Team projects and saving
How a designer opens a team project without a folder, what "Saving…" and "Saved" mean, and how history, undo, conflicts and unfinished AI edits work when a project saves through accepted revisions.
A team project lives on your team's server — Maude Cloud or a self-hosted hub. Everyone works on the same project, and every change reaches everyone else without refreshing, pulling or pushing.
Opening a project you were invited to
In the desktop app choose Open a project you were invited to (on first launch), or Open a team project… in the project switcher at the bottom of the sidebar.
- Maude Cloud — sign in once (the app shows a short code to confirm on your dashboard), then pick the project from the list. Projects where you are a viewer open in your browser instead.
- Your team's own server — enter the server address, your email and your password (from your invitation). The password is sent only to that server and never stored; the app keeps the sign-in it receives.
- An "Open in Maude" link from the dashboard opens that project the same way.
Maude keeps the project's copy in its own data folder — you never choose a folder, install Git or paste a token. Canvases appear as they arrive; big media (videos, large photos) follows in the background, smallest first. Download all in the Sync panel brings the whole project onto the device now, for working offline.
What the status means
| You see | It means |
|---|---|
| Saving N changes… | Your changes are safe on this device and on their way to the project. If this lasts, check your connection — nothing is lost. |
| Synced | The project has every change you made, and you have everyone else's. |
| A change needs your attention | Something could not be merged on its own (see Conflicts below), or a file could not be sent. |
| Refused — Sign in again | Your sign-in expired or was revoked. Sign in again; your unsent changes are kept and go out once you are allowed to edit. |
"Synced" is about the project, not about whether a teammate who is offline has seen your change yet.
History and undo
Open it from the changes chip in the status bar, from View → History, or with Cmd+Shift+G.
The History tab lists the project's actions — each with who made it and when. You can preview how a canvas looked at an earlier version and Restore it; a restore is a new action, so nothing is ever rewound for everyone else. Each of your own actions carries an Undo button beside it.
Git's own "go back" actions — switching drafts, Discard, Get latest — don't rewrite a team project's files: the project's history is the source of truth, so Maude declines them and points you to History instead. Committing and pushing your own repository still work.
Undo (Cmd+Z) takes back your own action. A teammate's later change — even to the same canvas — is kept. If a teammate changed the very same thing after you, the undo is skipped and the app tells you why.
Editing a Maude Cloud project in the browser rather than the desktop app: everyone in a browser saves through the project's cloud workspace, so History lists those changes under the workspace instead of each person, and History offers no personal Undo there. Restore works as usual. Use the desktop app when you want your own changes named and undoable.
When two people change the same thing
- Changes to different parts of a canvas merge on their own.
- Two people changing the same property (the same colour, the same text) from the inspector end with the change that reached the project last — no dialog, and History shows both.
- A change the project cannot merge — for example, two people rewriting the same lines of a canvas's code — is kept on your device and marked Resolve… in the Sync panel. The panel shows your version and the project's version side by side: Keep my version (it becomes a new action on top of theirs) or Use the project's version (yours stays recoverable). Or just keep editing — your next save resolves it.
AI edits
An edit Claude makes for you — in the app's chat or through /design:edit — is one action in History, however many files it touched. If it stops before finishing (you cancelled it, it hit an error, the app quit), nothing of it is shared: the Sync panel shows An unfinished AI edit is kept on this device with Publish and Discard.
Who can do what
| Owner | Designer (member) | Viewer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edit canvases, folders, annotations, layout | yes | yes | no |
| Comment | yes | yes | yes, in the browser |
| Undo own actions, restore versions | yes | yes | no |
| Invite and remove people, switch how the project saves | yes | no | no |
On Maude Cloud the project owner switches an existing project to accepted revisions from the dashboard: open the project, Saving → Preview the switch → Switch to accepted revisions. Operators of a self-hosted server follow the rollout runbook.