Co-work Sessions

What is Co-work?

Co-work is real-time collaborative editing for Genesis Writer. Invite another writer to your project and edit drafts together — you'll see each other's cursors, selections, and changes as they happen. No more emailing files back and forth or merging conflicting edits.

Co-work is powered by Liveblocks, a dedicated real-time infrastructure layer. Because it doesn't use AI generation, co-work sessions are completely token-free — collaborate as much as you want without spending a single Genesis Token.

Starting a Session

To start a co-work session:

1. Open any project in the writer.
2. Go to Tools → Co-work in the toolbar.
3. Click Start Session. Genesis Writer generates a unique invite link.
4. Share the invite link with your writing partner. When they open it, they join your session instantly.

Your partner must have a Genesis Writer account to join. They'll be prompted to sign in if they aren't already.

What You Can Do

During a co-work session, both participants can:

• Edit any draft node — type, delete, format, and restructure text together. Changes sync in real time.
• See live cursors — each participant's cursor and text selection is visible to the other, with a name label so you always know who's editing where.
• Navigate between drafts — switch between draft nodes in the project tree. Both participants can be on different drafts simultaneously.
• Create new drafts — add new draft nodes to the project while the session is active.

What's Not Included Yet

Co-work is in beta, and some features are not yet available in shared sessions:

• AI features — Write, Continue, Rewrite, Expand, and other AI tools are disabled during co-work. Only the host can trigger AI generation in a future update.
• Character and location editing — only draft nodes are collaborative. Character sheets, locations, and worldbuilding entries are view-only for guests.
• Inline comments — the comment system is not yet synced in real time. Comments added during a session may not appear for the other participant until the page is refreshed.
• Guest access without an account — all participants must have a Genesis Writer account. Anonymous guest access is planned for a future release.

Session Management

The host (the person who started the session) controls the session lifecycle:

• Starting — only the project owner can start a co-work session.
• Ending — the host can end the session at any time from the co-work panel. When a session ends, the guest is notified and returned to their own projects.
• Auto-end on inactivity — if both participants are idle for an extended period, the session ends automatically to free resources. You'll see a notification before this happens.

All edits made during a session are saved to the project in real time. There's no separate “merge” step — what you see is what's saved.

Limitations

While co-work is in beta, keep these limitations in mind:

• One session per user — you can only be in one co-work session at a time, whether as a host or a guest.
• Two participants per session — sessions are currently limited to the host and one guest. Multi-user sessions are on the roadmap.
• Beta stability — as a beta feature, you may encounter occasional sync delays or edge cases. If something feels off, ending and restarting the session usually resolves it.

We're actively improving co-work based on feedback. If you run into issues or have feature requests, use the in-app feedback button or visit Getting Help.