Spaces

Use Spaces to choose who can access a group of prototypes. Within a Space, folders help organize the work without changing its audience.

The three kinds

Organization and Personal Spaces are created automatically and can’t be renamed or deleted. You create and manage Shared Spaces.

Where you land

Signing in takes you to Home, the gallery of what your team shipped. Opening the dashboard again later, from a bookmark or a restored tab, takes you back to where you left off in that organization: Home, the Spaces picker, or the Space, folder, or prototype you last had open. Artor remembers this per organization and per account in your browser, so another person signing in on the same computer starts from Home, not from your last folder.

If that place no longer exists or you can no longer open it, the next open starts from Home. Choosing Organization in the Space switcher, or clicking the Artor logo, always takes you where the link says. It never bounces you back.

Opening a prototype link

A link to a prototype, from a comment email or pasted by a teammate, opens that prototype even if you’re working in a different organization right now. If you belong to more than one organization, Artor switches you to the one that holds the prototype. This also works when you have no organization selected, or when the one you had open was deleted or you were removed from it.

If the prototype can’t be opened, the page says Prototype not found: it may have been deleted, it may be in a Space you can’t access, or you may not be a member of its organization. If it fails to load, the page says Could not load this prototype; reload to try again. Both pages have a Go to Spaces button to get you back.

Create a shared Space

Open Spaces, create a Shared Space, and give it a name. Add teammates from its member controls. Choose a Space when setting up a prototype with artor init, or move existing work into it from the dashboard.

Names

A Space name can be up to 60 characters. Extra spaces are collapsed. Names can’t contain invisible or control characters, such as the direction markers that can make one name look like another. Emoji are fine. Folder names follow the same rule.

Customize a Space’s look

Give a Space an icon, an emoji, a color, or an image so it’s easier to spot in the Spaces picker, the sidebar, and the Space switcher. The look is only cosmetic: it never changes who can open the Space.

Who can customize

A reviewer seat doesn’t limit this: a Space admin or org admin on a reviewer seat can still customize.

Where to find it

Choose Customize Space (or Customize space) in any of these places:

• the Space switcher, by clicking the Space name at the start of the breadcrumb;
• the ··· menu on a Space card on the Spaces page, or a right-click on the card;
• the ··· menu on a Space in the sidebar’s Space list, or a right-click on it;
• the projects toolbar’s ··· menu while you’re in the Space.

A Shared Space’s manage panel also has an Appearance section. Each of these opens the same Customize dialog. You only see it where you’re allowed to use it.

The Customize dialog

The dialog shows a preview of the Space card, and every choice appears there right away. Nothing is saved until you press Save; Cancel or closing the dialog discards your changes.

• Icon: search the full icon library by name or keyword and pick one.
• Emoji: pick one emoji. It uses your device’s emoji font, so it can look slightly different on another computer.
• Image: upload a picture to use instead of an icon.

With an icon or emoji, Background color sets the tile’s color. Reset to default returns the Space to its standard look.

Saving an icon or emoji removes the Space’s image, since an image always takes priority. Saving an image keeps the icon and color underneath, so they come back if you remove the image later.

Colors

A Space color can be any color the dashboard’s picker offers, or any standard web color: a hex value such as #8b5cf6, an rgb(...), hsl(...) or oklch(...) value, or a color name such as purple. It must be solid. See-through colors, transparent, and a misspelled color name are refused.

Images

• PNG, JPEG, WebP, or GIF. Other formats, including SVG, aren’t accepted.
• Up to 5 MB. A GIF can be up to 500 KB, and only its first frame is used.
• The image is cropped to a square from its center and stored at up to 256 by 256 pixels.
• Artor re-processes every upload, which removes hidden information such as the location a photo was taken.

Members and roles

• Space admin: can rename the Space, manage members, change organization-wide reading, and delete it. A Space admin manages that one Space only.
• Space member: can work with its content, subject to their seat.
• Org admin: can do everything a Space admin can, in every Shared Space, without being a member of it.

A Shared Space must keep at least one admin. Appoint a replacement before removing or demoting the last one.

Managing a Space is separate from working in it. An org admin who hasn’t joined a Shared Space can rename it, manage its members, and delete it, but can only view and comment on its prototypes, delete prototypes, and move prototypes there. To publish or edit content there, they add themselves as a member first. Every one of these actions appears in the audit log with the admin’s name. Org admins can’t open or manage someone else’s Personal Space.

Bringing people into a Space

In a Shared Space you administer (or any Shared Space, if you’re an org admin), open the projects toolbar’s ··· > Invite members menu:

• Org. members: find existing teammates by name or email, then add them as members or Space admins.
• Invite to Org: send an email invitation that also adds the recipient to this Space when accepted.

Personal Spaces can’t have other members.

Any member can invite people into the organization, but only org admins can choose a publisher seat or admin role. Other invitations join as reviewers. See Seats.

Letting the whole organization read a Space

Turn on Let the whole organization read in the Space’s manage panel. A Space admin or org admin can change this setting. The Space then shows Open to org.

Members outside its member list can open prototypes and leave feedback. They can’t publish, move or delete work, manage folders, change access, create public links, or edit its configuration and sample data. Space members retain the permissions their seat allows.

This includes people who join the organization later. To limit access to named people, leave organization-wide reading off and add them individually.

Turning it off removes that access on the next request. Existing comments remain credited to their authors. The Organization Space is always open to the whole organization.

Reviewer seats are always read-only

A reviewer can view and comment, but can’t publish or edit prototype content, even in their own Personal Space. Being an admin doesn’t remove those seat restrictions.

Reviewers who are members of a Space can still share publicly. They can also delete and move prototypes, and delete, clear, or empty folders, in their own Personal Space. A reviewer who is a Space admin or org admin can delete and move prototypes where that role allows. See Seats for the full list.

Getting the code out is seat-based

Downloading prototype source with artor pull, or its local configuration with artor env pull, requires a publisher seat and access to that prototype. This also applies to publishers reading an Open to org Space. Organization-wide local configuration can be pulled by any organization member; see Environment variables.

Closed Spaces are visible by name

A Shared Space you can’t access still appears on the Spaces page as a locked card with its name, its look, and No access. Its members, folders, prototypes, comments, and counts aren’t shown. Don’t put confidential information in a Shared Space’s name or image.

These locked cards don’t appear in the Space switcher, sidebar, or CLI. Other people’s Personal Spaces aren’t listed for ordinary members; org admins can see their existence and usage for oversight, but can’t open their content.

Finding your way around a Space

The Spaces page lists the Spaces you can open. Type in its search box to filter them by name. Right-click an empty part of the page to create a new Space.

Inside a Space, the toolbar’s ··· menu holds the view options and the Space’s actions:

• Filters: Sort by (Last updated, Name, or Soonest expiring) and Public only, which shows only prototypes with an active public link. These apply to the current visit only. While either differs from the default, a small dot appears on the ··· button.
• Deleted prototypes: the trash, with a count when it holds anything.
• Customize space, Edit space, and Invite members, each shown only where you’re allowed to use it.

The menu is available at the top of a Space and inside every folder. Right-clicking an empty part of the page opens the same menu. At the top of a Space it starts with New folder (when you can create folders there); inside a folder it starts with that folder’s own actions. Cards and rows keep their own menus, and right-clicking a link, a button, or a text field still shows your browser’s usual menu.

Deleting prototypes

Moving a prototype to the trash, restoring it, deleting it permanently, and deleting one of its versions all follow one rule. In a Shared Space or the Organization Space, these people can do them:

• the prototype’s owner, if they can publish in the Space;
• the Space’s admin;
• an org admin, even in a Shared Space they haven’t joined.

In a Personal Space, only its owner can, even with a reviewer seat. Nobody else can see into it.

Clearing a folder or deleting it together with its prototypes follows the same rule, without the owner part: a Space admin, an org admin, or the owner of the Personal Space. Deleting a folder while keeping its prototypes (they move to Draft) follows the rule for moving prototypes.

Each of these actions appears in the audit log. See Delete & recover for how the trash and permanent deletion work.

Moving prototypes

Moving a prototype to another folder or Space, and deleting a folder while keeping its prototypes, are open to these people, whatever their seat. In a Shared Space or the Organization Space:

• anyone who can edit the Space;
• the Space’s admin;
• an org admin, even in a Shared Space they haven’t joined.

In a Personal Space, only its owner, even with a reviewer seat. Org admins can’t move prototypes into or out of someone else’s Personal Space.

A move between Spaces must be allowed in both Spaces. This lets an org admin on a free reviewer seat hand a former teammate’s prototypes back to the team, tidy up folders, or empty a Space before deleting it. A Space admin on a reviewer seat who isn’t an org admin can only organize their own Space: they can’t move prototypes into the Organization Space, and nobody but a prototype’s owner or an org admin can move it somewhere its owner can’t see, such as their own Personal Space. Renaming prototypes and folders, creating folders, and publishing still need a publisher seat. Moves between Spaces appear in the audit log.

When a Space you could otherwise move to is off limits for that reason, the Move to Space menu still lists it, greyed out with a lock. Hover or focus it to see why: “Only the prototype’s owner or an org admin can move it to another Space.” The CLI shows the same message. Spaces you can’t see never appear at all.

If someone else moves the prototype while your move is being checked, nothing is moved and you’re asked to try again.

Deleting a Space

When deleting a Shared Space, choose where to move its prototypes. Artor moves them, including trashed prototypes, before deleting the Space. Prototypes aren’t destroyed, but the old folder structure isn’t preserved. Review who can access the destination before moving. If the Space holds prototypes owned by other members and you aren’t an org admin, move them to the Organization Space: another Shared Space or your Personal Space could cut their owners off, so Artor refuses the whole delete and explains why.

From the CLI

See Installing the CLI if you haven’t set it up.

artor space list
artor space create "Research"
artor space members "Research"
artor space members "Research" add person@example.com  # Space or org admin only
artor space read "Research" on                         # Space or org admin only
artor space rename "Research" "Design research"         # Space or org admin only
artor space color "Design research" "#8b5cf6"           # see "Who can customize"
artor space color "Design research" none                # back to no color
artor space rm "Design research" --move-to <folder>      # Space or org admin only

Use an exact Space name or identifier for permission changes and deletion. Ambiguous names won’t be acted on.

artor space list starts each row with the Space’s emoji, or a swatch of its color when it has no emoji. artor space color opens a color picker when you leave out the color on a terminal. Icons and images can only be set in the dashboard. See the CLI reference for options.

What Spaces don’t cover

• Public links: anyone holding an active public link can open its target, even without Space membership.
• A record of every viewer: opening a version isn’t recorded against each person. Comments record feedback, not everyone who looked.
• Separate plan allowances: usage across all Spaces counts toward the same organization plan.

What a shared link reveals to members outside the Space

A member who can’t open a Space and opens a public link to one of its prototypes sees the prototype as any visitor does. With the organization setting on, they also see every thread on that version and comment as themselves. They still can’t open the prototype in the dashboard or anything else in the Space. See Members outside the Space.

Related

• Folders
• Seats
• Public sharing
• Access control