Moving work between studios

The nine flowss studios are rooms of one building, and your work can move between them. A Mermaid flowchart can become an editable Weave canvas, a FlowScript document in the Lab, a BPMN process, a spaced-repetition course in Study or an evidence scaffold in Evidence, and a rough Sketch board can become a diagram anywhere. This page explains every way to move work, how flowss decides what each move does (an exact conversion, a cached view, or an AI rewrite), what each studio can send and receive, what survives the trip, what each move costs, and how flowss keeps track of where your work came from.

At a glance

Which studios send and receive

Not every studio does both. A studio "receives" when a diagram can be delivered into it, and "sends" when it can hand its own work on.

The Studio is the universal destination: anything that can be rendered opens there unchanged.

Evidence is the one studio whose Send to… is not counted as a source by the Flow Dock: its diagram is drawn from the review at the moment you send, so use the Send to… in Evidence's Share panel. When a PRISMA flow is sent to the Lab, the Lab version is written straight from the counts with no AI. Sent anywhere else, an AI conversion is checked first, and refused with "The conversion changed the PRISMA counts, so it was not sent — open the flow in Studio instead, which renders it as it is." if any count did not survive.

How flowss decides what a move does

Whenever work moves to a studio that does not natively read it, flowss picks the cheapest way that works, in this order:

Where each target's conversions usually land:

A Sketch board is ink rather than source, so it must become a diagram first: use Sketch's Send to…, which reads the board as a diagram, or recognise the board in Sketch.

Warning: The Library's Open in list offers Evidence for every document, including Weave and Science canvases and Sketch boards. Those usually hold no diagram source (only an imported Weave file does), so opening one in Evidence from the Library fails with "Missing 'code'". Open the document in its own studio and use Send to… → Evidence there instead.

AI rewrites need AI on your plan: your own key from Starter, or hosted AI points from Plus. Free has no AI, so on Free only the exact and built moves are available. See AI points and limits and Bring your own AI key.

Opening a Library document in another studio

1. In the Library, open the document card's … menu.
2. Under Open in, pick a studio. The list holds every other studio that can show this document, cheapest first. A hint reads ready when a converted view is already saved, and AI when opening there needs an AI rewrite. If no other studio can show it, the list says "Nowhere else yet".
3. flowss converts the document if it needs to (an AI rewrite shows "The flowss Library Agent is rewriting this as *engine*…"), hands it to the studio and opens it.

What happens to the document:

• The converted form is remembered on the document, so opening it there again is instant and free.
• Edits you make in that studio update the remembered form, not the original. The original's source stays exactly as it was.
• If the original changes later, the next open rebuilds the converted form from the new original.

To keep a converted version as a document in its own right, with its own title and history, use Save copy in Open as… below.

Opening the document in its own home studio (by clicking the card's thumbnail) is always a direct open, and your edits there are written back to the document itself.

The Open as… dialog

Open as… is the careful version of Open in. It shows what each move will do before it does it, and lets you keep the result.

1. Open the card's … menu and choose Open as… (hint "details"). In the list view it is in the row's … menu.
2. The dialog, titled **Open "*title*" as…**, explains: "Opening as a view keeps this one document and remembers the derived form. Saving a copy creates a new document that knows where it came from."
3. Each studio that can show the document has a row with its name, a badge (see the table above), and one sentence describing what will happen, for example "Lays the diagram out as an editable Weave canvas — exact, no AI." or "Asks the model to rewrite this as bpmn."
4. Choose an action on a row:

Save copy appears only for real conversions (ready, exact, no AI and AI). It is not offered where the document already opens directly, or where the target builds something of its own (Study and Evidence).

If no studio can show the document, the dialog says "Nowhere else can show this document yet."

The sentences you may read in the dialog:

Note: On Free, Save copy is refused in a studio that already holds 3 documents, before any AI call is made, so you are never charged for a copy you cannot keep.

The Send to… menu

Every studio that sends has a Send to… control ("Send this diagram to another studio"). In studios with the island layout it is in the Share panel's Send section; in Figure it is also in the export menu for the whole figure and on the toolbar for a selected panel. In the Studio, the ⋮ menu's Send to another studio… (also in ⌘K) opens the Flow Dock's Take it further chips as a quicker alternative. Send to… is disabled while there is nothing to send.

The menu has two parts.

Send to another studio lists every studio that can receive this diagram, except the one you are in. Each row shows the studio's name, its one-line description, and a convert chip when the diagram is not in that studio's own language and must be converted. A conversion uses a built-in translator when one can read your diagram (for example a Mermaid flowchart into a Weave canvas), at no cost; otherwise it is an AI rewrite. Rows:

Not for diagrams lists the studios that cannot receive a diagram (Figure and Sketch), dimmed, with the reason, for example "Figure works from its own material, so a diagram can't be delivered there." A footnote explains: "“convert” diagrams are rewritten by AI into the target studio's native format; dimmed studios work from their own material rather than a delivered diagram."

What happens when you pick a studio

Where the diagram lands in the target:

The target studio is detached from the Library document it had open before the delivery is written, so the delivery is never saved into that document.

Tip: Weave and Science hold one canvas at a time. If what is on the target canvas matters to you, save it to the Vault from the Flow Dock before you send something there. See Version history and undo.

If a conversion fails, the reason stays visible at the bottom of the menu, for example "Couldn't convert to bpmn. Try opening in Studio instead." or the AI service's own message.

What each studio sends

• Studio, Weave, Lab, BPMN, Science send the document you have open, in their own language.
• Sketch reads your board as a Mermaid diagram at the moment you send, from its shapes, text and connectors. If the board has no diagram in it yet you see "This board can't be sent yet — reason." For a fuller conversion, use Sketch's own recognition first. See Sketch.
• Figure sends the composed figure as an SVG from its export menu, or one selected panel from the panel toolbar. A panel made from data carries the chart source that drew it, so it arrives as an editable chart. See Figure.
• Evidence sends the review it has on screen as a Mermaid diagram (the PRISMA flow, causal graph or concept map), from the Send to… in its Share panel, once there is a result. See Evidence.

The Flow Dock's Take it further

The Flow Dock (⌘J, or its floating pill) holds a Take it further section while you are in a studio with something to hand on. It offers up to three one-click destinations, ranked by what you tend to do next (a studio you just left is ranked lower). When there is no better suggestion, the dock falls back to Research it, Study it and To Studio:

A chip runs the same delivery as Send to…, without the preview step. A rewrite shows "Converting to *engine*…" first, and if a built-in translator could not carry everything, a second toast names what was dropped.

When the studio's document cannot travel through the dock, the section shows why instead of the chips:

• "*Studio* converts its document before it can travel — use *Studio*'s own Send." (Sketch and Figure, whose Send to… does the reading or composing first)
• "This canvas can't be read from storage, so it can't be handed on. Reload Studio and try again." (a Weave or Science canvas whose saved copy is damaged)

In Study and Evidence, and in any studio with nothing open yet, the Take it further section simply does not appear. Evidence can still send from its own Send to….

Studying a document

Any diagram or canvas document with at least two ideas (nodes) that Study can read can become a course in Study. Study is part of Starter and up.

From the Library, a course is built from the document's concepts and connections, about one lesson for every four concepts. The course is linked to the document:

• Studying the same document again reopens the same course, with your progress intact. It never makes a second, empty copy.
• If the document has changed since, the course content is refreshed to match, unless you have edited the course yourself, in which case your version is left exactly as you have it.

A document with fewer than two readable ideas shows Not studyable yet in its card menu, or the message "This one has no structure to learn from yet — connect a few ideas first." when you choose Study this in the list view.

Sending from a studio (Send to… → Study, or Study it) hands the diagram to Study's course creator as notes, which you then turn into a course there. See Study.

Researching a document in Evidence

Sending a diagram to Evidence turns its concepts and relations into a plain-language scaffold (a research question, a title and source text) that Evidence can investigate against real papers. Diagrams that cannot be read as nodes and connections are sent as their source text. This step uses no AI points, but it counts toward your daily rendering allowance, and the diagram source can be at most 100 KB. Evidence itself requires Starter and up. See Evidence.

Lineage: where your work came from

Every Library document keeps an account of how it came to exist: created, duplicated, converted, imported, and so on. You see it in three places:

• "from …" on Library cards. A document derived from another shows "from *parent title*" with a branch icon. Hover it for "Derived from …". Duplicates, Save copy results and imports all carry it.
• Search. The notes in a document's history, such as "mermaid → lucidflow" or "imported roadmap.mmd (mermaid)", are searchable.
• Journey. Each time you send work from one studio to another, the move is recorded. The Library's Journey band shows each route with a count, such as "Sketch → Studio ×3" (hover for "3 handoffs, last 2h ago"). The Flow Dock's Journey section lists recent moves as "*From* → To · title · *time*".

Moves started from the Library, the Flow console or the command palette are not recorded in Journey, because they do not start in a studio.

Picking up where you left off

While you are signed in, Continue and Journey follow you to your other devices within moments.

What survives a move

The original is never changed by a move. Conversions write to the target studio or to a new document, never back over the source.

Plans and access

• Studio access. Free opens the Studio and Sketch. Weave, Lab, BPMN, Science, Figure, Study and Evidence start on Starter; sending or opening work in one of them on Free takes you to the pricing page for that studio. See Plans and what they include.
• AI rewrites. One standard AI call each, on your own key (Starter and up) or hosted AI points (Plus and up). Exact conversions, cached views, Study and Evidence moves cost nothing.
• Document limits on Free. Save copy and anything else that adds a document is refused in a studio that already holds 3 documents.

Tips

• Prefer exact moves. A diagram with clear nodes and connections lays out in Weave or Science with no AI and no loss. Check the badge in Open as… before you choose.
• Save a copy when the conversion is the point. If you want to keep developing the Weave version separately from the Mermaid original, use Save copy; a plain Open keeps it as a view that is rebuilt if the original changes.
• Preview before you leave. Send to… shows a rendering of any AI conversion and its notes before you commit; Cancel keeps you where you are.
• Study the same document again to refresh a course. It reopens the same course with your progress, and updates the content unless you have edited the course.
• Use the Studio when in doubt. Every diagram opens there exactly as it is.

Limits and known constraints

• Figure and Sketch cannot receive a diagram. Study cannot send one, and Evidence sends only from its own Send to…, once a review has a result.
• From the Library, Open in → Evidence fails for Weave and Science canvases and Sketch boards, which hold no diagram source.
• Weave and Science canvases cannot be opened in each other.
• Sending to Weave or Science replaces the canvas that studio has open. Checkpoint it in the Vault first if you need it.
• Edits made in a converted view are kept with that view and are replaced if the original changes and the view is rebuilt. Use Save copy to keep them independently.
• AI rewrites need AI on your plan and keep only what the target language can express.
• Sketch sends what it can read as a diagram from your board; freehand strokes that are not shapes do not travel.
• Journey records moves that start in a studio, not moves from the Library, the Flow console or the command palette.
• Moving work into a studio your plan does not include takes you to pricing rather than opening it.

Troubleshooting

Related pages

• Your library
• Cloud sync, offline work and devices
• Version history and undo
• Choosing an engine
• Importing and converting
• Study
• Evidence
• Weave
• A tour of the workspace
• The Flow layer
• Continuum: the one-platform layer