Teams & Collaboration

LixSketch is built for teams who think visually. Share a canvas link and everyone can draw together in real time — no accounts, no setup.

When multiple people open the same canvas URL, they're connected through a WebSocket room powered by Cloudflare Durable Objects. Every action — drawing a shape, moving an element, typing text — is broadcast to all participants instantly.

During a collaboration session, participants see:

• Live cursors — colored cursor positions for each participant, updated in real time
• Shape creation — new shapes appear as they're drawn
• Shape modifications — moves, resizes, rotations, and property changes
• Text edits — text content updates as they're typed
• Deletions — elements disappear for everyone when deleted
• Undo/redo — each participant has their own undo stack

1. 1.Open a canvas — visit any canvas URL or create a new one
2. 2.Share the URL — send the link to your teammates via Slack, email, or any messenger
3. 3.Draw together — everyone who opens the link joins the same room
4. 4.See cursors — each participant gets a colored cursor with their name

That's it. No sign-up flow, no workspace creation, no invite system. Just a URL.

Each collaboration room runs as an isolated Cloudflare Durable Object — a single-threaded, globally unique instance that:

• Lives at the edge — the room runs in the Cloudflare data center closest to the first participant
• Handles all messages — every WebSocket message goes through this single instance, ensuring consistency
• Manages state — tracks connected participants, cursor positions, and scene state
• Cleans up — when all participants disconnect, the room is garbage collected

This architecture means:

• No conflicts — a single authority manages all state transitions
• Low latency — edge deployment puts the room close to participants
• No persistence overhead — nothing is stored after the session ends
• Automatic scaling — each room is independent, so thousands can run in parallel

• Have one person sketch the initial diagram while explaining
• Others add annotations and questions using text blocks
• Use frames to separate different system views (frontend, backend, infra)
• Use the laser pointer to highlight areas during discussion

• Create a frame for each sprint or epic
• Use rectangles for user stories, colored by priority
• Draw arrows to show dependencies between stories
• Everyone can drag and rearrange simultaneously

• Start with a central topic in the middle
• Each participant branches out with their ideas
• Use freehand drawing for quick sketches
• Color-code by participant or theme
• No need to take turns — the infinite canvas has room for everyone

• Drop screenshots or mockups onto the canvas using the image tool
• Annotate with arrows and text callouts
• Use different colors per reviewer
• Circle areas of concern with the freehand brush

When you share a canvas:

• Edit link — recipients can view and modify the canvas
• View link — recipients can see the canvas but not change it

Both share types use E2E encryption. The encryption key is in the URL fragment — our servers never see it.

We're building dedicated team features:

• Team workspaces — organize canvases by project or team
• Persistent rooms — collaboration rooms that survive disconnects
• Role-based access — owner, editor, viewer roles per workspace
• Team library — shared components, templates, and icon sets
• Activity feed — see who edited what canvas and when
• Comments — leave threaded comments on specific elements
• Presence indicators — see who's currently in a workspace

LixSketch is open source. If your team needs full control over data:

• Fork the repo and deploy to your own infrastructure
• Cloudflare Workers handles the backend — deploy with wrangler
• No vendor lock-in — standard WebSocket protocol, standard encryption
• Custom branding — modify the UI to match your organization

Check the GitHub repository for deployment instructions.