Two things decide who can reach a resource: the specific people you invite, and the general access setting that covers everyone else. You can also publish a resource as a public web page — that's covered in the Publishing section.
The Share dialog
Click Share in the top-right of any document, table, or artifact. The dialog has a few parts:
Invite people — give specific people access by email, each with a role.
Access requests — if anyone has asked to get in, their request shows here to approve or decline.
General access — one setting for who, beyond the people you've invited, can reach this.
Copy link — grab the URL to send to someone.
Inviting individuals
Under Invite people:
Type an email address.
Pick a role: Owner, Editor, Commenter, or Viewer.
Send the invite.
If the person is already in your workspace, they get a notification. If not, they get an email with a sign-up link that grants them access when they join. You can change or revoke a role at any time from the same place.
General access
General access is a single choice that controls who — beyond the people you've invited — can open the resource. Pick one of three:
Option | Who can open it |
|---|---|
Private | Only people you invite. Hidden from everyone else in the workspace (admins keep access). |
Workspace | Everyone in this workspace can find and open it. |
Anyone with the link | Anyone who has the link can open it — no account needed to view or comment. |
When you choose Anyone with the link, you also pick what those people can do: View, Comment, or Edit. Viewing and commenting need no account; editing requires sign-in so changes are attributable.
The three options are mutually exclusive — picking one clears the others. Switching to Anyone with the link, for example, automatically turns off Private. To hide a resource from the workspace entirely, choose Private; see Private Documents for the full picture.
Invited access always wins
The people you invite and the general access setting compose, and an explicit invite always takes priority:
A resource can be set to Anyone with the link (view-only) and still have specific people invited as Editors — anonymous visitors read; invited people edit.
A resource can be Private with a short list of invited people — only they (and admins) can open it.
A resource can be publicly editable, yet one specific person is invited as a Viewer — their role caps them to read-only even though everyone else can edit.
That last case is unusual but handy: open collaboration on a public draft, except for one stakeholder you want to keep read-only.
Requesting access
If you open a private resource you can't reach, you won't hit a dead end — Dokki shows a Request access button. Click it and the owner is notified. Once they approve, you're notified and it opens for you from then on.
Approving requests
When someone asks for access to something you own, the request shows up in two places:
Your message center (the bell in the top bar) — approve or decline right from the notification.
The resource's Share dialog — pending requests are listed near the top.
Approving gives the person access (as a Viewer by default) and lets them know. Declining just dismisses the request — the resource stays private.
What sharing doesn't do
It doesn't change discoverability — inviting someone to a doc doesn't drop it into their sidebar; they reach it through the link or search.
It doesn't notify on every change — only on the initial invite. Use comments and
@-mentions for ongoing back-and-forth.It doesn't survive a delete — deleting the resource revokes everyone's access, including yours.