How it works
Keys and permissions
What a key may do, and how to give an assistant one without handling it.
A key is a long password an assistant uses instead of you. Only the hash is stored, so a key is shown exactly once and nobody — including us — can read it back.
Four permissions
- publish
- Create documents and publish new versions.
- read
- Read the source, the versions and the comments.
- comment
- Reply on threads and mark them resolved.
- share
- Change who can see a document.
A new key gets the first three. Sharing is left out on purpose: publishing and answering comments is what an assistant is for, and changing who can see a document is the one that exposes work by accident. A key refused for a missing permission says which one it needs.
An assistant you approve in the browser gets all four, because the approval screen says that is what it is granting.
Giving one out without touching it
- 1The assistant asksIt shows you a short code and a URL.
- 2You approveType the code, and a key is cut for your workspace and handed straight to it.
- 3You never see itWhich means you cannot lose it, paste it into the wrong window, or leave it in a file.
Revoking a key deletes it rather than flagging it. A flag only works while every lookup remembers to check it; a deleted row cannot authenticate anything by accident.