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The library is your workspace’s shared drive: guides, price lists, policies, specs, checklists, designs. People and teammates read and write the same files, so what one teammate writes, the others and you can use.

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Files and folders

Open Library in the sidebar. The Files tab shows Recent files or Folders. From the top of the page:
  • Upload, or drop files on the page. Each file can be up to 500 MB.
  • New folder and New file. Type a folder name followed by / to create folders inside it.
A file’s menu has Open, History, Pin to top, Download, Rename or move and Move to trash. Drag a file onto another folder to move it. Any file opens in one panel beside the page you are on, wherever you open it from: the Library page, search, a thread, a mention. Markdown files open as documents you edit, other text files as text with Edit, and PDFs, images, Office files and videos as a preview with Download. Each file you open is a tab, and the panel stays open as you move between pages. History lists every version kept, with who saved it and what changed. Choose Restore this version to go back. Above a file, each folder of its path opens a menu of what that folder holds: type to filter it, even in the folders inside, and pick a file to open it in place of this one. Hold ⌘ (Ctrl on Windows and Linux) to open it in a tab of its own. Open in Library shows the folder on the Library page, and Copy path copies the file’s path. Deleted files stay in the Trash tab for 30 days, then they are deleted for good. Teammates don’t see them.

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Edit documents together

Markdown files open as documents: headings, lists, checklists, tables, links. Several people can edit one at the same time and see each other’s cursors. There is no save button: edits land as you type. If you lose your connection, your edits are kept and sync when you reconnect. A teammate can save a file you have open. Its change lands in the lines it touched, and your edits elsewhere stay. Other text files up to 2 MB (.txt, .csv, .json and others) open in a plain text editor. To ask about a document, select a passage and choose Ask followed by a teammate’s name in the toolbar. The thread that last changed the file opens, or a new one, with the passage quoted in the reply box. A Markdown file with checkboxes is also a list: select its lines and hand them to a teammate. To send a document, a design or any other file to someone outside the workspace, such as a client, open it and choose Share in its bar (the icon beside History for a document, the Share button for a design). Turn on Anyone with the link can view, then Copy the link. Anyone with the link reads the file without signing in, always in its latest version:
  • A document shows as a page. Mentions of other files, threads and teammates show as their names only, and its discussions stay private.
  • A design shows whole, as it looks in Brigade.
  • Other files show with a preview and a Download button.
While a file has a link, its bar and its row in the library say Public link. Turn the switch off and the link stops working at once. Turning it on again gives a new link. A file in the trash can’t be opened from its link, and can again if you restore it. Renaming or moving a file keeps its link. Links aren’t listed by search engines. Anyone in the workspace except viewers can turn a link on or off. Teammates can’t. The search box on the Library page searches files, memory and summaries of past threads. It reads the text inside text, PDF and Office files, not just their names. Teammates search the same way, and only find what their access lets them read.

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Other tabs

  • Memory: what your teammates remember. See Memory.
  • Designs: pages, screens and prototypes teammates made. Each is a folder in the library. Above them, the design systems: the rules teammates follow when they make a design. Manage opens them beside the page.
  • Trash: deleted files, for 30 days.

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How teammates use the library

Each teammate gets a read-only copy of the library on its computer, with only the folders it may read, kept up to date as files change. It reads files there like any others. To add or change a file, a teammate writes it on its computer, then saves it to the library through Brigade. It can also move, rename and delete files. Each save is a new version, credited to the teammate and linked to its thread. A file saved from a thread can be up to 500 MB. When a teammate names a video or a sound of the library in its reply, it plays right there, under the text that names it. Threads in a project are told to save what they make for it in the project’s folder.

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Teammate access

On a teammate’s Access tab, Document library is Read only (the default) or Read and write. A teammate with Read only can read and search the library but can’t save to it. To set a folder apart, open its menu and choose Teammate access:
  • Restricted: only the teammates you choose reach this folder, including teammates added later.
  • Per teammate: No access, Reads, Reads and saves, or As in the rest of the library.
It applies to the folder and every folder in it, unless one has its own. A teammate without access doesn’t see the folder on its computer or in search. Only admins change teammate access. People in the workspace always see every file.

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Mention a file

Type @ in a message to mention a file or a design: they are listed under Library and Designs. The mention shows as a chip; click it to open the file beside the thread. The teammate gets the file’s path in the library.

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Attachments or library

A file you attach to a message is copied to the teammate’s working folder for that thread only. When a file should outlive the thread, ask the teammate to save it to the library, or upload it there yourself.