Files & Editing

A workspace holds two kinds of files: the Shared Files that belong to the workspace, and the private data folder of each app. This page is about the first kind. Apps and their folders are on Apps.

Shared Files in the sidebar opens the list, in its folders. The line at the top of it states the property that replaces per-file sharing controls: everyone in this workspace can see everything here. Every app in the workspace can read it too, and only people can write to it. Anything narrower than that belongs inside an app.

Creating files

• New file takes a path, like notes/meeting.md. Intermediate folders are created for you.
• New folder makes an empty one.
• Upload, or a drag onto the page, brings in files you already have. Images, PDFs and other binary files are stored as encrypted blobs and listed alongside your text.

Editing

Click a file to open it in the content pane. Any plain-text format works. The header switches between Edit, Preview (for Markdown) and History.

Changes save as you type, or press ⌘S / Ctrl+S to flush immediately. The indicator in the header reads Saved, Saving… or Unsaved.

Binary files show a preview and a download button rather than an editor.

Real-time collaboration

When several people have a workspace open, edits appear as they are typed. Avatars above the file show who else has this file open, and the status line counts everyone online in the workspace.

Conflicts resolve themselves. General Text stores every text file as a CRDT (a conflict-free replicated data type), so two people editing the same paragraph merge cleanly instead of overwriting each other, and an edit you make offline merges when you reconnect rather than forcing you to pick a winner.

File operations

On the Shared Files page, each row carries its actions:

• Rename, which also moves the file: type a new path and it lands there.
• Delete.
• Move into an app…, which hands the file to one of the workspace's apps. This narrows who can see it (an app can be locked to some of the workspace's people) so it asks first.
• Download, for binary files.

History

History, next to Edit and Preview, replays a file's versions: who changed it and when, with the text at each point, and a restore. A restore lands as a new change, so nothing is rewritten and the restore itself is part of the history.

Server-held history for a synced workspace is kept for 14 days and counts toward the workspace's storage. Your devices keep the current state indefinitely.

Quick navigation

⌘K / Ctrl+K opens the jump bar: type to search files and apps, arrow keys and Enter to go. ⌘B toggles the sidebar. The Search row in the sidebar opens the same bar.

On disk

In the desktop app, every workspace you belong to is mirrored to a real folder as plain files, whether or not you have it open. The mirror is one-way: General Text writes it, and anything else that writes there is overwritten the next time the workspace changes. To write into a workspace from outside the app, use the gt command line (see Agent Access), which goes through the same encrypted, versioned, synced path as an edit in the editor.