Sync, shared vaults, and teams

Sync is optional and off by default. When you turn sync on for a vault from Settings → Account, that vault's notes, charts, whiteboards, whiteboard images, note frontmatter, and folder structure are kept the same on every computer where you are signed in to the same Wrengle account. Your own computers can sync personal vaults. Where the deployment enables shared vaults, an owner can also invite up to 20 editors. Sharing requires a current desktop release; there are no presence indicators. Sync is free while Wrengle is in beta and runs in the desktop app only.

What syncs

• Notes, including their YAML frontmatter.
• Charts.
• Visible portable attachments, including PDFs, images, text/code, spreadsheets, and audio/video files.
• Whiteboards, including their referenced PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP images.
• Empty folders and your reusable whiteboard library.
• Your vault's folder structure. Folders and files you create, rename, move, or delete sync too, including changes you make while offline.
• Documents you do not have open. They upload and download in the background, so a vault you open on a second computer fills in without opening anything.

Open documents send and receive edits live. Validated edits are saved to local recovery before upload, and incoming edits are saved locally and autosaved to the note, chart, or whiteboard file. Unaccepted agent previews are not uploaded, and remote edits do not become steps in your local undo history. Offline editing stays available; documents reconcile when the connection returns.

What does not sync

Visible portable attachments and empty folders sync. Hidden files and folders, Git data, credentials, plugin bundles and state, caches, local history, recovery databases, links, and special files stay local. The reusable whiteboard library at .app/whiteboard-library.excalidrawlib is the one typed hidden-file exception. A synced vault is not a complete backup, and sync does not keep server-side version history. Keep an independent backup of the whole vault folder — see Your vault and backups.

Whiteboards and images

Whiteboard edits update live across your own computers. Closed boards sync in the background too. Edits to separate shapes merge; simultaneous edits to the same shape resolve to one consistent shape on all computers. This is whole-shape conflict resolution, so it does not combine every property of two competing edits.

Update Wrengle on every synced computer, and ask every editor of a shared vault to update, before using boards with the newer editor format. Older whiteboards and local recovery data upgrade automatically; converted changes are saved durably before they become available for editing or sync. Sticky notes, fixed arrow anchors, inside or orbit bindings, and explicit arrow-label positions are preserved between updated clients. Older releases, including computers still offline, cannot safely round-trip these fields. Keep those clients disconnected until updated. Version checks reject unsupported drawing data, but cannot close every downgrade gap in an older offline client.

Images transfer separately from drawing data. A board may arrive before its images; the canvas refreshes when a download finishes. Settings → Account shows image transfers, failures, a Retry image sync action, and account storage usage. Missing original images remain unavailable until restored. The reusable whiteboard library also syncs, up to 16 MiB. Competing offline library edits preserve a visible .excalidrawlib conflict copy; import it from a whiteboard's Library sidebar to merge the shapes you want.

Each image may be up to 8 MiB. Files may be empty or up to 2 GiB, subject to available storage. The default retained-content allowance is 1 GiB per account, shared across its vaults. Identical file, library, and image bytes within one vault are charged once. Images use content-based filenames in assets/images/. Existing original files are kept when Wrengle prepares them for sync.

Deleted images still count toward the 16-image reference limit per board, even after reopening, so undo on another computer can recover them. Server image bytes remain stored until the vault is removed and its 30-day retention period ends, or the account is deleted. Retained bytes continue to use the account's allowance, including vaults awaiting deletion.

Sync messages are limited to 8 MiB, including framing and document recovery state. A board that exceeds this limit remains editable and saved locally, but shows a document-specific sync failure. Other documents continue syncing. Image quota failures likewise leave local editing available; a board with missing image transfers is not fully synchronized.

Files, conflicts, and storage

Files transfer in resumable 8 MiB chunks. Wrengle verifies the complete file before placing it at its original relative path. Network interruptions keep the local upload queue and verified download chunks for retry. Inactive unfinished uploads expire after 24 hours; the local copy remains available to start again.

Local edits are recorded before incoming files are placed. Competing offline file edits preserve a conflict copy beside the original rather than discarding bytes. Folder moves and deletions apply only to the entries checked when the operation was made; a new or changed child can defer the operation. An incomplete local scan never authorizes deletion. Unsafe or non-portable filenames, files larger than 2 GiB, and linked files stay local and show a sync issue.

Transfers also need free local disk space. Known obsolete transfer stages are cleaned up. Unrecognized transfer or repair copies left by a crash are retained, can continue using local disk space, and stay excluded from sync.

Settings → Account shows pending file changes, transfers, preserved conflicts, and Retry file sync. Storage includes retained content and upload reservations. Replacing a file needs room for both the old and new bytes. Superseded or deleted ordinary file bytes remain stored for 30 days after their last live reference; unresolved conflict copies remain retained. Whiteboard image retention continues to support undo on other computers. Removing a local file therefore does not immediately free its retained allowance.

File sync requires a current desktop release and a deployment with bucket storage enabled. Opening an existing synced vault with that release upgrades its file catalog automatically. Older releases must update before reconnecting; local files and offline document edits are kept. Documents continue using live sync with their existing identities and editing history.

Turn sync on

1. Sign in to your Wrengle account — see Accounts and sign-in.
2. Open Settings → Account and turn on Sync.
3. On the same page, turn on sync for the vault you have open. Wrengle uploads that vault's documents and supported files in the background and shows progress until every document has been uploaded.

Signing in alone does not upload your vault. Nothing leaves your computer until you turn sync on for a vault.

Open a synced vault on another computer

On your second computer, sign in to the same account, open Settings → Account, choose the vault under Open a synced vault, and pick an empty folder for it. Its documents, visible portable attachments, empty folders, images, and library appear as they download. Wrengle refuses a folder that already contains files, so an existing vault is never mixed with a downloaded one.

Share a vault

Shared vaults are available only on deployments that enable sharing and configure invitation email. Personal sync continues to work when sharing is unavailable. There is one owner and up to 20 editors. Editors can read, create, edit, rename, and delete all synced content; there are no read-only viewers or per-folder permissions. Only the owner can manage sharing or remove the vault from the server.

1. The owner opens the synced vault and chooses Manage sharing in Settings → Account.
2. Enter the recipient's email address. Wrengle sends an invitation through Resend.
3. The recipient opens the email, signs in or creates an account, and explicitly accepts. A currently verified email on that account must match the invitation; forwarding the link does not grant access to a different email address.
4. In the desktop app, the recipient turns on Sync, chooses Open a synced vault, and picks an empty folder. The picker identifies the owner and whether the vault is shared.

Accepting an invitation does not turn on sync or download files. Invitations expire after seven days. The owner can revoke or reissue an invitation; reissuing makes the old link unusable. An invitation may remain pending when the vault already has 20 editors. The owner can have at most 50 pending invitations. Email is limited to 20 invitations per owner per hour and three per recipient per day; retries do not send a new invitation. Sharing management reports delivery failures and allows reissue.

The owner's sync entitlement and retained-content allowance cover the shared vault. An editor uses their own account and registered devices. Editor account deletion does not delete the owner's documents.

If the owner's plan stops allowing sync, existing links still provide owner removal and editor leave controls. Those controls also remain available during a sharing pause; joining and content sync remain subject to availability and the owner's plan.

Leaving or removing an editor stops future sync within five seconds. Downloaded local files remain on their computers. Offline changes cannot upload after access is removed. Previously accepted edits remain in the shared vault. A new invitation can restore membership, but opening it again starts in a fresh empty folder; Wrengle does not automatically upload changes from the retained copy. An old invitation cannot restore removed access.

Turn off sync detaches this computer's folder and keeps membership. Leave shared vault removes the editor's membership across their devices. Deleting the owner's account removes their remote vaults, including shared vaults; it does not wipe collaborators' downloaded files. Ownership transfer is not available.

Sharing does not sync credentials, settings, plugin bundles, permission grants, or workflow execution state. Shared text can become input to an editor's locally configured AI or workflow, but it never grants permission to run another person's plugins or automation. There are no remote cursors, presence UI, browser editing, or server-side version history.

Team workspaces

Open Workspaces from your account dashboard on the website. Personal vaults remain separate, and you can belong to multiple teams. Workspace admins can create team vaults, invite members, assign vault access, and manage roles. Admins can read and edit every team vault. Other members can edit only the vaults assigned to them; joining a team does not automatically reveal its vaults. There are no external guests, read-only viewers, or per-folder permissions.

Accept the workspace invitation using the invited, currently verified email address. After an admin assigns a vault, open the desktop app's Settings → Account → Open a synced vault, find it under the workspace name, and choose an empty local folder. Team administration is on the website; document editing and file sync remain in the desktop app. Joining a team or accepting an invitation never starts a download.

Team vaults belong to the workspace. Deleting a creator's account does not delete team documents or images. A workspace has its own retained-content allowance, initially 1 GiB during beta, independent of members' personal allowances. Deleted images and vaults awaiting their retention purge continue to count. AI credits are personal; there are no paid team seats or pooled AI credits in this release.

Removing a member stops future sync within five seconds. Rejoining requires new vault assignments and a fresh empty local folder; previous access and offline links are not restored. Admin role changes also require affected vaults to be opened again in fresh empty folders. Downloaded files remain on members' computers. Turn off sync only detaches this computer; workspace membership is managed on the website.

The last admin must appoint another admin before leaving or stepping down. If the last admin's account is deleted outside that workflow, the workspace is suspended for operator recovery rather than deleting its content. Existing personal vaults cannot be transferred into a team in this release. Credentials, plugin permissions, and workflow execution state remain local and are not shared by team membership.

What Wrengle stores and can read

When sync is on for a vault, that vault's notes, charts, whiteboards, whiteboard images, note frontmatter, and folder structure are stored on Wrengle's sync service, together with the vault and document identifiers and the device details needed to deliver sync. The server copies are encrypted in transit and at rest, but Wrengle can technically read them to operate the service. Synced documents are stored in the European Union (Amsterdam, Netherlands). File, library, and whiteboard image bytes are stored in private Railway buckets in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Sync consent does not authorize AI processing of those documents; see AI and privacy.

Devices

Settings → Account lists every computer linked to your account. Removing a computer from that list stops sync on it and clears its link; the files on it stay where they are. Turning sync on again there registers it as a new device.

Turning sync off and removing a vault from the server

• Turn off sync for a vault on one computer. Turning sync off keeps your local files and does not delete existing server copies.
• Remove from server turns sync off for that vault on every computer and marks the server copy for deletion. The sync service keeps it for 30 days, then deletes it permanently.
• Deleting your account removes your personally owned synced documents from Wrengle's sync service. It does not change or delete the files on your computers.

Do not combine sync with Dropbox or iCloud

Do not combine Wrengle sync with a service such as Dropbox or iCloud mirroring the same vault folder. Two services moving the same files produce duplicates and conflicts, and independently mirrored recovery data is not a shared lock.

Where to go next

• Your vault and backups — what has to travel with your notes for a backup to be complete.
• Known limitations — what sync does not do yet.
• Accounts and sign-in — what an account enables.