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Shared Spaces

Overview

Shared Spaces let separate Safes collaborate inside one Space without sharing the rest of their Safes. Each participant keeps their own Safe. The shared Space is the only collaboration area.

Use Shared Spaces when collaboration matters, but merging Safes or giving another person an access key to your Safe would expose too much.

How It Works

  1. A Safe owner creates a Space and chooses the shared option.
  2. The owner adds one or more recipient Receive Addresses in the Shared Space flow.
  3. UnoLock sends the Shared Space invite through the protected Safe-to-Safe messaging channel.
  4. The recipient opens the invite and selects Add Shared Space.
  5. The imported Space appears in the recipient's Safe.
  6. Both Safes can work in the same shared collaboration area.

Shared Space management happens from the Space management UI. The normal message composer is for messages and files, not for sharing a Space.

What Shared Spaces Are For

Shared Spaces are designed for collaboration between Safes, such as:

  • project work between separate Safes,
  • family coordination while each person keeps their own Safe,
  • secure document collaboration,
  • advisor or assistant workflows,
  • controlled sharing of one workspace without exposing unrelated Safe data.

What Gets Shared

  • notes and records stored in that Space,
  • labels and organization inside that Space,
  • cloud-stored encrypted files attached to records in that Space.

What Does Not Get Shared

  • the rest of either participant's Safe,
  • unrelated Spaces,
  • wallet functions in that Space,
  • local-only encrypted files for that Space.

Important

Shared Spaces are for collaboration between separate Safes. If you want one or more users to share the same Safe, give each user their own access key, such as a passkey or hardware-backed key, and grant either limited Space access or full Safe administration as needed.

Protected Spaces are different

A Protected Space is a special Shared Space that requires coordinated approval before protected content opens. Create a Protected Space from the protected creation flow, not by converting an existing Shared Space.

Security and Privacy

  • Safe separation remains intact: each participant keeps their own Safe.
  • Space-limited collaboration: only the shared Space is exposed to collaborators.
  • Invite-based access: access is added by importing a Shared Space invite.
  • Client-side encryption: records, files, and user metadata remain encrypted before they leave the client.
  • No Safe directory: UnoLock does not provide a directory for finding other Safes. Participants share Receive Addresses directly with people they choose.

Collaboration Behavior

  • Shared Spaces are designed for live collaboration between Safes.
  • Updates made by one participant can appear to other participants after refresh or when reopening shared content.
  • Shared Spaces assume that more than one Safe may edit the same workspace over time.

Ownership and Deletion Behavior

  • A Shared Space has an owner Safe.
  • If the owner deletes the Shared Space, that Shared Space is deleted for every Safe that was participating in it.
  • If a non-owner Safe deletes the Shared Space from its own Safe, that Safe only loses access to the Shared Space.
  • When a non-owner loses access this way, the Shared Space data is not deleted for the owner or for other participating Safes.

Limits and Operational Notes

  • Wallet tools are not available inside Shared Spaces.
  • Local-only encrypted file storage is not supported inside Shared Spaces.
  • Shared Space invites are managed from Space management, not through access-key setup.
  • Deleting a Shared Space has different results depending on whether the deleting Safe is the owner or only a participant.
  • Protected Spaces do not support Space backups.

Use Cases

  • Operations room: share one secure workspace across separate team Safes.
  • Family coordination: keep separate Safes while working together in a single family Space.
  • Advisor or assistant workflows: collaborate on one defined area without granting access to the rest of a Safe.

FAQs

Do both people need their own Safe?

Yes. Shared Spaces are specifically for collaboration between separate Safes.

Does a Shared Space replace access keys?

No. Access keys are for one Safe and can let multiple users access that same Safe with their own keys, either with limited Space access or full administration. Shared Spaces are for collaboration between multiple separate Safes.

Can I share files in a Shared Space?

Yes, cloud-stored files in that Space can be used for collaboration. Local-only file storage is not supported in Shared Spaces.

Can I share a Protected Space from the normal message composer?

No. Space sharing is managed from Space management. Protected Spaces cannot be shared as ordinary message attachments.

What happens if the owner deletes a Shared Space?

If the owner deletes it, the Shared Space is deleted for every Safe that has access to it.

What happens if a participant deletes a Shared Space?

If a non-owner Safe deletes it, that Safe loses access to the Shared Space, but the data remains available to the owner and other participating Safes.