# Design collaboration in Gradiently: workspaces, roles and sharing

[Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/teams-and-workspaces)

A team needs one place for its brands and designs, clear rules about who can change what, and an easy way to show work to people outside. Here is how Gradiently handles each.

## The short version

- In Gradiently, a workspace is a shared home for brands, their Marks and designs, and the people who make them.
- Everyone has a personal workspace that can't be deleted or left, and can create more for a company, a client or a team.
- People join a workspace by email invitation with one of four roles: owner, admin, editor or viewer.
- Teammates leave comments pinned to a spot or element on a page, mention each other with @, and every design keeps a version history.
- Outside the team, a design can be shared as a view-only link that you can turn off at any time.

**Design collaboration** in Gradiently happens in **workspaces**: shared homes that hold a team's brands, the Marks those brands wear, every design made on them and the people who make them. You invite people by email, give each one a role, discuss work in comments pinned to the page, and share finished designs with anyone through a view-only link. Owners and admins can also create API keys so AI agents can work in the same workspace.

This guide walks through each piece in the order a team usually meets them. If you mainly run several brands on your own, [running several brands from one account](https://gradiently.design/guide/brands-in-gradiently) may be all you need.

## What a workspace holds

Every account starts with a **personal workspace**. It is always yours: it can't be deleted or left. For anything shared, create another from **Settings › Workspaces › New workspace**. A new workspace starts empty, with you as its owner, and each one keeps its own brands, designs and team.

| Level | What it is | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Workspace | A shared home and its team | Northlight Studio |
| Brand | One voice, with its own Marks, brand kit and designs | Northlight, and a client's café |
| Mark | The living background a brand's designs wear | The café's warm amber Mark |
| Design | A post, story, poster, slide or any other page | This week's menu story |

How things nest. People belong to a workspace; everything else lives inside it.

You can belong to as many workspaces as you're invited to. **Settings › Workspaces** lists them all, marks the one you're working in, and lets you switch, rename one you administer, leave one you don't own, or delete one you own. Deleting a workspace deletes its brands, designs and invitations for everyone in it, so it asks you to confirm.

## Inviting people and choosing roles

Invitations live in **Settings › Team**. Owners and admins enter an email address, choose a role and send. The person gets an email with a link to join that works for **seven days**, and they confirm the same email address before accepting.

| Role | What they can do |
| --- | --- |
| Owner | Everything, including billing and deleting the workspace |
| Admin | Manage people, brands, Marks and keys |
| Editor | Make and edit designs, upload images |
| Viewer | See everything, change nothing |

The four roles, in the words Settings uses. Invite people as editors unless they need to manage the workspace.

A good default: one owner, one or two admins who look after brands and people, editors for everyone who makes things, and viewers for stakeholders who only need to see work. You can change anyone's role later from the same list. Removing someone takes their access away straight away, but **their designs stay** in the workspace, and you can invite them again at any time.

## Keeping a team on one brand

Teams drift off-brand when everyone rebuilds the look from memory. In a workspace, the brand switcher at the top of the app lists the **brands in this workspace**, and each brand carries its own Marks, brand kit and brand profile. New designs start on the brand's Mark with its heading and body fonts, and **Apply brand kit** brings a page back in line in one step.

A portrait café post announcing spring opening hours on a warm gradient

Made by one editor on the brand's Mark…

A vertical café story with a barista tip on the same warm gradient

…and by another, a week later. Same Mark, same kit, recognisably one café.

Set up the kit once, before inviting people; [setting up your brand kit](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-kit-setup) covers logos, colours, fonts and voice. The wider case for why this matters is in [brand consistency](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-consistency).

## Reviewing designs with comments and versions

Feedback belongs on the design, not in a separate chat thread. In the Studio, open **Comments**, choose **Add a comment** and click the spot or element the note is about. Everyone in the workspace sees the pin on the page and the thread in the list.

1. **Pin the note where it applies** Click the headline, a photo or an empty corner. A note tied to its place needs half the words.
2. **Mention the right person** Type `@` to mention someone in the workspace, so the note reaches them.
3. **Reply in the thread** Keep the back-and-forth under the pin. Replying to a resolved thread reopens it.
4. **Resolve when it's done** Resolved threads move to their own tab, so open ones always show what's left to do.

Every design also keeps a **version history**, and you can save a version by hand before a big change. If a teammate saves the same design while you have it open, Gradiently tells you it changed elsewhere and lets you load theirs or keep yours; whichever you choose, the other is kept in version history, so nobody's work is lost.

## Sharing designs outside the team

Not everyone who needs to see a design needs to join the workspace. **Share** on a design turns on a view-only link: people with it see the finished design and can download it, but can't edit. You can also send it by email to up to five addresses with a short note, once your own email is confirmed. Turn the link off any time and it stops working.

### Invite to the workspace

- For people who make or manage work
- Access to every brand and design in it
- A role decides what they can change
- Lasts until you remove them

### Share a view-only link

- For clients, printers and stakeholders
- Access to one design only
- They can view and download, never edit
- Stops the moment you turn it off

> **Shared links and claimed Marks** Anyone can design with any Mark, but a shared link shows a small watermark until the Mark the design wears is claimed. Claiming is free while Gradiently launches; see [how to find and claim a Mark](https://gradiently.design/guide/how-to-claim-a-mark).

## API keys for AI agents in a workspace

Owners and admins can create **API keys** in **Settings › API and agents**. A key belongs to one workspace and carries only the permissions you tick, such as reading designs, creating and editing designs, searching Marks, claiming Marks or generating brands. It is shown once, so store it somewhere safe, and revoking it stops anything using it straight away.

Keys are how an assistant such as Claude, or any MCP client, makes designs that open in your team's Studio. [Connecting an AI assistant](https://gradiently.design/guide/connect-ai-assistant) walks through the setup, and [what MCP is](https://gradiently.design/guide/what-is-mcp) explains the protocol in plain words.

## FAQ

### How do I invite someone to my Gradiently workspace?

An owner or admin opens **Settings › Team**, enters the person's email, chooses a role and sends the invite. The email link works for seven days.

### What roles can team members have?

Owner, admin, editor or viewer. Admins manage people, brands, Marks and keys; editors make and edit designs; viewers can see everything but change nothing.

### What happens to someone's designs if I remove them?

Their designs stay in the workspace. They lose access straight away and can be invited again later.

### Can I share a design with someone who isn't on my team?

Yes. Turn on **Share with a link** to get a view-only link. People with it can view and download the finished design but can't edit it, and you can turn the link off at any time.

### Can two people edit the same design?

Yes, anyone with an editor role or above can. If a teammate saves while you have it open, you choose whose version to keep and the other is saved in version history.