Sharing

Sharing in Memos has two layers: visibility, which decides who can reach a memo through the app, and share links, which create a standalone URL for a single memo.

Visibility levels

Every memo has one of four visibility levels, set from the editor before or after posting:

• PRIVATE: only you can read the memo
• PROTECTED: any signed-in user on the instance can read it
• PUBLIC: anonymous visitors can read it when the instance is in public mode
• SPACE: active members of the memo's assigned Space can read it

The ACCESS instance setting controls public or private access independently of MEMOS_INSTANCE_URL. With public access enabled, public memos can be discovered through Explore and public profiles. In private mode, ordinary PUBLIC memo pages require sign-in.

Placement and visibility are independent. Putting a memo in a Space does not change its audience: an assigned PRIVATE memo stays author-only, and an assigned PROTECTED memo remains readable by other signed-in users. SPACE visibility requires a Space assignment. See Spaces.

Share links

Open a memo's detail page and use the Share section in the sidebar to create a public link for that single memo:

• Open share panel — create, list, and revoke share links. Each link can be set to expire never, after 1 day, 7 days, or 30 days.
• A share link resolves without sign-in, including for PRIVATE and PROTECTED memos, and signs attachment URLs so images and files load for anonymous viewers.
• The token exposes only the selected memo, its attachments, and its reactions. It does not expose the surrounding parent memo, comments, or relation graph.
• Revoke a link at any time to immediately stop access.

Only the memo's author can manage its share links; assigned memos also require active Space membership. The API can share a comment independently, exposing that comment alone rather than the parent or discussion.

SPACE memos cannot have share links. Revoke active links before changing a memo's visibility to SPACE. An existing share link is a separate grant of access, so switching the instance to private mode does not revoke it.

Share as image

The same Share section offers Open image, which renders the memo as a self-contained image you can download and post anywhere — handy for chat apps or social media where a link would not render the content.

What viewers can and can't do

Anonymous public-mode viewers can follow the normal public memo page, including its readable discussion context. A share-token viewer receives the narrower standalone representation described above. Neither anonymous route allows editing, reacting, commenting, or managing shares.

Safe sharing habits

• choose visibility intentionally before posting, especially for operational or sensitive notes
• review attachments before publishing a memo openly or minting a share link
• prefer time-limited share links over PUBLIC when you only need to share temporarily
• disable public memos entirely (Admin → Instance Settings) if your instance is private