Creating a space

Select "Space" from the create menu. New spaces are private to you by default. Add team members through the location and access settings when you are ready to share, or restrict access further on individual documents inside the space.

Opening the create menu from inside a space creates a subspace nested under that space. See Nested spaces.

The space home

Every space has a home page. It is both the landing page for the space and the place where you create new content in it.

Pinned items

A grid of pinned documents at the top. The drop zone is always visible on the space home, even when nothing is pinned yet, so dragging an item onto it works the first time too. Drag any item from the space onto the pinned section to pin it for quick access. Unpin by right-clicking and selecting "Unpin."

Type cards

Types defined in the space appear as colored cards below the pinned items. Click a card to open the type page with all entries of that type.

Content list

Below the type cards, the full content list shows all documents in the space sorted by last updated. Filter by type to narrow the view.

Chat

A chat bar at the bottom of the page starts an AI conversation scoped to the space. The AI receives the space's context and follows its AI instructions. See AI chat.

Configuration

Open "Configure Space" from the toolbar overflow menu on the space home.

Name, description, color

The name and description explain what the space is for. The color is a hue slider that colors the space avatar throughout the interface. Every reference to the space, whether in the sidebar, search results, or document breadcrumbs, shows the same color, making it easy to recognize visually which space content belongs to.

AI instructions

Custom instructions the AI follows when working in this space. This is how you give the AI context about the team, project, or domain.

For example, a product design space might say: "This space contains product design documents. When creating tasks, always include a priority field. When writing specs, follow our format: problem, solution, tradeoffs, success criteria."

Every chat, skill, and outcome generated in this space inherits these instructions. This is what gives each space its own AI personality.

Skills

Skills created in this space are listed in the configuration for reference. See Skills for how to create and use them.

Nested spaces

Spaces can contain other spaces. Create a nested space from inside a parent space using the create menu. The nested space appears in the parent's content list and inherits the parent's access settings by default.

Use nesting for deeper organization: a "Clients" space might contain a sub-space for each client, or a "Team" space might contain sub-spaces for individual projects.

Access modes

Every document, space, and meeting has access controls. Open the location and access settings from the toolbar (the lock or participant icon) to manage who can see it. The popover is organized into accordion sections for Scope, Access, People, and Guest link, so each concern has its own place.

Three access modes:

Everyone in : All members of the organization or space can access the content.
Only me: Only you can see it. This is the default for new spaces.
Only selected people: You choose exactly who has access. Add people from your organization using the search field, and remove them individually.

How access inherits

Access flows from outer containers to inner content:

Organization → all members are added automatically when they join
Space → inherits from the organization, can restrict to specific members
Document or meeting → inherits from its parent (space or org), can restrict further

A note inside a restricted space is visible only to people who have access to the space, even without its own explicit restriction. You can tighten access on individual documents beyond the space's settings, but you cannot open it wider than the parent allows.

Every document has a location shown in the location and access popover. You can move documents between spaces from the same popover, which changes both where the document lives and which access rules it inherits. Types can only be moved up to the organization level, not between spaces.

Enable "Anyone with the link can view" in the access settings to create a public link. Anyone with the URL can view the document without signing in to Tana.

This is useful for sharing meeting outcomes, docs, or artifacts with people outside your organization who do not need edit access.

The public viewer renders typed documents with their full type chip, workflow state pill, assignees (as an avatar stack matching the in-app view), fields grid, and embed cards. Embed cards are clickable; embeds for items that do not have their own public page render as plain item cards. The browser tab title reflects the document's title once the page loads. Turning link sharing off applies immediately and the shared URL stops working. If you open a link whose sharing has been turned off, you see a Sign in call to action that returns you to the authenticated view.

Real-time collaboration

When multiple people have access to a document, they can work on it at the same time. Changes appear in real time for all participants. Notes and canvases show live cursor presence with each person's name and color, so you can see who is editing where.

People in the sidebar shows who is online (green dot indicator). Click a person to see everything you share with them.

Meeting outcomes and chat results can be shared independently from the conversation they came from. Each outcome has a Share button for managing its access settings.

This is common when AI extracts action items or documents from a meeting that stakeholders outside the meeting need to see. Share the outcome with them without sharing the full meeting.

Organization members

Invite and manage your team from Settings (admin only):

Invite new members by email
View pending invitations
Manage existing members

All organization members can be added as participants to spaces, documents, and meetings. People in the sidebar shows all members and their online status.

Deleting a space

Delete a space from the overflow menu on its home page. Deleting a space removes the space and all its contents, including nested spaces. A confirmation dialog warns before proceeding.