Collaboration

Design Mode stores all of its artifacts (Canvases, Style Guides, Blocks, and Themes) as files inside the .kombai/ folder at the root of your project. This means you can collaborate on designs using the same tools and workflows you already use for code.

To quickly access sharing options, click the icon in the Canvas left toolbar to open the Collaborate on design modal. The modal features four tabs (Entire Canvas, Design & Blocks, Themes, and Style Guides), each with specific sharing instructions.

Comments

Use comments to leave feedback, ask questions, or add notes directly to your designs. Click the icon in the Canvas left toolbar to activate the comment tool, then click anywhere on a design to place a comment.

Comments are useful for:

• Leaving design feedback: Point out specific elements that need changes, suggest improvements, or approve sections.
• Adding context for teammates: Explain design decisions or flag areas that need attention before code generation.
• Personal notes: Bookmark parts of a design you want to revisit or iterate on later.

Comments are designed strictly for team collaboration and are only visible to human team members. Agents do not have access to the comments on your Canvases.

Git as a collaboration system

Because every Design Mode artifact is a file on your disk, your existing Git workflow doubles as a design collaboration system. When you commit and push your .kombai/ folder, your entire team gets access to the same Themes, Blocks, Style Guides, and Canvas files.

What to commit

Make sure your essential design files are tracked in version control:

• Canvases: For any in-progress or finalized page designs you want the team to review or build upon.
• Style Guides: To allow anyone on the team to generate new designs that follow the same visual direction.
• Blocks: Ranging from small primitives (buttons, inputs) to compound components (navbars, pricing tables), ensuring the whole team can reuse them.
• Themes: To ensure every team member generates designs using the same tokens (colors, typography, spacing, shadows).

Recommended workflow

1. Create a branch for your design work, just like you would for a feature.
2. Design on the Canvas and save your Blocks, Themes, and Style Guides as you go.
3. Commit and push the .kombai/ folder changes (including .canvas files in .kombai/.canvas/ and .canvas.styleguide files in .kombai/).
4. Open a pull request so your team can review the design files alongside any code changes.
5. Merge to main once approved, making the designs available to everyone.

This keeps your design artifacts in sync with your codebase and gives you the full benefits of Git—branching, history, diffs, and code reviews—for your design work.

Sharing individual artifacts

Since all Design Mode artifacts live as files inside .kombai/, you can share specific files directly with a teammate without going through a full Git workflow. This is especially useful for quick, informal collaboration.

Sharing an entire Canvas

Via Git: Commit your .canvas file from .kombai/.canvas/ to your repository. Anyone on your team who pulls the repository will have access to the Canvas, including all designs, Blocks, and Themes stored within it.

Manually:

1. Locate your Canvas file inside .kombai/.canvas/.
2. Send the .canvas file to your teammate through any channel (e.g., Slack, email, or a shared drive).
3. Your teammate saves the file under .kombai/.canvas/ in their local project.
4. They can now open and use the shared Canvas in their Design Mode session.

Important: Sharing a Canvas does not include Style Guides. Style Guides are stored separately and must be shared using the steps in the Style Guides section below.

Sharing individual designs or Blocks

What to know: Designs and Blocks live inside your Canvas. To share them, you need to share the Canvas they belong to.

Options:

1. Share the entire Canvas: Follow the steps in the “Sharing an entire Canvas” section above.
2. Share only select designs or Blocks: Copy the specific designs or Blocks to a new Canvas first. Then, share that new Canvas using the steps in the “Sharing an entire Canvas” section.

Sharing Themes

What to know: Themes are stored as part of your Canvas. When you share a Canvas, anyone who receives it will also have access to all the Themes associated with it.

To share Themes: Follow the steps in the “Sharing an entire Canvas” section above. All Themes within that Canvas will be included automatically.

Sharing Style Guides

Via Git: Commit your .canvas.styleguide file from .kombai/ to your repository. Anyone on your team who pulls the repository will have access to all tracked Style Guides.

Manually:

1. Locate the .canvas.styleguide file inside .kombai/.
2. Send the file to your teammate through any channel (e.g., Slack, email, or a shared drive).
3. Your teammate saves the file under .kombai/ in their local project.
4. They can now use the shared Style Guide in their Design Mode session.

Sharing examples

• Two designers collaborating on a page: One person designs the hero section and commits the .canvas file to a branch. The other person pulls the branch, opens the Canvas, adds the features section, and commits the updated file back.
• Sharing a Theme across projects: If you’ve built a polished Theme in one project, share the Canvas containing that Theme (or manually copy the .canvas file from .kombai/.canvas/ in one project to .kombai/.canvas/ in the other project) to reuse the same design tokens.
• Handing off a Block: A teammate builds a reusable card component as a Block inside their Canvas. They share the Canvas file with you, and you can immediately use the Block in your Canvas without rebuilding it.
• Sharing design direction: Your design system team creates a Style Guide and commits the .canvas.styleguide file. Everyone on the team pulls the repo and uses it as a template for generating new designs.

This file-based approach ensures there’s no lock-in to a specific design tool or platform—your design assets are portable, versioned, and always accessible.