# Choose who can open your link, document by document

How to pick a sharing mode for a proposal, a board pack or a launch page, and what each mode shows the reader and you.

By artifact.guru team. Published 2026-10-04, updated 2026-10-05.

**Short answer:** Pick the mode by who has to get in and whether you need to know their names. Private keeps it inside your workspace, and in a team workspace that’s the whole team. With Email, only the people you invite get in, once they sign in with that address, and Views shows each of them by name. A Secret code lets in anyone who has the link and the code, without an account, but Views can only count them. Public is open to anyone with the link. You can switch modes later, and the link stays the same.

## Four questions decide it

Every artifact starts **Private**. When you open **Share**, ask these four questions in order and stop at the first yes.

- **Is it only for us?** Keep it **Private**. In a team workspace, that already means the whole team.
- **Is it for anyone who gets the link?** Use **Public**. Nobody signs in, and a link pasted into a chat shows its title.
- **Do I need to know who read it, or to remove one person later?** Use **Email**. People sign in with the address you invited, so Views shows their names.
- **Is it for a group I can’t list, or people who won’t sign in?** Use **Secret code**. Anyone with the link and the code can open it, without an account.

Ostra Studio invited Mara Ellison and the three inn managers to the Saltmarsh brand review below by **Email**, so the studio can see which of them opened it before Thursday’s meeting. Pick one of the two brand directions, and the last slide changes.

## Which mode for which document

Sample presentation: [Saltmarsh brand review](https://artifact.guru/examples/saltmarsh-design-review). The deck Ostra Studio presented to the client.

The same questions, document by document:

| Document | Mode | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Proposal | **Secret code**, expiring in 30 days | The decision-maker can pass it to finance without anyone signing in, and the code runs out with the offer. Use Email if you need to know who opened it. |
| Estimate | **Email** | Two or three named people approve a budget. You see which of them opened it, and you can remove someone who leaves the project. |
| Client website draft | **Secret code** | The client’s whole team checks it on their phones, without accounts. A new code shuts out last round’s reviewers. |
| Design review | **Email** | A small, named group decides in a meeting. Views shows who looked before it. |
| Board pack | **Secret code** | Directors open it without an account, and it can open on your own domain. Use Email instead when you need each director’s name. |
| Investor update | **Email** | A known list of up to 50 people. You see who read this month’s ask, and a forwarded link doesn’t open for anyone you didn’t invite. |
| Team update | **Private** | In a team workspace, Private is the whole team, and Views names each teammate who opened it. |
| Launch page | **Public** | It’s meant to travel, and a pasted link shows its title. Keep it Private until launch day, then switch. The link you prepared stays the same. |
| Portfolio piece | **Public** | Anyone can pass it on. It still stays out of search engines, so link to it from your own site. |
| Internal numbers | **Private** | Nothing leaves the workspace. Pasted into a channel with guests, the link shows only a plain “Private link” card. |

*Each mode lets more people in, from your workspace out to anyone who has the link.*

## Private: your workspace

- **Who gets in:** people in the workspace. In a personal workspace, that’s you. In a team workspace, it’s every member, and each member is [a seat on the Team plan](https://artifact.guru/docs/teams#seats): 3 are included, then $8 a month each.
- **What they see:** members open it at once. Anyone else sees “This link is private” and a sign-in button.
- **What you see under Views:** every member who opened it, by name, with how often and when.
- **How to stop it:** it’s already as narrow as a link gets. Someone who leaves the team can no longer open it.

> **Private means the whole team.** Don’t add a client to your team workspace to share one file. They’d see everything Private in it, and they’d take a paid seat. Invite their address by **Email** instead. Invitees need no plan and don’t take a seat.

## Email: named people

- **Who gets in:** the addresses you add, up to 50 per artifact, plus your workspace. artifact.guru sends no invitation, so you send the link yourself.
- **What they see:** “Sign in to open”. They enter the invited address, get a one-time code by email and type it in. There’s no password, and someone new creates an account in the same step, with no plan to buy. A different address gets “You don’t have access”.
- **What you see under Views:** each person by name and address, with how often and when they last opened it. Invited people who haven’t opened it yet are listed too. See [who opened your link](https://artifact.guru/blog/who-opened-your-link).
- **How to stop it:** remove one address and only that person is locked out. Everyone else keeps their access.

## Secret code: anyone with the code

- **Who gets in:** anyone with the link and the code, such as `KM7Q-4XPA`, without an account.
- **What they see:** “Enter the code”, then the file. Their browser remembers the code for that link for up to 30 days, until you make a new one or it expires.
- **What you see under Views:** counts, not names: views, daily visitors, where they came from, countries and devices. Opens by your own workspace aren’t counted while you’re signed in.
- **How to stop it:** **New code** locks out everyone who only knows the old one, straight away. A code can also expire on its own after 7 or 30 days. Pick the time under **Expires** before you choose **New code**; otherwise the new code never expires.

> **Reopening a link.** Switching to Private and later back to Secret code brings back the same code. Choose **New code** if the people who had it shouldn’t get back in.

## Public: anyone with the link

- **Who gets in:** anyone who has the link.
- **What they see:** the file, straight away. Pasted into a chat, the link unfolds into a card with the title, the format and your workspace’s name.
- **What you see under Views:** counts, not names: views, daily visitors, where they came from, countries and devices. Opens by your own workspace aren’t counted while you’re signed in.
- **How to stop it:** switch to any other mode, and the next visitor gets a code screen or a sign-in.

## A code can be forwarded; Email names people

Secret code and Email both keep strangers out, but they fail differently. A code is a shared secret. Whoever has the link and the code is in, including the colleague it was forwarded to, and Views can’t tell you who that was.

Email checks a person. A forwarded Email link asks the new reader to sign in with an invited address, and theirs isn’t one. So the question is whether forwarding helps. It does for a website draft meant for the client’s whole marketing team, so use a code. For a salary review or an acquisition memo it doesn’t, so use Email. [How to password-protect an HTML file](https://artifact.guru/blog/password-protect-html-file) has more on codes.

## Switch modes without changing the link

The link stays the same in every mode, so you can send it before you’ve decided and change access later. You might keep a page Private while you check it on your phone, use Email for the first review, and make it Public on launch day.

Narrowing takes effect at once. Pages already open outside your workspace stop loading anything new within about a minute. Your agent can switch for you: “Make the Saltmarsh review Email-only and invite mara@example.com.”

## What a pasted link shows

Paste a Public link into Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, X, LinkedIn or Discord and it unfolds into a card with its title. Links in the other modes show a plain card without the title, labeled “Private link”, “Invite-only link” or “Protected link”. Preview services can’t sign in, and everyone in the chat sees whatever the card shows.

> **Channels with guests.** That makes a Private link safe to paste into a channel with guests. They see “Private link” and nothing about what’s inside.

## Stop sharing

- **One person:** on an Email link, remove their address.
- **Everyone with the code:** choose **New code**.
- **Everyone outside the workspace:** set the link to **Private**.
- **For good:** delete the artifact, and its link stops working.

> **Copies stay copies.** You can’t recall a copy someone already saved. With controls on, a shared link has a **Download** button; switch off **Show controls** to hide it. Anyone who can open a page can still save it from the browser.

## When to use something else

- **Several people editing at once:** use a shared document editor. artifact.guru keeps versions at one link, but there’s no live co-editing and no comments.
- **An NDA before opening, watermarks or a log of every page read:** use a data room. artifact.guru has none of these.
- **Access for everyone at a company by its email domain:** there’s no SSO or domain rule. Email works one address at a time.
- **An alert when someone opens it:** there are no notifications. Check **Views** when you want to know.

## Questions

### Does changing the mode change the link?

No. Share first and widen or narrow access later; the address stays the same.

### Do invited people need an account or a plan?

They sign in with a one-time code sent to the invited address. Someone new gets an account in the same step. No plan or payment is needed.

### Can a client see other files in my workspace?

No. Access is set per artifact. An Email invite or a code opens that one link and nothing else.

### Which modes open on my own domain?

Public and Secret code. Private and Email links keep opening on artifact.guru, where people sign in.

### Can my agent change who can open it?

Yes. Say “invite ana@example.com”, “make a new secret code that expires in 30 days” or “make it public”.

Source: https://artifact.guru/blog/choose-who-can-open