Share work with teammates

Share the work people actually need to review

Sharing is how you bring someone into a specific piece of work: a canvas, project, task, dashboard, file, or Goals/OKRs item. A good share gives the person enough access to do the job without making them a full workspace member when they only need one item.

The safest habit is to decide the job first. Do they need to inspect, comment, edit, or join the workspace long term? The answer decides whether you should use item sharing, comments, a workspace invite, or guest access.

For the role model, start with Members, guests, and external collaborators. For canvas-specific sharing, use Share a canvas. For outside reviewers, use Invite guests and external collaborators.

Availability and permissions

Where to find sharing

Sharing controls usually live close to the work.

If Share is missing, the item may be read-only for you, archived, unavailable, or restricted by your role. Check When work is read-only before assuming the button is broken.

Choose the permission

Use comment access for most reviews. Use edit access when the person is expected to change the work directly.

A link is not always permission

Copying a link helps someone navigate to the work. It does not always grant access, and that is one of the most common causes of "No permission" messages.

Before sending a link, check whether the link is only a navigation shortcut or whether it grants access under the item’s sharing settings. If the recipient is a workspace member, the link may take them to the item only if they already have permission. If they are outside the workspace, they may need guest or external collaborator access.

If someone asks for access after opening a link, review the access request instead of sending the same link again. The request can tell you which account they are using and which work they tried to open.

Share with a teammate

1. Open the item you want to share.
2. Open Share or the item’s access control.
3. Search for the teammate by name or email.
4. Choose view, comment, or edit based on the work they need to do.
5. Add a short message outside ALLO or in the comment thread explaining what you need from them.
6. Ask them to open the link while signed in to the correct workspace account.

If the teammate cannot be found, check whether they are a workspace member. They may need a workspace invite before they can appear in member search. See Invite workspace members.

If the teammate needs to find the work again later, use the path that matches how they received it: Shared with me for shared items, Inbox for notifications, or Home recent work for recently opened work.

Share with an external person

Use narrow access for clients, vendors, freelancers, partners, students in a single activity, and people who should not become workspace members.

Start from the canvas or project they need. Choose guest or external collaborator access where available. Grant view, comment, or edit access according to the actual job. If they need ongoing access across many projects, ask a workspace admin whether they should become a member instead.

For the full outside collaboration model, use Invite guests and external collaborators.

Add context with the share

A shared link without context creates extra work. Tell the recipient what you need and where to focus.

Useful share notes include:

Permission and visibility notes

Sharing one item does not make the recipient a workspace member. External collaborators and guests usually do not appear in People or teams. Manage their access from the shared item.

Workspace membership does not guarantee edit access to every item. A member can be view-only on one canvas and editor on another.

If an item belongs to another workspace, the active workspace matters. A person may be a member of one workspace but not the workspace that owns the linked work.

If a notification or shared link opens to an error, the original item may have been deleted, moved, archived, unshared, or blocked by deactivated workspace membership.

Common mistakes

Do not send a raw URL and call the sharing done. Open Share and confirm permission.

Do not invite clients to the workspace when comment access on one canvas is enough. Workspace membership is broader and affects seat management.

Do not raise someone to workspace admin because they need to edit a canvas. Use edit access on the canvas.

Do not assume a guest can comment if the link is view-only. Guest identity does not override link permission.

Do not recreate work when a teammate says they cannot open it. Check workspace, account email, and item permission first.

Recover when sharing fails

If the person sees an access error, ask for the email they are signed in with, the exact link, and a screenshot of the message. Then check the item’s Share settings.

If they are a workspace member but cannot open the item, grant item access. If they are not a workspace member and should be, use Invite workspace members. If they should stay outside the workspace, use guest or external collaborator access.

If they opened the link from Inbox, email, or an old chat, check whether the item still exists and whether the permission changed. When you cannot access work has the wider checklist.

If a deactivated former member needs one item, ask a workspace admin to resolve the member state first. Deactivation can block old links before item sharing applies. See Deactivated workspace access for the workspace-level recovery path.