Compound has two sharing surfaces: you can share a Project Drive with teammates so they can read or edit alongside you, or you can share a single Chat as a read-only snapshot link for anyone — including people without a Compound account. This page explains the model so you know which to reach for; for the step-by-step UI, see Drives and files and Chats and the AI agent.
My Drive cannot be shared. It’s your personal Drive — to share work, start in (or move it to) a Project Drive.
Two surfaces, two purposes
| Share a Project Drive | Share a Chat snapshot | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets shared | The whole Drive — every Chat and file in it, ongoing | A single Chat as a frozen, read-only view |
| Who can see it | People you add by email (Viewer or Editor), plus optional link access | Anyone with the link (or scoped to your team) |
| Can the recipient edit? | Yes, if you give them Editor | No — read-only |
| Does it update over time? | Yes — they see new work as you do it | No — it’s a snapshot at the moment you share |
| Need a Compound account? | Yes | No |
| Works for My Drive? | No — only Project Drives | Yes — any Chat, from any Drive |
In short: share a Drive when you want to collaborate, and share a Chat snapshot when you want to show someone the result.
General access levels
Both Drive sharing and Chat-snapshot sharing use the same three options for “anyone with the link”:
- Restricted Access — only the people you explicitly add by email can see it.
- Anyone with the link — anyone who has the URL can view (read-only).
- Anyone in your enterprise with the link — limited to members of your team. This option only appears if you’re on a team.
Use Copy link to grab the URL; use Stop sharing to revoke public access at any time.
Drive sharing in detail
Only Project Drives can be shared. My Drive is personal and has no Share button — if you’ve done work in My Drive that a teammate now needs to see, create a Project Drive and move the relevant Chats and files there first.
A Project Drive is the natural unit for teamwork — everyone shared into the Drive sees the same Chats, files, and versions. You add people by email and pick a role:
- Viewer — can read every Chat and file in the Drive. Cannot start new Chats or edit files.
- Editor — can do everything a Viewer can, plus start new Chats and let the agent edit files.
Drives also isolate the agent’s context, so different Drives are the right way to keep deal-by-deal or client-by-client work separate. See Drives and files for the full setup.
Drive sharing is best for ongoing work with the same group. If you just need to send someone a single result, a Chat snapshot is lighter-weight.
Chat snapshot sharing in detail
A Chat snapshot is a frozen, read-only view of one Chat — the messages, the agent’s edits, and any files in their current version. You generate a link, and anyone who visits it sees the Chat exactly as it was at the moment they loaded the page, without needing a Compound account.
Use snapshots for:
- Sharing a result with someone outside Compound — a colleague who doesn’t have a license, a client, a counterparty.
- Async review — send the snapshot link in email or Slack and let people read at their own pace.
- Demonstrating Compound — showing a finished analysis to someone evaluating the product.
A snapshot doesn’t update as the underlying Chat continues. If you want the recipient to see new work, share an updated snapshot (or share the Drive).
See Chats and the AI agent for the step-by-step.
When to share which
- The same team, ongoing work → share the Drive (Editor for working teammates, Viewer for stakeholders).
- A specific deal that needs isolation → create a Project Drive and share it; the agent’s context stays scoped to that Drive.
- A one-off result for someone outside Compound → share the Chat as a snapshot.
- A read-only stakeholder who shouldn’t see future work → snapshot (Drive sharing would expose ongoing Chats too).
- Your team needs review access across many Chats → share the Drive as Viewer.
Revoking access
- Drive sharing: open the Drive’s Share dialog, change the person’s role, or set general access back to Restricted Access. They lose access immediately.
- Chat snapshot: open the Chat’s Share dialog and click Stop sharing. The link stops working immediately; people who have already viewed the snapshot have only what they remember — there’s no “view history”.
What to read next
- Drives and files — step-by-step Drive sharing UI and the Files / Chats / Versions browser.
- Chats and the AI agent — snapshot creation, the Share dialog, and copy/stop-sharing flows.
- Enterprise — team-level controls and audit log.