Your library

The Library, at /library, is the one home for everything you make in flowss. Every document from every studio sits on one board next to your cloud projects and your saved Evidence investigations. Each card remembers which studio made it and what it was derived from, and opens in whichever studio can show it. From the same board you can search inside your documents (not just their titles), tag and star them, save the views you use most, import files you already have, export a backup, empty the trash and check how much browser storage you are using. This page documents every control on the board, what each one does, the limits that apply and the messages you may see.

At a glance

Opening the Library

The Library is a page of its own rather than a studio. You can reach it from:

• the Library row in any studio's app menu (the top-left button with the studio's name);
• the command palette (⌘K on a Mac, Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux), under Your library;
• the Library link in the studio switcher on pages that use the header bar;
• the Library button beside your account in the header, when you are signed in and the window is wide enough;
• /library directly. The older address /dashboard redirects here, so old bookmarks keep working.

The Library does not ask you to sign in. A visitor who is signed out sees the documents saved in this browser. When you are signed in, the board also fetches your cloud projects and Evidence projects and merges them in; until they arrive you see a loading shimmer rather than an empty board.

Above the board, the page shows the cross-studio strip described in Moving work between studios. Each band appears only when it has something to show:

What appears in the Library

The Library is built from the documents your studios keep. The header line counts them, for example "12 documents across 4 studios · 2 in the cloud — one workspace, not eight." With nothing yet it reads "Everything you make, from every studio, lands here — cloud projects too."

Note: Weave and Science each hold one live canvas at a time. The Library card for that canvas is titled "Weave canvas" or "Science figure" until you rename it.

The toolbar

The row at the top right of the board holds every board-wide control, in this order:

Filter chips

Under the toolbar is a row of chips. Click one to show only those documents; the active chip is tinted. Each shows a count.

Tag chips match only Library documents. Cloud projects carry no tags.

Searching

Search looks inside your documents, not only at their names. For documents saved in this browser it matches:

Cloud projects and Evidence projects are matched on their name and studio only. Typing a studio's name (for example "sketch") also shows every document from that studio.

How results are ordered:

• With the Recent sort, the board switches to relevance while you search: an exact title first, then titles that start with your words, then documents with a matching tag, then titles that contain your words (the earlier in the title, the higher), then words found inside the document, then the engine name, and last the documents that match only word by word (see below). Ties go to the most recently edited.
• With Name, Studio or Needs work chosen, your sort is kept even while searching.
• If you type several words and no single field contains them all, a document still matches when every word appears somewhere in it. For example "krebs atp" finds a canvas with one node about each.

When a card matches because of its contents rather than its title, it says why on a line with a magnifier, such as node: "…the Krebs cycle feeds…". In the list view the same snippet appears on wide screens.

The Recently open rail (see below) hides while you search or filter, because you are looking for something rather than picking up where you left off. In the trash view, search matches titles only.

Sorting and grouping

Two display options live in Library options (⋮) → Display:

• Starred first (hint "Recent sort") applies only to the Recent sort and never while you search.
• Group by studio splits the board into one section per studio, each headed by the studio's name and count, in the platform's studio order. Grouping never re-ranks: within each section the order is your chosen sort.

Both options are remembered in this browser.

Readiness on cards

Where a document can be judged, its card shows a small readiness chip, the same word the studios and the Flow console use: Empty, Draft, Sound, Reviewed or Publishable. On BPMN documents the third level reads Checked instead of Sound, because "sound" has its own formal meaning in BPMN. A chip reading Not assessed yet means the checker that document needs has not loaded yet; it settles on its own. Readiness is computed on your device a batch of cards at a time and arrives a moment after the board, so the Needs work order may settle shortly after the page opens. See The work model for what each level means.

Saved views

A saved view remembers the current search text, filter chip and sort under a name, so you can return to "Everything tagged thesis, by name" in one click.

1. Set up the board the way you want it: type a search, pick a chip, choose a sort.
2. Click the bookmark button (Saved views) and choose Save current view….
3. In Save this view, type a Name (the placeholder suggests "Everything I starred") and click Save view.

A toast confirms "Saved view" with its name. To use a view, open the bookmark menu and click its name under Saved views. To delete one, click its name under Remove in the same menu.

Tags

Tags are how you group documents without folders. A document can carry any number of tags, and the same document can sit in as many groups as you like.

To tag one document:

1. Open its … menu and choose Tags….
2. In Tags for document, type in the box ("Add tags, comma-separated"). Press Enter or type a comma to add what you have typed, or click +.
3. Click any suggestion under From your library (up to 12 of your existing tags) to add it in one click.
4. Remove a tag with the × on its chip.
5. Click Save tags. Anything still typed in the box is added too.

To tag several documents at once, select them, click Tag in the selection bar, and use Add tags to N documents. It says "These tags are added to every selected document; tags they already have stay." Click Add tags; a toast confirms "Tagged N documents".

Tag rules:

• A leading # is dropped (the board adds its own), extra spaces are collapsed, and tags are cut to 32 characters.
• Tags ignore case for matching but keep the casing you first typed: "Thesis" and "thesis" are the same tag.
• Separate tags with commas, because a tag may contain spaces ("waiting on review").

Cards show their first four tags and "+N" for the rest. Click a tag on a card to filter the board to it.

Document cards

Each document card shows the following, top to bottom.

The card's … menu

Warning: A share link carries the whole diagram inside the address, so anyone with the link can read it. Treat it as public. Links longer than about 8 KB are refused with "This document is too large for a share link (N KB — the limit is about 8 KB). Export it instead."

Cloud project cards

Cloud projects are shared workspaces saved to your account; see Sharing and permissions. Evidence projects are investigations you saved in Evidence. Both appear on the board when you are signed in.

Drift badges

A project whose diagram is bound to an outside source (a "living diagram", set up from the Studio's Collaborate panel) shows the worst state of its bindings:

See Integrations and extensions for living diagrams.

Renaming and deleting a cloud project

Rename opens Rename project with a Project name field; the change shows at once and a toast says "Renamed". Delete asks Delete for everyone?: "*name* will be deleted from the cloud for everyone it is shared with. This can't be undone." Click Delete project to confirm; the toast says "Deleted *name*". If the server refuses either change, the card goes back to how it was and a toast explains why, for example "Only the project owner can rename it." or "That project no longer exists."

Evidence project cards have no … menu. Rename or delete an Evidence investigation inside Evidence.

The list view

The list view shows one compact row per item: a selection box, a studio-coloured dot, the title (click to open), a match snippet on wide screens, any drift badge, "*Studio* · *engine*" (or "· cloud"), the time, the star and a … menu.

The list view's … menu has Study this, Open as…, History…, Rename, Tags…, Duplicate and Delete for documents, and Rename and Delete for cloud projects you own. Study this is always clickable in the list view; on a document with too little structure it explains why instead of opening Study. Open in and Copy share link are on the card menu in the grid view only. On narrow screens the list view hides the studio and engine column and then the time column.

The Recently open rail

On the unfiltered board, with no search, a Recently open rail sits above the cards. It lists up to eight documents that a studio currently has open, newest edit first. Each chip reads "*title* open in Studio · *time*", with "+N" when the same document is open in more than one studio. Click a chip to continue it there.

Selecting several items

While anything is selected, a bar appears above the board:

Tag, Duplicate, Export and Delete act on Library documents only, and are greyed out when only cloud projects are selected. A cloud project is permanent and shared, so it is deleted one at a time from its own menu, with its own confirmation.

The trash

Deleting a Library document moves it to the trash rather than destroying it. The Trash chip appears in the chip row whenever the trash holds something; you can also reach it with View trash in the Storage panel, or with the address /library?filter=trash.

The trash view starts with the sentence "Documents stay here for 30 days after deletion, then they're removed for good. Restoring puts one back exactly where it was." and an Empty trash button. Each row shows the document's title, then "*Studio* · deleted time · size · N days left" ("removed on the next sweep" once its time is up).

Typing in the search box while the trash is showing filters it by title. With nothing in it, the view reads "Trash is empty" and "Deleted documents wait here for 30 days before they're removed for good."

Documents older than 30 days in the trash are removed for good the next time the Library page is opened in this browser. A document deleted forever also loses its version history. Cloud projects never go to the trash.

Warning: On a free account, Restore counts as adding a document to its studio. If that studio is already full, the document stays in the trash and a message explains why. See "Free plan limits in the Library" below.

Opening a document

Click a card's thumbnail (or a row's title) to open the document in its home studio. If the studio already has a converted view of it, that view opens at once. As you edit in the studio, your changes are written back to the same Library document every few seconds, so its title, tags, star and history stay with it.

You can also open documents from outside the Library:

• ⌘K lists your documents; picking one opens it in its home studio in one step.
• A link of the form /library?doc=<id> opens that document. If it is in the trash you see "“*title*” is in the trash — restore it to open it." If it is nowhere in this library you see "That document isn't in this library — it may have been deleted, or saved in another browser or account." When you are signed in, the Library waits for your other devices' documents to arrive before deciding.

Opening a document in a studio your plan does not include takes you to the pricing page for that studio. On Free you can open the Studio and Sketch; the other studios start on Starter. See Plans and what they include.

Importing files you already have

You can bring diagram files, spreadsheets and backups straight into the Library.

1. Drag the files onto the board. A dashed overlay reads "Drop to import — .mmd, .puml, .dot, .d2, .bpmn, .svg, .csv…". Or choose Library options (⋮) → Import files… (hint "or drop them").
2. The Library reads each file and shows Import N files, with one row per file: what it will become, where it will go, and for any file it cannot take, why. Nothing is written yet.
3. Click Import N to go ahead, or Cancel.

What each kind of file becomes:

Import files… offers the extensions above in your browser's file picker. Dropping works with any file, and every file gets an answer either way.

Each row in the preview shows the file's title and a detail line: the engine and destination (for example "mermaid → studio"), "rows → Figure studio" for a dataset, or "library backup · N documents" for a backup. Refused files are listed last, with the reason. The line above the list says "This adds N documents, N datasets to your library. Nothing already here is changed."

After import, a toast summarises what happened, for example "Imported 3 documents, 1 dataset waiting in the Figure studio" (a backup adds "*N* from a backup"). If nothing could be written, the toast says "Nothing was imported." Imported documents record the file they came from ("imported roadmap.mmd (mermaid)"), and that note is searchable.

Import limits:

If you drop a single file that cannot be imported, you get its reason as a toast instead of a dialog.

Backing up your library

The Library can write everything it holds to a single file you keep, and read such a file back. Use it to move work to a browser where you do not sign in, to keep an offline copy, or before clearing site data.

Export

Choose Library options (⋮) → Export library…. Your browser downloads a file named like flowss-library-2026-10-04.json (dated in UTC), and a toast says "Exported N documents". The file includes every document's title, content, tags, star, lineage and trash, because a backup that silently dropped restorable documents would not be a backup. With an empty library the toast says "Nothing to export yet." instead.

A backup holds Library documents only. It does not include each document's version history, your Vault checkpoints, saved views, or cloud and Evidence projects (those live on flowss servers).

To back up only some documents, select them and click Export in the selection bar.

Import

1. Choose Library options (⋮) → Import backup… and pick the .json file. (A backup dropped on the board or chosen with Import files… works too.)
2. Import library backup shows the file name, how many documents it holds, and exactly what will happen: New documents, Updated to the backup's newer copy, and Already up to date here.
3. Click Import. The button reads Nothing to import and is disabled when the backup holds nothing newer.

Importing merges; it never replaces. A document you edited more recently than the backup is never overwritten, and nothing already in your Library is removed. The toast says "Imported N documents (X new, Y updated)", or "Everything in that backup was already here."

The dialog may also warn:

• "This file's checksum doesn't match its contents — it may have been edited or truncated. The documents listed above still validated individually." The documents that passed their own checks are still offered.
• "*N* records in the file couldn't be read and will be skipped."

Storage health

Documents in the Library are saved in your browser's storage, which browsers cap at roughly 5 MB per site. The hard-drive button opens the Storage panel, which tells you how close you are.

The panel measures when you open it and updates while it is open; if a save fails while you are looking, the alert appears at once. For what to do when storage is full, see Cloud sync, offline work and devices.

Free plan limits in the Library

Free accounts keep 3 documents in each studio and 3 projects in the cloud Library. Starter and up have no limit. See Plans and what they include.

• Per-studio documents. When any studio is at or over 3 on a free account, the header says so in amber: "A free account keeps 3 figures in each studio, and Studio is at 5. Nothing has been deleted or locked — every document here still opens and edits. What the cap pauses is the next new one in a studio that is full; move one to the trash to make room, or upgrade to Starter for unlimited figures." With several studios full it names how many.
• What the cap pauses. Duplicate, bulk Duplicate, Save copy in Open as…, importing a file, and Restore from the trash each add a document to a studio, so each is refused in a full studio with a message saying why. Nothing you already have is changed.
• Cloud projects. The slot meter in the chip row ("2 of 3 project slots used") counts the cloud projects you own personally. Projects that belong to a team whose plan includes shared projects do not use your slots. Hover it for the full sentence: below the last slot, "Cloud projects you own count toward the free limit of 3."; on the last slot (amber), "This is your last free project slot — Starter removes the limit."; when full (red), "Free accounts keep 3 saved projects, and yours are full. Every one of them stays fully editable — nothing has been archived or made read-only. Delete one to make room, or upgrade to Starter for unlimited projects."

Keyboard shortcuts

See Keyboard shortcuts for every studio.

Links that open the Library a certain way

You can bookmark or share Library addresses that set the filter or open a document:

The Library removes the parameter from the address once it has acted on it, so refreshing does not open the document again. A link only finds documents that are in the library of the browser and account that opens it.

Tips

• Tag as you go, then save views. A tag such as #thesis plus a saved view "Thesis, by name" gives you a folder that a document can share with other folders.
• Use Needs work on a Monday. The Needs work sort lists the least finished documents first, so the ones that still need you are at the top.
• Search for what is inside. If you remember a node label or a sticky note but not the title, type it: the card explains which node or note matched.
• Export before you clear site data. Export library… takes seconds, and a backup file brings everything back with titles, tags and lineage intact.
• Watch the slot meter on Free. It warns you on your last free cloud project slot, before the wall.
• Open the Storage panel when saving feels wrong. If edits stop sticking, the panel's write check tells you within a second whether the browser is refusing to save.

Limits and known constraints

• Figure's work does not appear in the Library. Open Figure directly; cloud sync and the Vault still cover it.
• Study courses are not Library cards. Turn a Library document into a course with Study these or Turn into lessons.
• Weave and Science each mirror one live canvas into the Library at a time.
• Cloud projects and Evidence projects appear only while you are signed in, and are matched by name only in search. They cannot be tagged, duplicated, exported or bulk-deleted from the Library.
• Saved views, the grid or list choice, Starred first, Group by studio and stars on cloud projects are kept in this browser only.
• The Library lives in browser storage capped at roughly 5 MB per site. The Storage panel shows how close you are.
• Imports read at most 25 files per drop, 4 MB per file and one dataset per drop.
• Share links are limited to about 8 KB and carry the diagram itself, so anyone with the link can read it.
• Readiness chips appear only for documents that can be judged, and arrive a moment after the board.
• Deleted documents stay in the trash for 30 days; cloud projects are never trashed, and deleting one is permanent for everyone.

Troubleshooting

Related pages

• Cloud sync, offline work and devices
• Moving work between studios
• Version history and undo
• Sharing and permissions
• Importing and converting
• Plans and what they include
• The work model
• Continuum: the one-platform layer
• Keyboard shortcuts