Realtime co-editing & external sync
The builder mechanics: edit events, how changes broadcast, and how Composer or API changes flow into an open canvas.
Presence, locks & versioning
The wire-level reference: every realtime event, payload, timing, and edge case behind co-editing.
What live co-editing gives you
One shared canvas
Everyone with the workflow open is editing the same graph. There are no separate copies to merge later.
Live cursors & presence
See who else is in the workflow and where they are pointing, each in their own color.
Node locks
When a teammate is editing a node, you see it is being worked on so you do not both change it at once.
Automatic saving
Edits are saved for you in the background. There is no save button to remember.
Co-editing is a product feature of the app — it works automatically whenever two people open the same workflow. There is nothing to turn on, and no API or SDK call is involved. It runs over a dedicated realtime connection that is separate from the API you use to run workflows from code.
Who can co-edit
Live editing of a workflow canvas is available to the owner and admin roles in your organization. Themember role is retired and read-only: people without an editing role can still open the workflow and watch it change in realtime, but they cannot move, add, or edit nodes.
Owner & admin
Full editing: add, move, connect, configure, and delete nodes, with everything synced live to the rest of the room.
View-only
See the canvas, the live cursors, and every edit as it happens — but cannot make changes. A safe way to follow along or review.
Presence: see who is here
Open a workflow that a teammate already has open and you appear to each other right away.1
Everyone gets a color
Each person in the workflow is given a color when they connect. That color follows them everywhere — their cursor, their highlight on a node, and their avatar — so you can tell at a glance who is doing what.
2
Avatars show who is in the room
The people currently editing this workflow show up as a row of avatars. When someone opens or closes the workflow, the row updates for everyone.
3
Away status
If a teammate steps away and goes inactive, they are shown as Away rather than dropping off the canvas entirely, so you know they are still in the workflow but not actively editing. They come back automatically when they return.
Presence avatars and a teammate's colored cursor on a shared canvas.
Two kinds of cursor
You will see your teammates’ pointers in two ways, and both are normal:A moving pointer
As a teammate moves their mouse across the canvas, you see their colored cursor glide around in realtime. This is purely visual — it is not saved anywhere.
A node they are focused on
When a teammate hovers or focuses a specific node, that node is highlighted in their color so you can see exactly what they are looking at.
Node locks: avoid editing the same node at once
To keep two people from changing the same node’s settings at the same moment, ModuleX uses node locks.1
Open a node and it becomes yours
When you open a node to edit it in the Detail Panel, ModuleX reserves that node for you. Your teammates see it marked as being edited by you, in your color.
2
Teammates see it is taken
If a teammate tries to edit a node you already have open, they are told it is currently being edited by you, so they wait or pick something else instead.
3
The lock releases when you are done
When you finish with the node, the lock clears and the node is free for anyone again. Locks also release automatically — see below.
Locks release on their own
Locks release on their own
A node lock holds for up to 5 minutes and refreshes while you keep working on the node. If you walk away or close your laptop without closing the node, the lock expires on its own so it never blocks a node forever. If you disconnect or leave the workflow, every node you had locked is released for everyone at once.
A lock is a courtesy, not a hard wall
A lock is a courtesy, not a hard wall
Node locks are designed to help people coordinate, not to forcibly stop edits. They are the signal that says “someone is in here, give them a moment.” The point is to keep two people from quietly overwriting each other’s work on the same node — so when you see a node is being edited by a teammate, give them room and come back to it.
View-only teammates still appear
View-only teammates still appear
People in a view-only role do not lock nodes (they are not editing), but they still show up in presence and you still see their cursor. They are watching, not editing.
Your changes are saved automatically
There is no save button. As you and your teammates edit, ModuleX continuously saves the workflow for the whole room in the background and records the change in the workflow’s version history. When you reopen the workflow later — or a teammate opens it for the first time — they get the latest version, including everything the team just did.Edits from the AI Composer and other changes that happen outside the canvas also flow into everyone’s open canvas in realtime. If a teammate asks the Composer to rebuild part of the workflow, you will see the new nodes appear on your canvas as well. The mechanics are covered in Realtime co-editing & external sync.
What happens when two people edit at once
Most of the time, simultaneous edits just work — each person’s change lands and everyone stays in sync. In the rare case where your view has fallen too far behind the live workflow (for example, after a brief network blip while a lot was changing), ModuleX detects the mismatch, tells you your changes conflicted, and refreshes your canvas to the current version so you are working from the latest state again.Why a refresh instead of a merge
Why a refresh instead of a merge
Refreshing to the live version guarantees everyone is looking at the same workflow, with no half-merged or duplicated nodes. If you had an edit in flight when the refresh happened, re-apply it on the freshly loaded canvas — it will take a moment, not a rebuild.
It is rare in normal use
It is rare in normal use
The tolerance for being slightly behind is generous, so ordinary back-and-forth editing between teammates does not trigger a refresh. You will mostly notice this only after a connection interruption.
Avoid the same node at the same instant
Avoid the same node at the same instant
The simplest way to never see a conflict is the everyday etiquette node locks encourage: when a teammate is editing a node, let them finish before you open the same one.
Does co-editing cost credits?
No. Live canvas co-editing — being in a workflow together, seeing cursors and presence, locking nodes, and the automatic background saving — does not use credits and does not count against your plan’s usage limits. Credits are charged when you actually run managed work: running a workflow, an AI Composer turn, or an Assistant turn. Editing together is free.Tips for editing together
Watch the cursors
A quick glance at where everyone’s cursor is tells you who is working on which part of the workflow.
Respect node locks
If a node shows it is being edited by a teammate, work on a different part and circle back.
Use the Composer together
One person can ask the AI Composer to draft a section while others refine it — Composer changes appear on every open canvas.
Bring people in view-only
Reviewers and stakeholders can follow a build live in a view-only role without risk of changing anything.
Related pages
Realtime collaboration walkthrough
A step-by-step guide: invite a teammate and co-edit a workflow live.
Chat collaboration
Shared and organization-visible chats for working with the Assistant as a team.
Workflow builder overview
The visual canvas where co-editing happens.
Canvas & controls
Pan, zoom, select, the Detail Panel, and keyboard shortcuts.
Realtime & collaboration model
How runs stream and how the canvas syncs, explained conceptually.
Roles & permissions
Which roles can edit a workflow and which are read-only.