Team Collaboration
Create a research group, invite your labmates, and share experiment data. EDITORs can collaborate, VIEWERs get read-only access, and the OWNER controls membership and permissions.
Getting started
Go to Settings → Account → Team Collaboration and turn on the “Enable team collaboration” toggle. A workspace switcher then appears at the top of the sidebar. The switcher lists your personal space and any groups you belong to; tap + New groupto create one. While you're in a group workspace, any experiment you create is automatically assigned to that group and visible to all members. To pull an existing personal experiment into the group, use the “Move in” button inside the group workspace; to move it back, open the experiment's ⋯ menu and choose “Set as personal.” Member management, invite-link generation, role changes, and group dissolution are all done from the group settings page — tap “Manage” in the switcher to get there. When someone joins via an invite link, team collaboration is enabled for them automatically.
① Create a group
- In the sidebar, tap “Groups” → “New group”
- Enter a name for the group (can be changed later)
- Confirm — the group is created and you are automatically the OWNER
② Generate an invite link
- Open the group → “Members” tab at the top → “Invite members”
- Choose the role (EDITOR / VIEWER), set the expiry and max-use count
- Copy the link and send it; recipients open it after signing in and join with one tap
- The same link works for multiple people until it expires or runs out of uses
vara.app/join/<token>. If the recipient doesn't have a Vara account, the link redirects them to sign up first, then joins them automatically.③ Role permissions at a glance
Three roles, each with different permissions:
| Action | OWNER | EDITOR | VIEWER |
|---|---|---|---|
| View all experiments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Create / edit steps, run logs | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Upload attachments | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Move experiments in / out | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Invite new members | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Change member roles | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Revoke invite links | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Dissolve the group | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
The OWNER can upgrade or downgrade any member's role from the member list (including promoting an EDITOR to OWNER, or changing a VIEWER to EDITOR).
④ Move experiments in and out of a group
- Move in: from the experiment detail ⋯ menu → “Move to group” → select the target group. All group members can see it immediately.
- Move out: same ⋯ menu → “Remove from group”. The experiment returns to your personal space and is no longer visible to other members.
- An experiment can only belong to one group (or personal space) at a time.
⑤ Visibility and collaborative editing
- VIEWER: can read all experiments in the group (steps, parameters, run logs, attachments) but cannot edit anything
- EDITOR: can create and edit steps, log runs, and upload attachments — the same write access as the OWNER
- When two people edit the same field at the same time, Vara detects the write conflict and shows “Just edited by someone else” — you can choose to overwrite with your version or discard your change
⑥ Activity log (who changed what)
The “Activity” section at the bottom of each experiment detail page shows who did what and when:
- Steps created, edited, or deleted
- Parameters changed (shows old value → new value)
- Run logs recorded
- Experiment moved in or out of the group
The activity log is visible to all roles (OWNER / EDITOR / VIEWER), cannot be deleted, and is kept permanently.
⑦ In-app notifications
Three events trigger a new notification in your inbox (the bell icon in the top navigation bar) and light up the red dot: ① you are added to a group; ② a step or parameter on an experiment you created is edited by a group member; ③ a run log is added to an experiment you created by a group member. Tapping a notification takes you directly to the relevant experiment. Vara does not send email or push notifications — all alerts appear in-app only.