Your first workspace

A workspace is the place where one body of work lives. It contains the files and app state, the windows you left open, the people allowed in, and what each of them may do.

It is private when you create it. A workspace is not a public room and not a promise that you have to collaborate. The Personal workspace can remain yours alone forever.

The public alpha is not published yet. This guide describes the workspace and sharing flow being prepared for it. If a named control is absent from your build, that step is not available; do not substitute a broader permission or move the only copy of important work to test it.

Make a project workspace

Open the workspace control at the left edge.
Choose New workspace.
Name it after the work—Release notes, not Shared stuff.
Keep Only me selected.
Choose where its complete copy lives: This computer, one of your own always-on devices, or a workspace host you already use.

The host keeps the complete workspace. Choosing this computer works without a cloud service and is enough for working together while it is online. An always-on host keeps the workspace reachable after you close the laptop.

Open an app in the right place

Open Notes, Files or another Tilo app inside the new workspace. It starts with this workspace’s items, not whatever the same app was showing in Personal.

Normal Linux apps work here too. Their window belongs to the workspace and can be shown to another person. Their private internal state is still private to the app, so structured co-editing and per-action history are available only where the app exposes them. The interface labels the difference before you share.

If you only need to send one file, right-click it and choose Share link. Select view or edit access and an expiry. The recipient gets that item, not a place in the workspace. A link needs an online host to work while your computer is off.

Invite a person

Open People and choose Invite someone. Set access before copying the invite:

View — read and follow, but make no changes;
Comment — add comments and annotations;
Edit — change workspace items;
Manage — change permissions and invite other people.

You can narrow a role to particular folders, files or app actions. The summary reads back the result in ordinary language:

Mina can edit Release notes until you remove access. She cannot invite other people.

If that sentence is not what you mean, change the permission before sending anything.

The invite expires. Send it through a channel you already use and check the person’s name when they join. An invite contains enough information to find and authenticate the workspace, so an unexpired invite is not a harmless web link.

Open the same note. The other person’s caret and pointer carry their name and colour. A recent edit remains highlighted in that colour, and History records the author.

You initially follow the person who is showing something. Scroll or navigate on your own to break away; choose their presence marker to follow again. Neither person has to take control of the other’s entire computer.

Try this once:

ask the other person to add a sentence;
move to Files and check that their presence follows the workspace, not only Notes;
open History and select their edit;
choose Revert this change.

Revert creates a new, attributed change. It does not erase the earlier author or rewrite what happened. Undo is for your own recent action; Restore this version makes an earlier document state current and records that restoration as another change.

For an app that does not support Tilo’s shared state, choose Share this window. The other person receives the app’s surface. Viewing and remote input are separate permissions: someone can follow the window without being allowed to type into it.

Remote input is shown continuously while active. Your physical keyboard and pointer take priority. Press Super + Esc to stop every remote input grant at once; then use People to remove access or disconnect the person if needed.

Let an agent help

An agent is listed separately from people but uses the same permission model. Choose People and agents → Add agent, give it a bounded task, and review the items and actions it requests.

For a first run, use something inspectable:

Summarise these three notes into a new note. Do not change the originals.

Choose Allow once, Until logout, or Until revoked. The agent cannot extend that permission itself. Its actions appear under its own name in History and can be reverted like another collaborator’s work.

Do not begin with “organise my computer.” A useful request has visible inputs, a visible result and an end.

Remove access or leave

Open People, select a collaborator and choose Remove access. Current connections close and future reads and changes stop. Data already received cannot be made unknown again; the confirmation says that plainly.

To leave a workspace someone else hosts, open its menu and choose Leave workspace. Export any items that exist only there first. Leaving removes the local cached copy and search entries but does not delete the host’s workspace.

To delete a workspace you own, Tilo first lists its hosts and collaborators and reminds you to verify a separate backup. Deletion and removing a collaborator are different actions and never share one ambiguous button.

Keep notes for the alpha

Write down what you tried, where a boundary was unclear, and whether anything made the computer feel less yours. The public issue tracker and in-product feedback route will open with the public alpha. Until then, save the note locally. Add diagnostics only after inspecting them yourself.