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Real-Time Editing

Several people can have the same workflow open and edit it at the same time. Nothing locks, and nobody waits for someone else to finish before making a change.

This page covers what you see when a colleague is on the canvas with you. It also covers what happens when two edits land on the same step, and who is allowed to edit.

Collaboration you can see

When two people open the same workflow, each sees the other’s cursor move. You can watch what a colleague is clicking, dragging, or configuring as they do it.

The canvas works as a shared room. Build a branch together, look at an API response side by side, or walk a client through a process without screen-sharing.

  • Avatars in the top-right show who is currently online.
  • Cursors are color-coded and labeled with your teammates’ names.
  • Changes appear on everyone’s screen as they are made.

Editing the Same Workflow at Once

Two people editing different parts of a workflow never overwrite each other. That holds inside a single step, because every field carries its own change: you edit the message while a colleague edits the schedule of the same step, and both land. Only when you both type into the same field does one value stand, the later one, just as if one person had typed twice.

  • No waiting. Configure a CRM step on the left of the canvas while a colleague adjusts a webhook trigger on the right.
  • No merge prompts. Simultaneous edits to one step are combined for you. There is nothing to review and nothing to accept.
  • A dropped connection is not a lost afternoon. Your edits are held on your own machine while you are offline. They are sent to the rest of the team when the connection returns.

Why there is nothing to merge

Most automation tools hold a workflow as one document that one person saves at a time. Two people editing it means one of them saves over the other, or the tool asks somebody to pick a winner.

Glow does not store a workflow that way. Every change, whether moving a step, typing in a field, or drawing a connection, is recorded as an operation. Each operation carries enough information to be applied in any order and still reach the same result. Two edits arriving at once are not a conflict to resolve; they are two operations, and both apply.

That is what makes the rest of it possible:

  • Your browser holds the whole workflow. Edits apply on your screen the moment you make them, then travel to everyone else. Nothing waits for a round trip to a server.
  • Offline is just a slow connection. Work carries on while the network is gone, and rejoins when it returns. There is no “reconnecting, do not touch anything” state.
  • Everyone converges. Whatever order edits arrive in, every person’s canvas ends up identical. Not usually, not after a refresh — always.

Tip: Before a large structural change, like reorganizing the layout of the entire canvas, leave a Sticky Note or mention it to your team. Nobody wants to be surprised when steps start moving around.

The Workflow Assistant edits alongside you, but it replaces rather than merges. It joins the canvas as Glow AI, with its own avatar and cursor, and you can keep working while it builds. What differs is how its changes land: it rewrites what it was asked to change, so if it is asked to rewrite a sticky note you are typing into, its version replaces yours. Worth knowing before running it on a canvas someone else is working on.

Editing a workflow that is Live

A Live workflow keeps running while you edit it, and edits apply as you make them. A run that has already started finishes on the version it started with, so you never get half of one design and half of another. The next run picks up what is on the canvas by then.

That is convenient for a small fix and risky for a large one. Before restructuring something that fires often, either switch the workflow to Draft while you work, or save a version first so there is a known-good state to restore.

Who is doing what

Each person on the canvas has a colour, shown on their cursor and on the step they have open. A step somebody else is configuring carries their colour, which is usually enough to keep two people out of the same field without saying a word.

What you will not see is a history of who changed which field. Versions record the state of the whole workflow at a moment you chose, and Activity records workspace-level events such as people joining and workflows being created.

Start collaborating with one click

Individual workflows need no permission setup. Copy the URL of your workflow, paste it to a team member in Slack or Teams, and start building together.

Permissions overview

Everyone in the workspace can open and edit any workflow they can see, whether they are an Admin, a Manager or a Member. Your role decides what you can do around the canvas rather than on it. Inviting people, changing someone’s role, and editing workspace variables are Admin and Manager work. All three roles can view usage and pricing in Billing & Usage; only Admins can view invoices and payments or manage billing.

Who holds which role is set in Team Management.

What’s Next?

  • Leave a note for whoever opens the canvas next with Comments.

  • See how each collaborator’s history stays independent in Undo & Redo.

  • Work across several live workflows at once with Canvas Tabs.

Undo & RedoComments