# Share links

> Hand a file or folder to someone with no account, on your terms. Expiry, passphrase, view limit, and revocation that works immediately.

Everything else in Filement belongs to a workspace. To read something you have to be a member,
and [access rules](https://filement.app/docs/guide/workspaces-and-access.md) narrow it from there. A share link is the one
exception. It hands one file or folder to someone who has no account at all.

Because it's the exception, it's deliberately narrow.

## Who can make one

By default, anyone who can edit something can share it. If you can change a document, you can
hand it out. Sharing is part of ordinary work, not a request you file.

A workspace admin can tighten that. **Settings → Sharing and privacy** has two choices under
**Who can share publicly**:

| Setting                              | What it means                                                                                                              |
| ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Anyone who can edit it** (default) | Editors and above share the files and folders they can already change.                                                     |
| **Admins and folder managers only**  | Only workspace owners and admins, plus anyone given **Can manage access** on a specific folder or file, can create a link. |

Either way, the rule is per item. Someone held to read-only on one folder by its
[access settings](https://filement.app/docs/guide/workspaces-and-access.md) can't share out of it, whatever their workspace role.
Tightening the setting doesn't revoke links already handed out. Those are already outside, and you
take one back by revoking it.

## Making one

Open the "…" menu on any file or folder and choose **Share…**. You get four decisions:

| Setting               | Default | What it does                                                                                      |
| --------------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Expires**           | 7 days  | After this, the link stops working. "No expiry" is available and is the one to think twice about. |
| **Passphrase**        | none    | The visitor has to type it before they see anything. Send it separately from the link.            |
| **View limit**        | none    | The link dies after this many opens. A limit of 1 makes it single-use.                            |
| **Allow downloading** | off     | With it off, the page shows the contents but never hands over a URL to the original file.         |

The link appears once, when you create it, and goes to your clipboard. Filement never shows it
again. It stores only a fingerprint of the link, which is why the record can stay around safely
after the link dies.

Lost the link? Revoke it and make a new one.

## What the other person sees

One page: the file, or the folder and what's inside it. No workspace, no navigation into the app,
no sign-in prompt. They can browse a shared folder downward, so everything beneath it is included,
**except** anything you've separately restricted to specific people. Restricting something and
then sharing a folder above it doesn't quietly undo the restriction.

Share pages ask search engines not to index them. That's a courtesy, not a protection. The real
protection is that the link is unguessable, expires, and can be revoked.

## Seeing what is shared

A globe icon marks anything with a live link: on its card, in lists, and in the document header.
[All files](https://filement.app/docs/guide/files-and-folders.md) has a **Shared** filter, the fastest way to answer
"what can people outside see right now".

An icon only appears when something is unusual about an item: shared, restricted to specific
people, or locked. No icon means no surprises.

## Turning one off

Open **Share…** on the item again and press **Revoke** next to the link. Whoever may create a link
may also revoke one. It stops working immediately, for everyone holding it. There's no undo and no
way to bring the same link back, which is the point.

Links also die on their own when they expire or reach their view limit, and any link pointing at
something you move to [Trash](https://filement.app/docs/guide/trash.md) stops working straight away.