What leaves your computer when a map is shown. A map view can draw its places on OpenStreetMap's map. This is the one time synoia contacts someone other than your workspace's server because of what is in a note. Each map shown sends OpenStreetMap your computer's IP address and the position of the area on screen: which map squares ("tiles"), at what zoom, with the app's name and version. It never sends a note, a note's name or a place's name. The OpenStreetMap Foundation, which runs tile.openstreetmap.org, can therefore see which areas you look at, as it could if you opened the same area on openstreetmap.org.

So a map waits until you ask. A map view shows its places as a list with a Show map (from OpenStreetMap) button, and nothing is sent until you press it; pressing it loads that map only, and it stays open while you work in the note. App settings, Appearance, Maps from OpenStreetMap chooses: Ask each time (the default), Always show (maps load when they come into view) or Never (the list only, no button). The line beside the setting says what is sent.

Tiles are kept on this computer for at least a week, so looking at the same area again sends nothing. The app never downloads maps in advance and asks for at most two squares at once. If OpenStreetMap asks it to wait, it waits, and asks for nothing more until then. If the map server cannot be reached, the Base lists its places with their coordinates instead.

Where your channel lives, and when you need to sign in

A workspace has one folder on your computer, chosen when you join or create the workspace, and every channel you join or create in it is a folder inside that one. The app proposes a folder named after the workspace in your home folder (with "(guest)" after the name for a workspace you are a guest in), rather than in Documents. Each channel's folder is named as the channel is named. Documents is often kept by iCloud Drive or OneDrive, and a channel inside a file-sync service can have its index copied underneath the app while it is running, which damages it. If a channel is kept by iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive, the app tells you when it opens and in the channel's settings. It does not stop you. Channels you already have stay where they are.

Removing and deleting a channel

In App settings, under Workspaces and channels, each channel has two ways to go:

• Remove from this computer takes the channel off this computer only. Its folder stays where it is, the channel stays on the server, and everyone keeps their access, you included. It stays in your lists as "Not on this computer", with Download to bring it back to a folder you choose.
• Delete deletes the channel for everyone in the workspace, and only an owner or admin can, or the person who made it while it is still empty. Everyone else's copy stays on their computer as a plain folder that no longer syncs, and they are told where it is. Your own copy goes to the Bin, unless you untick that. A folder you brought in starts unticked (see "Bringing in a folder you already have").

Deleting the whole workspace is at the foot of its section, under Danger zone, and asks you to type its name.

The Bin is never offered for a folder that holds more than one channel, or for one that sits inside another channel's folder: moving it would take that other channel's notes with it.

Links between channels

A link can reach a note in another channel. Write it as a path, such as [[Engagements/Kestrel/Brief]], and synoia matches it from the end: the note's name must match, and so must as much of the path in front of it as you wrote. It looks in your own channel first, then in the other channels of the workspace, and in another workspace only when the link names it. If two notes fit the link equally well, synoia offers you the choice and never guesses. A link to a note in a channel you cannot open looks the same as a link to a note that is not there: it tells you nothing about what is behind it.

Renaming, moving and former names

Renaming a channel is for the workspace's owners and admins, and for people with Full access to the channel: Channel settings, General, Name. Everyone who reaches the channel sees the new name. Channel names are unique in a workspace: only one channel can have a name, so a rename to a name another channel holds is refused.

An old link still works after a rename or a move. synoia keeps a note's, a folder's and a channel's former names, so a link written to the old name opens the same place. If a former name says something it should not, such as a person's name, you can forget the old name: in Channel settings, General, under Former names, type it and choose Forget it. Links that use it stop working. Forget every former name forgets them all at once.

In a channel's settings, under General, Rename changes the channel's name for everyone who reaches it. Channel names are kept as you type them, so a channel named "Client work" lives in a folder named Client work, in the same case, with its spaces. Renaming a channel does not rename its folder unasked: the app offers to rename the folder to match, and Keep the old name leaves it as it is. In General you can also choose Rename folder… at any time. The channel is closed for a moment while its folder is renamed, and opens again where it now is. Nothing is sent or downloaded again.

If a folder of that name is already there, or the folder cannot be renamed (another app has it open, for example), the folder keeps its old name. The channel is renamed all the same, and the app says why its folder was not.

On a teammate's computer the offer is made too. When they have the channel open, the app asks once, "Rename this folder to match?", with Rename and Keep the old name, as long as the folder still carries the name the app gave it. A folder someone named themselves is never asked about. If they keep the old name, the app does not ask again unless the channel is renamed once more. Everywhere the app names a channel, it uses the name as it was typed; the folder's own name appears only where its path is shown.

Deleting and moving files on disk

A channel is an ordinary folder. You, or your AI, can tidy it with Finder, Explorer, the shell or any file tool, and synoia follows what you did, as Obsidian does (since 0.5.0).

• Deleting a note, a picture or a folder on disk deletes it from the channel for everyone, however many you delete at once. This works with the app open or closed: a delete made while it was closed is applied the next time it opens.
• Moving or renaming a note or a folder on disk moves it for everyone. A moved note keeps its history and the links to it, and nothing is left at the old place.
• Every deleted note is kept in the channel's trash on this computer (other computers move their own copies to their trash), in the hidden .context/trash folder inside the channel's folder, one folder per delete, named by the date and time.
• When ten or more go at once, the app says how many were deleted for everyone, with How to get them back, which opens that delete's folder in the trash.

Getting files back

• One or a few notes: open the trash folder, copy the text of the note you want, and paste it into a new note. Do not move the file back out of .context/trash: it would come back as a new note, without its history.
• Many notes or a whole folder: an owner or admin of the channel can revert it to a checkpoint from before the delete, in Channel settings, History. That brings back notes, folders and the pictures that went with a folder, for everyone, and takes a checkpoint of the current state first, so it can be undone too.

When nothing is deleted

Some things look like a big delete but are not one. synoia recognises these and deletes nothing for anyone; it puts the files back and tells you why:

• the channel's folder cannot be found or read, or the drive it is on is not connected;
• the channel's .context folder has gone;
• the channel is inside a git repository and its commit changed: you switched branch, or pulled or reset (the files come back as files git does not know about; delete them again if you meant to);
• a cloud service (iCloud Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) took a file off your computer to save space, rather than deleting it.

Anything else that removes files from the folder is a delete. A script that deletes files by mistake deletes them for everyone, and so does unticking a folder in Dropbox's selective sync or unlinking OneDrive; get them back from the trash or a checkpoint as above.

A folder deleted on disk stays in the channel if someone added a note, picture or folder to it while you were deleting it. Nothing of theirs is lost.

Working offline

When you reconnect, what you wrote offline is sent, and every device ends up with the same document. You will never be asked to resolve a conflict by hand.

That is not the same as the result being what you wanted. Live editing merges automatically, and offline edits are replayed in a consistent order so every device ends up with the same document. What the system guarantees is that everyone converges on one document, not that the merged document reads well. Two people who rewrote the same paragraph in different directions get both rewrites, interleaved.

So when you are going offline for a while and expect to do substantial work:

• Write into a note of your own, a working note or a handoff note, rather than straight into a shared document somebody else may also be changing.
• Merge it deliberately when you are back online, reading both sides as you go.

This is a habit, not a feature. It sidesteps the messy case rather than asking the merge to be cleverer than it can be. For a short edit to a document nobody else is touching, just edit it.

Version history is there for the times this goes wrong. It is worth knowing where it is before you need it.

Stopping sync for a channel

In a channel's settings, under General, Stop syncing this channel keeps the channel on this computer as a local channel. The folder and its notes stay where they are, and the app names it On this Mac ("On this computer" on Windows and Linux), with the note On this computer only, not linked to a workspace. Nothing changes for anyone else. The workspace's copy stays as it is, and so does everyone's access to it, yours included. From then on, what you write here stays here.

The folder remembers which channel it came from. When you turn sync back on, the app offers to rejoin that channel rather than make a second one. Rejoining sends what you changed here, in the app or in another app, and brings in what others changed meanwhile. It merges the way coming back online does, so the advice above applies. A note you deleted here is deleted from the workspace's copy too, and the app keeps a copy of it on this computer. If someone changed that note in the meantime, or renamed or moved it, it is not deleted: it comes back with their changes, and the app tells you which notes came back.

Only a folder you stopped syncing on this computer is rejoined with one press. A folder that says it came from a channel but was not disconnected here, a copy someone sent you for example, is reviewed first: the app names the channel and shows how many notes would be added, changed and deleted. Nothing is deleted unless you tick it.

If your access became view-only while you were disconnected, your edits cannot be sent. They stay on this computer, and the app says so.

If you can no longer reach the channel, because your access was removed or the channel was deleted, or it is on a different server, turning sync on makes a new channel in the workspace you choose. The app says why before you press anything.

If you lose access to a channel, this computer's copy is kept as a plain folder that no longer syncs. If you are given access again, Download (or a click on the channel) opens that same folder, with no second copy beside it, and shows you what rejoining would do before anything is sent: every note, folder and picture that would be added, by name, the number that would be changed, and the notes and pictures the channel has that the folder no longer does. Nothing is deleted from the channel unless you tick it, and any note or picture you want to keep to yourself can be moved out of the folder before you press Rejoin. Rejoin sends only what the review showed: if something new has appeared in the folder since, it stops, sends nothing, and shows the review again.

Who is in a channel, teams and guests

Open a channel's settings and choose Who can open it. If you run the channel (you have Full access to it, or you are an owner or admin of the workspace), you can change who reaches it and each folder and note in it. If you do not, you see Who is in this channel: everyone given the whole channel, and at what level, with nothing to change. You see names only.

Teams are groups of people in your workspace. Owners and admins make them online, under Teams in the workspace's admin, and decide who is in each one. There is no team lead. Share a channel with a team from Manage access online, or give a team a folder or a note from the Who can open it page, the same way you give it to a person. Everyone in the team gets that access, and loses it when they leave the team. If you reach something by more than one route, the highest level wins: a team that can view a channel and another that can edit it give you edit. To hold one person lower, lock or block them by name.

Deleting a team ends everything that was shared with it at once. Online, the confirmation names the channels that lose the team's access. Nobody keeps access that came only through the team, and nobody leaves the workspace.

Handing over a workspace. An owner can make someone else an owner online, from People. Once there is another owner, you can step down or leave. A workspace always keeps at least one owner. When someone leaves or is removed, the channels they made stay with the workspace; where nobody else has Full access to one, it passes to the owners.

Guests. Someone from outside your workspace can be invited as a guest to one channel, folder or note, at Can view or Can edit. Owners and admins invite them: online, from a channel's Manage access ("Invite a guest by email"), or in the app, under Who can open it, for the whole channel, a folder or a note. The invitation is a link that lasts 5 days and works once, for the address it names; synoia emails it to them, and shows the link to copy too. On a server that sends no email, send them the link yourself. A guest reaches only what has been shared with them by name: nothing shared with everyone in the workspace, and nothing given to a team. They do not see who else is in the workspace, change nobody's access and make no channels. In the app, their workspace's tile and their profile carry a small Guest mark. When the last thing shared with a guest is taken away, they leave the workspace on their own. Owners and admins see every guest online, under Guests, with what each can reach and who invited them, and can remove any of them, which ends all their access at once.

If a guest should join your workspace itself, an owner or admin chooses Make a member beside them on Guests and confirms. They become a member, never straight into an admin or an owner; choose an admin later from the members on People. What was shared with them by name stays shared. A guest invited to a channel set Private reaches it by name; making them a member adds nothing more of that channel.

Public links and blocks. If a note has a public link and someone then blocks a person from it, sets it or a folder above it to Private, or sets the whole channel to Private, the link stops showing the note. Lift the block and it shows again. An owner or admin who publishes the note again decides to publish it over the block.

Channels open by request

Some channels are open by request. You can see such a channel's name, its description and who is in it, but nothing inside it. To join, find it on the knowledge atlas, choose Request access and add a short note if you like. The people with Full access to the channel decide: they give you access, or decline, and you see the answer in the app. A request does not let you in until someone gives you access.

The description is written by a person in the channel, and shown only after they confirm it, never by AI. A guest does not see channels open by request at all.

Where pictures live, and who sees them

Pictures live in folders, like notes. Who can see a picture is who could see a note in the same folder, written by the person who added the picture. Nothing else decides it: not the notes that show it, not who wrote them.

• Paste or drop a picture onto a note and it is saved in a folder called attachments beside the note, with a name made from the picture itself. The note shows it from there. Everyone who can read the note's folder can see it.
• Pictures you already keep in your folders sync with those folders, from the first time you open the channel with this version. Anyone who can read a folder sees the pictures in it. Before this version they stayed on your computer.
• A note that shows a picture from another folder shows a broken picture to anyone who cannot read that folder, the same as a link to a note they cannot open.
• To keep a picture from someone, keep it in a folder they cannot read. Sharing one note, setting one note Private or blocking someone from one note does not reach the pictures beside it. A guest invited to one note does not see them.
• A picture you add is yours in the way a note you write is: you keep it while you can still reach the channel, even in a folder shared with you no longer. Making a folder does not give you the pictures other people put in it, just as it does not give you their notes.
• A picture in a folder you can only read, put there on your computer, stays on your computer.
• Deleting a picture deletes it for everyone, if you can edit it; it goes to the channel's trash (.context/trash) on every other computer. Deleting a folder deletes its pictures with it, and reverting the channel to a checkpoint from before brings the folder back with its pictures.
• Moving a folder into another folder needs edit on everything in it, pictures included, because everything in it takes the new folder's access. Renaming it where it is needs only edit on the folder.
• Pictures deleted on your computer are deleted for everyone, however many at once (since 0.5.0). The exceptions are the accidents in "Deleting and moving files on disk" below: then nothing is deleted, and the app puts them back and tells you why.
• A public link shows the pictures that were in the note when you published it. Pictures added to the note later, by you or anyone who can edit it, are not shown until someone who manages the link chooses Update public link in the share menu, which says when there are new ones. It first shows the pictures it would add and take off, with their folders, and publishes only the pictures that person can see.
• Pasting into a private note. If a note is private, or someone is blocked from it, the app asks before it saves a picture into it, and names the folder: the picture follows the folder, so everyone who can see the folder can see it. Choose Cancel to save nothing. The note's Who can open it page says the same.
• Pictures pasted before this version were saved in attachments at the top of the channel, where everyone who can see the top of the channel can see them. The first time a channel opens on this version, its owners and admins are offered a list of those shown only in folders fewer people can see, to move beside their notes. Nothing moves unless they choose it; Check pictures in Channel settings shows the list again.
• If two people change the same picture at once, or both add one of the same name, nothing is overwritten: each keeps theirs, and renaming the file is how you keep both.
• Pictures (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, SVG, AVIF) and PDFs only, up to 20 MB each. A larger one stays on your computer, and the app tells you so.

If you use Obsidian on the same folder, set its "Default location for new attachments" to "In subfolder under current folder" with the folder name attachments. That is what the app does, so a picture you paste in either lands beside its note and has that folder's readers. Obsidian's own default, the top of the folder, puts every picture in the root, where everyone who can read the root sees it.

Your workspace's storage

Each plan comes with an amount of storage for the workspace. What counts is the text of your notes and your pictures and PDFs. Version history, deleted notes and pictures, the search index and the sync engine's own records do not count, so saving a note fifty times costs the same as saving it once.

• Owners and admins see how much is used on the workspace's settings page online, and in the app, which shows a quiet strip above the note at 80%, 90% and 100%. Dismiss it and it stays away until usage reaches the next level.
• At 100%, new pictures and PDFs are not added. Notes stay editable, up to 110%.
• Past 110%, no new note is added, in the app or through an AI connector. Everything you already have stays: you can read, edit, export and delete as before, and so can your AI. Editing a note that exists is never refused.
• Deleting pictures or notes makes room straight away. An owner can also move the workspace to a larger plan.
• The pilot has no storage limit. Its storage is still counted and shown.

Connecting your AI, and switching it off for a channel

Some channels should stay out of AI altogether, and some people want to leave a channel out of their own AI. Both are in the channel's settings (the gear beside its name), under AI:

• AI can reach this channel is one switch for everyone who can open the channel, guests included. The workspace's owners and admins, and anyone with Full access to the channel, can change it. Everyone else sees whether it is On or Off.
• My AI can reach this channel is yours alone. Switch it off to leave the channel out of your own AI without changing anything for anyone else. You can only narrow what your AI reaches, never switch on what someone else has switched off. While AI is off for everyone, your row is fixed off and says why; your own choice is kept, and comes back when the channel's AI is switched on again.

What changes when AI is off:

• It works straight away. Every call your AI makes is checked against the switches. The next call after a change is refused; nobody needs to reconnect.
• The AI no longer sees the channel. It is left out of the channels your AI is given. If the AI names it anyway, it is told "AI is switched off for this channel." or, if you left it out yourself, "You have left this channel out of your AI." Someone who cannot open the channel is told what they would be told about a channel that does not exist, so the answer never confirms it is there.
• A refused change is recorded, as every change through the connector is.
• Nothing else changes. People open, edit and sync the channel in the app as before.

A channel with AI off for everyone says so: its hover card reads "AI: off for everyone", and when the channel column shows names (Show channel names), a small "AI off" sits beside its name.

What it cannot do. The switch stops AI connectors reaching the channel through synoia. It cannot stop an app on someone's own computer opening their synced copy of the channel's files, an offline AI included (see the next section).

A channel that lives only on this computer is not on the server, so no connector reaches it; its AI page is locked until you turn on sync.

New channels start with AI on. A workspace's owners and admins can change that from the workspace's name at the top of the channel column, Workspace settings, Channels: AI can reach new channels. It applies to channels made from then on and changes none that already exist.

A workspace also has a default for who can open a new channel: open, read-only, by request or private. A channel is private unless the default says otherwise, and the default is private until an owner or admin changes it. When you make a channel, the dialog starts on the default and you can choose another.

The case to be careful about: an offline AI

A person editing offline makes a handful of considered changes. An AI editing offline can restructure a document, rewrite whole sections and touch dozens of paragraphs in a single pass.

If two people each have an offline AI reworking the same document, what comes back is not a scrambled sentence. It is two large rewrites interleaved into something genuinely incoherent, and the merge will preserve all of it faithfully. The volume is what makes this worse than the human case, not the intent.

An offline AI should work into its own note, never directly onto a shared live document.

The app already steers you the safe way. The AI connector is online only, so an AI working through it is always editing the live, synced document and there is no offline merge to go wrong. The risk arrives when someone points a local, offline AI straight at the files on disk, outside the connector. That is the workaround this warning is about.

One thing the app does catch: if another program saves a note at the moment the app is saving it, the app notices, reads what the other program saved, and writes the two together rather than writing over it. There is still a sliver of a moment where two saves can collide, far smaller than it was, so the advice above stands.

An edit another program makes to a note, or to any text file of a type the workspace syncs, is sent like an edit made in the app: within a few seconds while the app is open, and at the next launch if the app was closed. At launch the app looks for files changed since it was last open on this computer, so two edits are not caught then. One is a file whose modified time goes backwards, for example a tool that puts back an older time; it is caught when the note is opened or the file is edited again while the app is open. The other is an edit made before the app has once been opened with this version, as there is no earlier time to compare it with. A file the app cannot read as text is shown as not sent, and tried again.

Documents have stages, and the stage decides how you work

Not every document wants the same treatment.

Living knowledge. Notes the team edits freely: meeting notes, research, drafts, anything still forming. Edit directly. This is most of a channel.

Working notes and handoff notes. Yours. They are where proposed changes are drafted before they go anywhere, and where an AI should work.

Referenced or published documents. A strategy, a standard, a signed-off process. One owner, who is the only person who edits it. Everyone else reads it. The way to influence it is to write a supplementary note and hand it to the owner, who considers it at the next review. Changes arrive in batches on a review cycle rather than dribbling in.

The last one is worth being deliberate about. A published document that quietly keeps changing is not published; it is a draft that people have stopped checking. If a document has become something the team relies on, give it an owner and make it read-only for everyone else.

Read-only, and what enforces it

Read-only is an access control, not an honour system.

In Who can open it, setting a note or folder to Read-only caps everyone at reading, including you. It applies to owners and admins, which is what lets you check it from the seat you set it from. You can also set one person to read-only while the rest of the team keeps editing.

What matters for an AI: a read-only document cannot be written by the connector either. The connector signs in as a person and gets that person's access, never more, and less in a channel where AI is switched off, resolved on every single call. An AI acting for somebody who can only read a document is not trusted to decline the write; it is refused by the server, through the same check that refuses a human edit. Its best move is then the right one, which is to leave a handoff note for the owner.

Every change an AI makes through the connector is recorded, naming you and the connection it came through. To change a note that already exists, the AI has to have read it first: if the note changed in between, for example because a colleague edited it, the change is refused and the AI is told to read it again. That is what stops an AI quietly writing over someone else's edit.

Two consequences worth knowing:

• Access granted later is included straight away, and access taken away is gone straight away. There is no window where an old connection keeps working.
• A person removed from a channel loses it everywhere at once, including through any AI they had connected.