Publish a Mesh for Readers

This guide freezes a mesh as a public version. At the end readers can open a copy that does not change when you keep writing.

Prerequisites

You can manage the mesh. Owner and admin publish.
You have a connection. Publish does not queue offline.
The mesh holds the documents you want readers to see.
Read About Sharing and Publication if publication is new.

Publishing is not sharing. Sharing gives a role on the live mesh. Publication makes a frozen copy.

Open publish

Open settings on the mesh and go to publish. The panel lists versions you already published. If you have never published, the list is empty.

Give the version a label. The first version is often a simple number. If your last label looks like a numbered version, the panel offers the next number. You can type a different label. Two versions cannot share a label.

Add tags if readers will browse by topic. Add a short description of what the mesh is and who it is for.

Publish and wait

Start the publish. The service copies the mesh. The copy is frozen. You cannot edit it.

Watch the status. Ready means readers can open it. Failed means nothing was published under that label. You can try again, or you can remove the failed row.

Do not expect the copy to include edits you type while it runs. Those edits belong to the next publish. A busy live mesh can also make the copy start over.

Copy the reader link

When at least one version is ready, copy the stable link. That link always opens the latest ready version of this mesh. Give that link to readers when you want them to follow new publishes.

A reader can also switch to an older ready version from inside the published workspace. An older version uses a pinned address that does not move.

Read it as a stranger would

Open the published mesh from the link, or find it in the public registry on home. You can do this signed out. You will have a read-only view. Version history is not offered. Writing actions are not offered.

Check the documents you care about. Follow a few wikilinks. If something is wrong, go back to the live mesh, fix it, and publish a new version.

Update or withdraw

You can change the label, tags, and description of a ready version without copying the mesh again. Withdraw a version when it should no longer open. Withdrawn versions stay in the list so a reader can see that they existed.

Keep writing in the live mesh. A publication does not lock your working copy.

Next steps

If some people must write, invite them instead. See Share a Mesh with Collaborators.
For the noun list behind this flow, see Core Ideas.