Collaboration

Real-Time Page Editing

Thoughtful lets multiple people edit the same page at the same time, just like Google Docs. When you open a page that someone else is viewing, you will see their cursor moving around the document with their name displayed above it. Each collaborator gets a unique color so you can tell who is making which changes.

How It Works

Under the hood, Thoughtful uses Yjs, a conflict-free replicated data type (CRDT) library, combined with Hocuspocus for WebSocket-based synchronization. This means:

• Instant updates: Changes appear on everyone's screen in milliseconds
• Offline support: Keep editing even if your connection drops; changes sync when you reconnect
• No conflicts: Multiple people can edit the same paragraph simultaneously without overwriting each other's work
• Connection status: A small indicator shows your sync status (connected, syncing, or disconnected)

Presence Indicators

When you are on a page, you can see who else is currently viewing or editing it. Avatars with green dots appear at the top of the page, showing online team members. Hover over an avatar to see the person's name and email.

Multiplayer Chat with AI

AI chat in Thoughtful is designed for teams. Any conversation can become a shared space where multiple team members interact with the AI assistant together.

Adding People to Threads

Click the participants icon at the top of any chat thread to:

• See who is currently in the conversation
• Add team members from your organization
• Remove participants (if you are the thread owner)
• Leave a thread yourself

When you add someone to a thread, they get full access to the conversation history and can continue the discussion with the AI.

Real-Time Chat Features

• Live streaming: When the AI responds, everyone in the thread sees the response as it generates, character by character
• Typing indicators: See when others are typing a message with animated dots and their name
• Message attribution: Each message shows who sent it, with profile pictures in multi-user threads
• Unread markers: Jump back into a conversation and see exactly where you left off with visual dividers

Thread Presence

The participants panel shows green dots next to people who are currently viewing the same thread as you. This makes it easy to coordinate and know when to jump into a conversation.

Smart AI Responses

In threads with multiple participants, the AI becomes context-aware of who is speaking:

• Message authors are tracked so the AI knows who said what
• The AI can address specific people by name when responding
• Everyone benefits from the full conversation history

Workspaces and Organizations

Thoughtful organizes teams into Organizations with one or more Workspaces.

Organizations

An organization represents your company or team. Everyone in your organization:

• Shares access to the same workspaces
• Can be added to chat threads with each other
• Sees the same connected integrations (Slack, Google Drive, etc.)

Workspaces

Within an organization, workspaces let you separate different areas of work:

• Each workspace has its own page hierarchy
• Pages in one workspace are separate from another
• Workspaces can have their own AI configuration (AGENTS.md, Skills database)

Team Members

Manage your team in Settings > Team Members:

• Invite new members by email
• Set roles: Admins can manage team settings; Members have standard access
• Add contacts: Create placeholder entries for people who haven't joined yet, so you can assign them to pages

Comments and Discussions

Add comments directly on page content to discuss specific sections with your team:

• Select text in any page
• Click "Add Comment" in the toolbar that appears
• Type your comment and submit

Comments support:

• Threaded replies: Keep discussions organized under the original comment
• Real-time sync: Comments appear instantly for all viewers
• Resolution: Mark threads as resolved when the discussion is complete

Sharing and Permissions

What Gets Shared

When you work in Thoughtful, the following is shared with your organization:

• Pages: All pages in a workspace are visible to organization members
• Chat threads: Threads you create are private by default; you control who can see them by adding participants
• Integrations: Connected accounts (like Slack or Google Drive) can be made available to the whole organization

Thread Privacy

Chat threads follow a simple model:

• Private by default: A new thread is only visible to you
• Shared by invitation: Add participants to share a thread
• Owner controls: Only the thread creator (owner) can add new participants
• Leave anytime: Non-owners can remove themselves from a thread

The Compounding Benefit of Shared AI Context

One of the most powerful aspects of team collaboration in Thoughtful is how knowledge compounds over time.

Shared Knowledge Base

When your team uses Thoughtful together:

• Pages become institutional memory: Information captured in pages is searchable and available to the AI
• AI learns your domain: The more context in your workspace, the more relevant the AI's responses become
• Everyone benefits: When one person adds useful information to a page, the whole team's AI experience improves

AGENTS.md: Team-Wide AI Instructions

Create a page called AGENTS.md at the root of your workspace to give the AI persistent instructions that apply to everyone. Use this for:

• Company terminology and acronyms
• Standard operating procedures
• Preferred writing styles
• Project-specific context

Everyone in your organization benefits from these shared instructions without having to repeat them in every conversation.

Skills Database

Create a Skills database page to define reusable AI capabilities for your team:

• Each skill is a child page of the Skills database
• Skills can contain prompts, templates, or instructions
• The AI can activate skills to perform specialized tasks

This lets your team build up a library of AI workflows that work consistently for everyone.

Example: Growing Team Context

Imagine a product team using Thoughtful:

• Week 1: The PM adds product specs to pages
• Week 2: Engineers add technical decisions and architecture notes
• Week 3: Customer success adds user feedback summaries
• Week 4: Anyone can ask the AI questions that draw on all this context

The AI becomes more valuable as the team adds information. A question like "What are the main user complaints about our search feature?" can be answered using context from product specs, engineering notes, and customer feedback combined.

Best Practices for Team Collaboration

Organize for Discovery

• Use clear, descriptive page titles
• Nest related pages under parent pages
• Add subtitles to explain what each page contains

Keep Information Current

• Update pages when things change
• Archive outdated pages rather than deleting them
• Use the activity feed to see what teammates have been working on

Make AI Context Explicit

• Add relevant details to pages even if they seem obvious
• The AI cannot read your mind, but it can read your pages
• Think of pages as notes for both your future self and the AI

Use Comments for Async Discussion

• Comments on specific text work better than long chat threads for document feedback
• Resolve comment threads when issues are addressed
• Use chat threads for open-ended discussions and exploration