Share a canvas: create links and join collaboration

One current canvas, not a publication snapshot

Read-only links show work; collaboration links allow editing. Different links point to the same current canvas, not independent copies. Later owner changes appear when visitors read again.

Formal collaborative edits change that canvas. Cards and Canvas share content and permissions; personal layout changes do not change others' content. Download or back up a fixed deliverable rather than treat a share link as a permanent archive.

Three sharing modes

Mode	Participant actions	Generation payment
View only	Browse, zoom, and inspect permitted content; no editing or generation.	None.
Collaborate with shared credits	Edit, upload, and create after access checks.	Choose shared or personal credits each time; no automatic switch on shortage.
Collaborate with personal credits	Edit, upload, and create after access checks.	The actual operator pays.

View only: show work and process

The creation form needs name and lifetime, not a generation budget or material-library grant. Visitors cannot edit, upload, or generate.

The current canvas remains live, not frozen at publication. People rules determine sign-in, including when blocked accounts must be identified. Download for fixed delivery.

**View only: name and lifetime**
No budget or material grant. Owner edits still update the canvas; this is not a copy or guaranteed anonymous access. The link is not created yet.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

Shared credits: an owner-provided budget

Set a group generation budget, lifetime, real-time or dedicated funding, and optionally a personal-material scope. Funding details are explained in Shared credits.

Eligible editors still choose shared or personal credits per generation. Exhausted budget neither automatically charges them nor changes the link to read-only. Owner entitlements and capacity still apply.

**Shared-credit collaboration settings**
Owner chooses real-time funding and a tutorial folder; the draft is not published. The shield opens canvas-wide people rules. Numbers show a test account at capture.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

Personal credits: each creator pays

There is no owner budget or funding-mode field. Only the operator's own payment option appears for generation.

Material-library access is a separate owner choice. Personal payment does not grant ownership, share management, favorites, or inspiration collection; results remain in the shared canvas.

**Personal-credit collaboration**
No owner generation budget. Operators pay themselves. Optional owner materials remain separate; this draft is not published.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

Owner's creation checklist

Creating another link does not invalidate old ones. Links have separate mode, lifetime, budget, and material scope but share canvas-wide people rules.

Open Share on your image canvas and inspect content. Remove private images/text you do not want accessible.
Set and save canvas-wide People permissions first, including default users and named accounts, before sending a restricted group link.
Create a share with name and mode. Name is editable only before creation, then fixed despite later canvas renaming.
Set lifetime and explicitly choose material scope if needed; do not assume the entire library should be shared.
For shared-credit collaboration, choose budget and funding mode and check credits and their original expiry.
Create the link, wait for success, then copy the public URL and verify access. A filled form is not publication. At most 20 records, including history, per canvas.

How participants join

Open the public share URL. Contact the owner for disabled, expired, or deleted links rather than try to bypass them.
Sign in with the permitted account when requested; successful sign-in still needs share access approval.
Check read-only or edit status and confirm payer, estimate, and available credits before generation.
Successful authenticated access adds a Shared canvases sidebar entry. Anonymous viewing and failed access do not.
Forward the public URL, not an internal workspace address. Each recipient is checked using their own identity, not your permissions.

Location	Behavior	Does not mean
Owner's session list	The original stays, with a share marker while a link is manually enabled. All disabled/deleted removes the marker.	A copied session, renamed session, or guaranteed unexpired link.
Participant's Shared canvases	Fixed share name; a new joined link appears first. Reopening the same link reuses it; separate links to one canvas stay separate.	Personal ownership or merged link permissions/budgets/resources.
Later ordering	Your most recent successful edit, including accepted generation; never-edited items use first join time.	Viewing, reconnecting, other people's edits, or generation completion do not move your entry first.
Unavailable entry	Normally retains name and broken-link status after expiry, disabling, or denial.	Retained entry is not retained access or restoration of a deleted link.

**Participant sidebar and online list**
The sidebar is filtered to the English teaching share. Only self/current peers appear, without owner management or shared-content favorites/inspiration. Personal Favorites remains independent.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

Online people, history, and spending differ

Self is shown first, then online users. Online count is not named-rule count or share count; multiple browser connections are not multiple people.

A specified person who never joined is not a historical participant. A past participant need not retain access. Spending appears after settlement and is omitted when zero; closing the list does not clear it.

Information	Owner sees	Participant sees
Avatars and online count	Online users and, on expansion, past offline participants.	Self and currently online peers, not full history.
Participants	Historical participants, current effective permissions, settled spending.	Own permissions and spending plus current peers, not peers' spending.
Personal/shared credits	Settled spending by each participant using personal or shared funds.	Only own settled consumption, not wallet balance.
Management	Share history and People permissions.	No owner management or all-link list.

**Owner can see offline participants**
Self appears first; the red dot marks the departed test participant offline. Shield opens rules. No spending occurred in this example.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

Entitlements, payment, and ownership

Owner membership controls models, specifications, references, concurrency, and storage. The confirmed payer controls this submission's charges. These are separate.

Participant uploads become owner-workspace content using owner storage. Do not bring material you cannot share or do not want the owner to keep.

Cards and Canvas share content and access. Layout is personal; saved prompts, results, and deletion change the shared canvas.

Collaboration boundaries

One canvas supports up to 10 simultaneous editors: one reserved owner seat and nine other accounts. All share links and Cards/Canvas share these seats. Multiple windows from one account occupy one seat. View-only visitors do not use editing seats.
An authorized editor who arrives when seats are full can still view. The top-right notice says editing capacity is full, and modification and generation controls are disabled. The owner's saved people permissions do not change.
Waiting accounts receive freed seats automatically in their original online arrival order, not by clicking or refreshing fastest. When admitted, the notice disappears and controls resume. No application or automatic submission is involved.
The last window leaving, loss of editing eligibility, or a connection timeout releases the seat. Sudden disconnection may retain it until the roughly 45-second heartbeat lifetime expires. Leaving and rejoining places an account at the end of the queue. Promotion can take another heartbeat to reach the interface. Already accepted generation tasks continue.
Permissions or concurrent edits may temporarily disable actions; read messages before repeating.
Editing/recovery does not grant owner-account settings, share management, full-session deletion, or Trash clearing.
Online count, avatars, history, and specified-rule limits are not interchangeable.
Participants cannot favorite or collect inspiration from shared content in either view, even with edit access or self-payment. Owners retain normal permissions.
Participation does not open owner orders, wallet details, private favorites, or inspirations. Download authorized deliverables while access remains and respect agreed use.