Publish and share
Sharing and access
Every app has one visibility that decides who can open it. You choose it when you first publish; Crow Nest never picks a default.
The five visibilities
| Visibility | Who can open it | Sign-in |
|---|---|---|
private | Only you | Yes |
people | You and the email addresses you add (up to 200) | Yes |
link | Anyone who has the link and signs in | Yes |
org | Everyone in your organization or company | Yes |
public | Anyone on the internet | No |
org is only for apps in an organization or company.
Changing who can see an app
- Ask your AI ("share it with sam@example.com", "make it public"). It uses the
sharetool. - In the dashboard, open the app and use Share.
Changes reach every viewer within 60 seconds, including people who already have the app open.
What viewers see
People who can't open an app see a page that says so, with Request access (which emails the owner) and Switch account. Signed-out viewers of a non-public app are sent to sign in and straight back. On public apps, a small "Made with Crow Nest" badge with a Report link sits in a corner of the page; other visibilities have no badge.
Company and organization policies
Admins of an organization or company can set policies for apps inside it:
- whether apps may be
public, - whether apps may be shared by
link, - whether apps may be shared with emails outside the company's domains.
A share the policy doesn't allow is refused with a message saying so. Organization managers can also pause an app, which shows viewers a page saying the organization paused it.
Search engines and AI crawlers
Public apps are hidden from search engines and AI crawlers by default. To let them be found, turn on aiDiscoverable for the app (ask your AI, or use the dashboard). It only works on public apps, and changing the app away from public turns it off.
Inside the app
Visibility decides who opens the app. What each person can read and change inside it is set per collection in crow.json: see Data and Files.