Sharing and access

Sarkoa has four ways to let someone see your data, and they do not overlap as much as they first appear. This page explains what each one is for.

Two of them apply to a file, and two apply to a map. Getting that split straight is most of the battle.

Start here

You want to Use
Let your colleagues see a file Nothing. Organization members can already see it
Send one file to a client who has no Sarkoa account A share link on the file
Send one file to someone who does have an account An email invite on the file
Put a map on your website Set the map's access to public, then copy the embed code
Send a map to a client for review A map with access set to public or password
Show a map to your team only Leave the map on organization access

Files

Organization access

Everyone signed in to your organization can already open every file in it. There is nothing to configure and nothing to send.

This is the default for every upload, and for most teams it is the only setting they ever touch.

Public on the web

Marking a file public does not create a URL. It sets a permission: this file is allowed to appear on public maps and embeds.

You need this before a layer can show up on a map that people outside your organization can open. If you publish a map publicly and one of its layers is still private, that layer will not draw for visitors. It is the single most common reason a published map looks half empty.

Making a file public does not, on its own, put it anywhere. Nobody can find it until you put it on a map or send them a link.

A share link is a /share/… URL that opens one file by itself. Anyone with the URL can open it.

Use one when a client needs a single file and does not have a Sarkoa account. You can set an expiry (7 days, 30 days, or never) and choose whether the recipient can download the file or only look at it. On Essential and above you can also set a password.

Two things to know:

  • Changing the settings on an existing link creates a new one, and the old URL stops working.
  • A share link is separate from public map access. Revoking the link does not make the file private again, and making a file private does not revoke the link.

Email invites

An email invite sends a named person access to one file. They need a Sarkoa account registered to that email address, but they do not need to join your organization.

Invited people find the file under Profile → Sharing & Transfers. Once processing finishes it also appears in their Files list.

Use invites when you want to know who has access and be able to take it back from one person without affecting anyone else.

Maps

A map's access is set on the map, not on its layers. Change it in the map builder, with sarkoa map access, or with the MCP update_map tool.

Access mode Who can open it
Organization Signed-in members of your organization. This is the default
Specific users Named members of your organization
Invited emails People you invite by email address
Public Anyone with the link, no account needed
Password Anyone with the link and the password (Essential and above)

Publishing a map publicly, or putting a password on it, asks for confirmation first. The CLI wants --yes and MCP wants confirm_publish=true.

Publishing a map to the web

  1. Set every layer on the map to public on the web. A private layer will not draw for visitors.
  2. Set the map's access to public.
  3. Copy the link, or copy the embed code from the Custom Maps page.

The embed is an iframe pointing at Sarkoa's map host. Your site only carries the snippet, so there is no DNS setup and nothing to host. Custom domains are available on Pro. Embeds covers sizing, branding, and what visitors can do.

Who pays for the tiles

Whoever hosts the data. If someone opens your public map, the tile requests count against your organization, whether they are signed in or not. Viewers are never billed for looking at your maps.

The full breakdown, including the awkward cases, is in Tile requests.

Turning access off

  • Share link: revoke it. The URL stops working immediately. The file's own public setting is unchanged.
  • Email invite: revoke that person's invite. Nobody else is affected.
  • Public map: set its access back to organization. The link keeps existing but only your members can open it.
  • Public file: set it back to organization access. It stops drawing on public maps and embeds.

Deleting a file removes both the original and the map copy, everywhere, permanently. If you only want it out of your list, archive it instead.