Comments and review

Comments let you discuss a diagram without changing it. flowss has two kinds. In the Studio, comments belong to a shared cloud project: they are stored on your account's project, tied to each member's name and role, and can be pinned to a spot on the canvas. In Sketch, Weave, Science, BPMN and the Lab, comment threads are part of the document itself: each thread is anchored to a place on the canvas, a shape, a BPMN element or a line of FlowScript, it is saved with the document, and in a live session it reaches everyone in the room as it is written. This page covers both kinds in full: how to open them, write, pin, reply, resolve and delete, who is allowed to do what, the limits, and the messages you may see.

At a glance

Project comments in the Studio

Before you start

Project comments live on a shared cloud project. If the Studio workspace you are in is not a shared project, the Comments panel says "Threaded comments live on a shared project. Open Collaborate to share this workspace — then anyone you invite can comment here, or pin a note straight to the canvas." See Sharing and permissions to create or join one.

To add a comment you need:

• the Commenter, Editor or Owner role on the project (viewers can read but not write);
• a plan that opens comments on this project: comments are available when you, the project's owner, or the team the project belongs to is on Plus or above. A Free collaborator on a Plus owner's project comments freely.

Reading, resolving and deleting existing comments are never limited by plan, so a lapsed plan never locks anyone out of what is already written.

Open the Comments panel

The panel opens in the Studio's right-hand side panel, alongside the flowss Studio Agent and Collaborate, with a switcher at the top to move between them. Open it with:

• the Comments button at the top right of the Studio, beside Share (on a phone it is in the ⋮ menu). Its badge counts the open threads, so a reply waiting for you is visible without opening the panel;
• ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux) → Open Comments, or the Comments entry under "Go to" ("Threaded feedback pinned to the canvas");
• clicking a comment pin on the canvas;
• the side panel's switcher, when the flowss Studio Agent or Collaborate is already open.

The panel's close button, or Esc, puts it away.

The panel, control by control

Threads are listed oldest first, and a thread's replies are listed under it in the order they were written. With no threads to show, the list says "No comments yet. Start the conversation above."

Write a comment

1. Open the figure you want to comment on.
2. Open the Comments panel.
3. Type in the box.
4. Click Comment. The comment appears at the end of the list (threads are listed oldest first), and the box clears.

If the comment is refused, the text you typed stays in the box and the reason appears in a message, so nothing you wrote is lost.

Pin a comment to the canvas

1. Type your comment.
2. Click Pin. The button reads Click canvas and the canvas shows a crosshair ("Click to place the comment pin").
3. Click the spot you want to point at. The button reads Pinned.
4. Click Comment.

To choose a different spot before posting, click Pinned again and click the canvas again.

Pins appear as map-pin markers over the canvas: amber for open threads, green for resolved ones. Hover over a pin to read its author and the first 60 characters of the comment; click it to open the Comments panel. A pin shows only while the figure it was placed on is open.

Note: Pins mark a position in the visible canvas area, not a position in the diagram. If you pan or zoom, or the diagram's layout changes, a pin does not move with the diagram. Say which element you mean in the comment text as well.

Reply to a thread

1. Click Reply under the thread.
2. Type in the "Reply…" line.
3. Press Enter or click Reply.

Replies are listed under the comment they answer, each with its author and age. Replies cannot be pinned, and only the first comment of a thread can be resolved.

Resolve and reopen

Click the tick button on a thread to resolve it; the card turns green, the label "resolved" appears and its pin turns green. Click the tick again to reopen it. Resolving keeps the thread and its replies; it only marks the discussion as done.

You can resolve a thread if you wrote it or if you own the project. Anyone else who tries sees "Only the author or project owner can resolve this."

Delete a comment

The bin button appears on the first comment of a thread, and only when you wrote it. Deleting it deletes the thread's replies too. Replies have no bin button of their own in the panel, so a reply stays until its whole thread is deleted. The project's owner is also allowed to delete anyone's comments; other members who try see "Only the author or project owner can delete this."

How comments reach the rest of the team

• When anyone adds, resolves or deletes a comment, the other members' Studios are told and fetch the comments again, so new threads appear within moments without reloading. Closing and reopening the Comments panel always fetches the latest comments.
• The Comments button's badge counts open (unresolved) threads, not replies.
• Each new comment is also listed in the Collaborate panel's Recent activity as "*name* commented" followed by the start of the comment.
• If your access to the project ends, the comments disappear from your panel.

What each role can do with comments

Members who join a team project only through the team have the viewer role (team members) or the editor role (team owners and admins); see Teams and organisations.

Comment threads inside documents

How document threads work

In Sketch, Weave, Science, BPMN and the Lab, a comment is a pinned thread: a first message plus replies, anchored to something in the document. Threads are deliberately kept apart from the drawing itself:

• they never appear in exports (PNG, SVG, PDF and the rest);
• they are not part of the undo history, so ⌘Z never removes a comment;
• each message carries its author's name and colour, so threads still read correctly after the author has left.

Where threads are kept depends on the studio:

Anyone who can open the document can add threads; there is no separate plan check. To see other people's threads appear as they are written, you need to be in the same live session; see Live collaboration.

Sketch

• Start a thread. Pick the Comment tool (shortcut D), or ⌘K → Comment on the canvas, then click anywhere on the board. A New comment card opens where you clicked, with the placeholder "Leave a comment — it pins right here and saves with the sketch…".
• Comments index. The Comments button at the top right (its badge counts unresolved threads), or ⌘K → Show comments ("Every pinned thread on this canvas — click one to jump to its pin"), opens a list of every thread, newest first. Its first row, New comment ("Click anywhere on the board to pin it · D"), picks the Comment tool. Click any thread to jump to its pin.
• Open a thread. Click its pin on the board, with the Comment tool or the select tool. Drawing tools ink straight past pins, and pins are hidden while you present.
• Pins sit in board coordinates, so they pan and zoom with the drawing.

Weave

• Start a thread. Pick the Comment tool on the rail, or run ⌘K → Comment on the canvas ("Pick the Comment tool and pin a thread anywhere"), then click the board, or click a shape to comment on that shape. You can also select a shape and use the comment button on the toolbar that floats above it. The new-comment card reads "Leave a comment — it pins right here and saves with the diagram…".
• Shape comments follow the shape. A pin dropped on a shape sits at its top-right corner and moves with it, including through auto-layout. If the shape is deleted, the pin stays where it was dropped, so the conversation is not lost.
• Comments index. ⌘K → Show comments ("Every pinned thread on this flow — click one to jump to its pin"), or the Comments button at the top right. Picking a thread moves the view to its pin and opens it.

Science

• Start a thread. Choose Comment — click to pin a thread on the rail, or press C, then click the canvas. The card is headed "New comment" and its box reads "Write a comment…".
• Comments index. The Comments button at the top right, or the Comments entry in ⌘K ("Every pinned thread on this figure; pick one to fly to its pin"), lists every thread, newest first, and flies the view to the one you pick. With none yet it says "No comments yet. Pick Comment (C) on the rail, then click the canvas."
• Pins sit in figure coordinates and pan and zoom with the drawing.

BPMN

• Open the panel. Click Comments at the top right, or ⌘K → Toggle comments ("Threads anchored to diagram elements — they sync live").
• Start a thread. Select an element on the canvas. The composer reads "Comment on *element*" (the element's name, or its id when it has none). Without a selection it says "Select an element on the canvas to comment on it."
• Jump to the element. Each thread shows its anchor as a chip; click it ("Jump to this comment's anchor") to select that element.

Lab

• Open the panel. Click Comments at the top right, or ⌘K → Toggle comments ("Threads anchored to source lines — they sync live").
• Start a thread. Put your cursor on the FlowScript line you want to discuss. The composer reads "Comment on line *N*": the line your cursor is on, or, when the editor has no cursor, the first line of the selected block, or line 1. Check the line number before you post.
• Jump to the line. Click a thread's anchor chip to move to its line.

Writing, replying and posting

Two kinds of card are used.

In Sketch, Weave and Science, threads open as small cards on the canvas:

In BPMN and the Lab, threads live in a Comments panel on the right, newest first, with the number of threads beside the title:

With no threads yet, the panel says "No comments yet. Threads sync live with everyone in the session and stay saved with your work."

Resolving and deleting document threads

Resolved threads stay in the document, shown faded. Deleting the first message of a thread deletes the thread. On the canvas cards in Sketch, Weave and Science, the per-message delete buttons appear when you hover over a message. Nothing asks you to confirm a delete, and a deleted thread or message cannot be brought back with undo.

The Comments button's badge counts different things in different studios:

Note: "You" means the identity this browser uses in live sessions: your account name when you are signed in. If you comment from two different browsers, they count as two people for deleting.

Document threads in a live session

When you are in a live session in one of these studios:

• every new thread, reply, resolve and delete is sent to everyone in the room as it happens;
• someone who joins late asks the room for its threads and receives them, so they see the conversation so far;
• if two people reply to the same thread at the same moment, both replies are kept, in time order, on every screen;
• resolving and reopening go to whoever acted last;
• a deleted reply cannot be brought back by someone who still had an old copy;
• a deleted thread disappears for everyone who hears about it. Someone who was offline at that moment keeps their copy.

In BPMN and the Lab, a session is about one document: threads from the session are filed under the diagram or document it was started on, even if you switch to another tab in the meantime.

Limits on document threads

Running a review

A practical pattern for getting feedback on a diagram:

1. For a Studio diagram, create a shared project and invite reviewers as Commenter so they can comment but not change the figures (see Sharing and permissions).
2. Ask reviewers to pin each comment to the part of the canvas it is about, and to name the element in the text, since Studio pins do not follow pan and zoom.
3. Work through the open threads: reply, make the change, then resolve the thread. The Comments badge tells you how many remain open.
4. Untick This diagram only to sweep every figure in the project at once before you call the review done.
5. For a walkthrough in real time, start a live session (from outside the project) and talk it through; in Sketch, Weave, Science, BPMN and the Lab the threads you add during the session sync to everyone.

Tips

• Keep each thread about one thing. A resolved thread then means one finished change.
• In Weave, comment on the shape rather than the empty canvas beside it, so the thread moves with the shape.
• Before a BPMN or Lab review, remember those threads are kept in the browser you wrote them in. Export or screenshot the threads if you need to keep them elsewhere.
• Studio comments are capped at 4,000 characters each; write long feedback as several replies.
• Comments never appear in exports, so you can leave review notes on a figure you are about to publish.

Limits and known constraints

• Studio project comments exist only on shared cloud projects. A personal Studio workspace has no comments.
• Studio pins mark a spot in the visible canvas area and do not follow pan, zoom or layout changes.
• Studio comments are limited to 4,000 characters; longer text is cut. Empty comments are refused.
• In the Studio, the comment box is shown to viewers, but posting is refused for them.
• The Studio's bin button is shown only on threads you started, even to the project owner, although the owner is allowed to delete any comment. Replies have no bin button of their own.
• BPMN and Lab threads are stored in the browser beside the document, not inside the .bpmn file or the FlowScript source.
• Document threads are capped at 200 per document, 50 messages per thread and 2,000 characters per message.
• In a live session, a thread deleted while someone was disconnected can survive on that person's copy.

Troubleshooting

Related pages

• Sharing and permissions
• Live collaboration
• Teams and organisations
• Classrooms, cohorts and assignments
• The Studio editor
• Sketch
• Weave
• Science
• BPMN
• Lab
• Version history and undo
• Plans and what they include